So much of this reporting sounds like market hype. We all know that vendors are circling like sharks around company data centers, creating numerous compelling stories as to why they should buy their power-saving products or else go bust.

If 2/3 of all data centers are facing power shortages, then I'm sure 2/3 of all other power hungry industries in the U.S. would also be facing power shortages, but I don't hear anyone reporting on that.

Last year the "green" data center idea was just starting to be marketed. Now the vendors are starving because of the recession - so the sky is falling if we don't buy their products.

For instance, the author of this article is the editor for GreenerComputing. So naturally it's in his best interests (and the interest of his advertisers) to hype green IT. Perhaps if we had an article written by an unbiased source we'd get a clearer picture of the situation.

Please note that the author of the survey, Emerson Network Power, is heavily involved with selling products and services to reduce energy consumption in data centers.

Consider the source.