4. Fill Empty Spaces

Another issue with virtualization: when servers are removed from a rack, the bypass airflow from the remaining servers typically will increase, creating issues with cooling and energy efficiency, says Don Beaty, president of DLB Associates, an Eatontown, N.J.-based data center design and building firm. Fill the empty spaces within racks, cabling openings, and so forth with blanking panels or curtains.

5. Adopt a Zone Approach

As virtualization adoption increases, one trend gaining in popularity is using zones throughout the data center. Virtualization facilitates the creation of zones as entire racks of servers are removed in favor of fewer, higher density racks. "You can have a highly utilized zone within the data center which in all likelihood is going to enable you to literally shut down whole other areas of your data center," Tucillo explains. In turn, the appropriate power and cooling capabilities can be located precisely where they are needed.

Creating zones organized according to applications can also better enable a data center to balance load, server efficiency and redundancy requirements. For example, back-office applications may live in one zone of the facility while mission-critical systems are in another zone. Rather than deliver the same amount of redundant power and cooling throughout, the mission-critical zone can be targeted for higher levels of redundancy and more robust cooling.