Jed Scaramella, an IDC analyst, said the decision by APC and IBM to work together on a data center development project is a sign of things to come as server vendors pay more attention to cooling and power needs.

By giving users a single point of contact when building a new data center, the vendors are responding to the disconnect that exists between some facility managers and IT managers.

That disconnect has led to data center managers ordering new servers without knowing about all the power and cooling needs of the systems on an existing data center infrastructure.

The cost of electricity is "becoming a critical cost factor and people are starting to pay a lot more attention to it," Scaramella said.