Data Centers Power a Big Change in Computing (2/2)

The Environmental Protection Agency says the United States has about ten thousand data centers. The E.P.A. estimates that they use almost two percent of the country's electricity. In two thousand six, the most recent year reported, power costs reached four and a half billion dollars. The amount and cost of energy use by data centers is the subject of growing concern and criticism. Some data centers use only about twenty to thirty percent of their computing power.

Using wind power or other renewable energy for data centers could help the situation. Another answer is to make servers more energy-efficient. The E.P.A. has recently set rules for measuring and rating the energy use of servers.

Still another solution may come from virtualization. This lets one server work like several. Usually, a server runs a single operating system, like Linux or Windows. Virtualization lets both run at the same time.

Rich Miller at datacenterknowledge.com says the need for data centers will only increase as the Internet becomes more central to everyday life. As applications are becoming more complex, so are data centers. Many companies are having trouble finding enough skilled people to manage them.