Rising costs and energy supply assurance concerns will cause most of the world's biggest companies to modify their datacenters significantly in the next five years says IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

In a report today The Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/) said Palmisano believes 70% of the world's largest firms will alter their datacenter plans and existing operations to take account of energy concerns. It cited findings from consultants McKinsey that said datacenters produce more carbon dioxide than Argentina and that companies such as HP and IBM and EMC are moving quickly into the datacenter energy efficiency market.

Water cooling and cutting energy use and pushing energy efficiency are quickly moving up the datacenter construction and operation agenda according to suppliers.