"Data centres consume between 2-3% of the UK's total electricity and about half of this demand actually powers the computational equipment (servers and storage) with the rest being consumed by supporting infrastructure such as lighting and cooling. In addition, traditional data centres typically run only at around 10% efficiency," he said.
"Innovative new software and data centre design techniques can massively increase efficiency of data centre hardware by factors of 5 to 6. For example, cloud computing and virtualisation software can reduce the physical resources (number of servers) required to deliver powerful computing services. Redesigning the layout of the data centre can substantially reduce energy costs."
The DCD Census also found that there has been a significant increase in the uptake of outsourcing globally - particularly colocation - over the past 12 months. Reasons for this in the Western economies include the need during tough economic times to reduce CapEx as well as increasing complexities in the data centre environment.
A full copy of the DCD 2012 Global Census can be requested here.
