The advanced power and cooling facilities that are being installed in new high-density data centers. should reduce energy consumption and cost by using less power, and cooling when not fully required.

Modelling and measuring tools can help further reduce energy consumption, Kumar said.

"[Future data centers. will be dynamic and address a variety of technical, financial and environmental demands, responding quickly to the changing needs to the business."

"In addition, it will need to have some degree of flexibility, to run workloads where energy is cheapest and above all highly available, with 99.999 percent availability."

To build an efficient data center Kumar made six recommendations for managers: chose their location carefully; develop the site modularly; include chillers and high ventilation air conditioning units; introduce alternative energy sources; install monitoring tools; and investigate 'powering down' equipment.