IT managers are feeling the economic pinch and they’re planning accordingly.

Thirty-five percent of the 120 data center, facility and IT managers polled in Emerson Network Power’s Data Center Users Group (DCUG) survey have delayed plans to expand or build data centers as a result of these economic times. Sixty-one percent said they had to make budget cuts.

Not surprisingly, datacenter operators are exploring other methods of cutting costs.

According to the survey, 47 percent of those polled rated energy efficiency “as one of their top facilities and network concerns.” Being able to monitor energy consumption was among the top three concerns of 46 percent. Fifty-five percent of respondents are sizing up their datacenters via power and cooling assessments; of those 54 percent are evaluating energy consumption.

And in a effort to improve energy efficiency–somewhat paradoxically at first blush–rack density is expected to climb from an average of 7.4kW per rack today to 10 kW – 20 kW per rack. Reasons cited for this include deploying more blade servers and occupying less square footage overall.

Certainly, it’s encouraging to witness the rise of more energy efficient datacenters but it’s unfortunate that an economic cliff dive is part of the reason.

Source [via Data Center Knowledge]