Current trends indicate that high-density data centers are close to outstripping current power and cooling capacity. New technologies and approaches to energy management are needed to curb the recent growth in energy demand and escalating costs.

Rising Heat Density Means IT Is Getting Hot, Hot, Hot

Server consolidation, blades, and growing computing requirements are all contributing to rising heat density in the data center.

Next-generation data centers tend to be consolidated centers – servers and processing that were once distributed in multiple centers are now in one place. What's more, advancements in technology such as blade servers have allowed for greater processing in smaller components. In terms of server strategies, a 2006 Info-Tech study found that 76% of enterprises would be adopting a strategy based on more centralized servers. Overall, 81% of enterprises were making new server purchases last year; 9% of which were blades.

While this is good in terms of reducing energy consumed by redundant and underutilized servers, it does pose a problem in terms of packing more processing power, more servers...