The rising electricity costs may prompt some IT shops to become more aggressive about energy conservation and the adoption of systems that use low-power chips and variable-speed motors. But several data center managers said last week that energy costs aren't one of their biggest concerns and that the ongoing increases are unlikely to lead to a relocation of IT facilities to regions where power is less expensive.

Baltimore-based Thomson Prometric, a testing and assessment services firm that is part of The Thomson Corp., is moving its data center. But the new facility will be located just three miles from the existing one because the company doesn't want to lose its IT workers, said Bob Williams, who runs the data center.

The monthly electric bill to run Thomson Prometric's 1,000-server data center is about US$15,000. Williams said he's concerned about possible rate increases that could follow deregulation efforts in Maryland and the recent purchase of the main Baltimore utility by Constellation Energy Group Inc. in Juno, Fla. But he said other issues, such as the reliability of power supplies, are more important.

"The cost [of electricity] is one thing," Williams said. "But an outage is devastating and will cost me a lot more than the increase in energy costs."

Bill Hunter, data center manager at a telecommunications company in the state of Washington that he asked not be identified, said the most important factors in locating data centers are environmental issues -- such as the risk of earthquakes, tornadoes or hurricanes -- and the avail-ability of reliable power, sufficient water supplies and skilled labor.