Datacentre managers run the risk of doubling their energy costs between 2005 and 2011 if they refuse to modernise legacy operations, according to analyst firm Gartner.

Concentrating solely on improving power efficiency is not enough to create a green datacentre, explained Gartner analyst Rakesh Kumar.

Instead firms must focus on factors such as waste management, asset management, capacity management, technology architecture, support services, energy sources and operations.

"Tomorrow's datacentre is moving from being static to becoming a living organism, where modeling and measuring tools will become one of the major elements of its management," said Kumar.

"It will be dynamic and address a variety of technical, financial and environmental demands, and modular to respond quickly to demands for floor space.

"In addition, it will need to have some degree of flexibility to run workloads where energy is cheapest, and above all have 99.999 per cent availability."

In order to optimise the datacentre, Kumar advised managers to choose their location carefully, include chillers and high-ventilation air conditioning units, and introduce alternative energy sources.