EYP has about 400 employees, including about 50 consultants and 250 people in design and engineering, Kosik says. Linesch says buying EYP was a natural choice for HP. The new division's consultants can provide a comprehensive assessment of a customer's data center, identifying areas where money can be saved by being more efficient. Then HP comes in with equipment, infrastructure designs and data center management software to help eliminate problem areas, he says.

Data centers can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes even millions, by using more efficient servers and power supplies, and by not over-provisioning power to each server, Linesch says.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to develop an for data centers, a lack of a real benchmark today makes it hard for data center operators to judge their level of efficiency, Kosik says.

"Utilization of power is probably worse than a lot of people think," he says.