What would it look like to have a "green" or environmentally sensitive data center? One that used solar, wind, and other energy sources to supplement or even "gasp" to completely power operations. Fuel Cells are on the way that would use natural gas, which we seem to have a lot of, to create hydrogen to power the facility. In the interim what can you do today to reduce your power supply demands? Change lighting? Reduce non-essential power eaters? Install Wind Turbines?
We have to first assess what the carbon foot print of the data center is first before any step can be taken. I contend that in the future we will not only look at the physical, logical, but most importantly energy security of operations. I think that today it is assumed that during "normal" operations that power will be available. Going forward we should not make that assumption or else we all might just be left in the dark.
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The Russians have a saying about how heating your home with firewood actually heats you three times: once when you chop it, once when you carry it inside, and finally when you burn it.
With a data center, you're doing the same thing with energy use. It takes energy to run the equipment, but it also takes energy to cool down the heat generated by the equipment.
Don't know where I'm going with this, but it's an interesting comparison on models of heat. =)
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