October 10, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- IT analyst firm Gartner (gartner.com) recently released a report predicting that by 2011 more than 70 percent of US enterprise data centers will face tangible disruptions related to energy consumption, floor space and costs. During the next five years, says Gartner, most facilities will spend as much on power and cooling as they will on hardware.

"CIOs of large US organizations must prepare for a period of rapid changes in their data centers," says Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. "This disruption will be accompanied by a significant increase in capital and operational expenditures. Failure to respond quickly and appropriately to the changing market conditions and technologies will result in needlessly high energy bills, expensive service contracts and delays in implementing new technologies."

Gartner estimates that more than 70 percent of the world's Global 1000 organizations will have to modify their facilities significantly during the next five years with the US housing the biggest concentration of large data centers, most of them built more than seven years ago.

Gartner says in the next few years, one of the most-important changes to the US data center landscape will be the increasing popularity of data center hosting services among mid-sized and large users. Traditionally, the US market has been reluctant to embrace the leasing of space and running IT services from other locations. However, during the past nine months, Gartner has detected a shift in attitude that will accelerate during the next few years.

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis regarding data centers and Green IT during the upcoming Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007 taking place from October 7 to 12 in Orlando, Florida.

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