Dell PowerEdge Server is part of the company's new Dell-Liebert Energy Smart Solution for data centers

Dell is partnering with Emerson Network Power to offer improved energy management software for the world's growing number of data centers.

Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is working with Liebert Corp., a subsidiary of Emerson Network Power (NYSE: EMR), to supply cooling technology and cooling systems to data centers. The companies plan to pair the cooling technology with Dell's PowerEdge Energy Smart Servers and market the new energy-efficiency product as the Dell-Liebert Energy Smart Solution. Dell claims the Energy Smart Solution could increase system performance by 80 percent and reduce power usage by 42 percent compared to previous Dell servers.

Responding to the increasing popularity of data center energy management software, Dell says it plans to design an energy management service option for data center customers to help them identify and address power and cooling inefficiencies and provide tips for optimizing computing capacity. 

“CIO’s and facilities managers are consistently faced with the challenge of increasing computing capacity to meet growing business needs while concurrently minimizing energy costs,” said Rick Becker, Dell Product Group's vice president of solutions, in a statement released by Dell. “By reducing both operational costs and the carbon footprint for our customers, Dell is simplifying the way businesses can take advantage of energy-efficient programs and technologies without compromising IT performance.”

Meanwhile, new data centers and major data center expansions are in the works. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced plans in early June 2007 to build a $600 million new data center on 55 acres in Council Bluffs, Iowa, set to open in 2009. IBM (NYSE: IBM), also member of the initiative and founder of its own "Big Green Project" focused on data center efficiency, announced an $85 million expansion to its Boulder, Colo. data center. When completed, the data center would be more than 300,000 square feet, making it one of the largest IBM data centers in the world.

Dell recently joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a collaboration led by Google and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund that encourages technology companies to work towards making computing less energy intensive.