Data centers are a particularly thorny issue when a company is addressing it’s sustainability profile.  The energy profiles for large IT facilities are typically monstrous in size and that makes it difficult to accommodate a company’s desire to reduce it’s footprint.  Google, Apple and Microsoft have made headlines recently in the design of their facilities and (in the case of Apple specifically) their commitment to using solar power to run the facilities but is that really the most important factor to consider?

Making a commitment to invest in a data center usually means that your company is moving in the right direction.  You have enough demand for what you're doing that you need to make a big investment in the next phase of growth.  There are gong to be a lot of decisions to make on hardware, architecture and suppliers not to mention strategy but it may surprise you that the biggest two choices should be made not on the basis of technology but on the basis of partnerships.  Those two questions are: