If you've got a data center full of x86 servers -- and it's entirely likely that you do -- you should be aware that on average, you may be using less than 10% of their computing power in a 24-hour period. Think about that for a moment: 10 percent. It's like hiring 100 employees to work for you, but having 90 or more of them sit on their tuchuses and twiddle their thumbs during any given workday. Were that the ca Think about that for a moment: 10 percent. It’s like hiring 100 employees to work for you, but having 90 or more of them sit on their tuchuses and twiddle their thumbs during any given workday. Were that the case, you’d take some presumably quick action (unless, perhaps, you’d hired them to be professional thumb-twiddlers, in which case you’d be delighted.)That rather appalling 10-percent stat comes from a recent study by Gartner titled “Data Center Power and Cooling Scenario: Options for the Road Ahead,” by the way. The author of the report, Rakesh Kumar, goes on to say that RSC/Unix are just slightly better, delivering 20% of their computer power in a 24-hour period. (He notes that “a typical mainframe environment can achieve between 70% and 80%.”)So why do organizations continue to simply purchase more x86s whenever there’s a perceived need for more processing power? Because the machines are inexpensive, and organizations, much like people, seem to be creatures of habits — many of which are bad. (“This is a result of procurement processes, project budgets and the behavior of the architectural and infrastructure teams,” Kumar writes.) It’s that kind of short-sightedness that’s forced so many companies into an uncomfortable position of having to scramble for space in their increasingly cramped data centers, as well as for extra scratch to pay for those increasingly growing energy bills. And the fact is, for each dollar you spend to power a server these days, you’re paying another dollar to cool it.One strategy companies can employ to kick the x86-buying addiction, and more importantly, cut energy costs and free up space in the data center, is to virtualize, the report notes (something we at InfoWorld have been professing for quite a while now).But according to Gartner, that’s but a partial solution, and some serious long-term planning is necessary if companies are going to avert the impact of the predicted power crisis that could soon hit data centers. (Check out the Gartner report for more details). One of the real take-aways for me reading this report, though, is a lot of companies are in need of a serious wake-up call if they’re willing to tolerate the kind of costly wastefulness that the Gartner report describes. Someone at your company needs to take charge at devise a strategy. Perhaps it’s your CTO. Maybe you need to consider enlisting some new blood, such as a chief sustainability officer, to shake up the corporate culture. But you certainly can’t afford to rest on your laurels, waiting around for some magic technology or formula to make everything better. Technology Industry