Forty-two percent of IT professionals polled at the Gartner conference operate three or more data centers in North America.

Forty-five percent are expanding or planning to expand data centers in the next two years, while 43% are . 

A standard 9,000 square foot, Tier 3 data center that supports 150 watts per square foot will cost approximately US$21.3 million to build, with $1 million in annual . 

practices that minimize use of chiller plants, fans and pumps, lighting and power supplies can more than halve the power costs of running a data center.

An aggressively "green" enterprise will pay $560,000 in annual electrical expenses for a data center with a 500 kilowatt IT load. Enterprises with archaic data center practices will pay as much as $1.3 million.