Many forces are coming together to drive energy efficiencies in the data center, from cost savings to virtualization and blade technology to the green movement that's sweeping the nation. "Just as data center managers today manage their data center for application availability, security and end-to-end transaction performance, we think that moving forward they are going to have to manage energy optimization," IBM's Lechner says.

CIOs agree. Two out of five IT managers polled by IDC said that power and cooling was their top data center concern this year, while availability and redundancy came in second. The utility bill, once solely the province of the facilities manager, is now sometimes in the CIO's domain, or at the least, the CIO is accountable for its expense. "Our IT is considered a business unit. Energy cost is in the IT budget, not in facilities," says CIO Moti Vyas. For good or ill, CIOs are now in the energy management business.