In the world of data centers, the IT department, the facilities department and general management seem to be constantly at odds with one another. Each one has different goals, and different ways of doing things. This article on data center journal is the most recent one exploring this theme. The article links back to many previous articles all across the web (from CIO.com, eWeek en ZDNet).

As always, it boils down to one thing as Michael Rowan of Virtual Strategy Magazine explains in the article: money. Energy costs are exceeding capital expenses quickly, and that is where management gets in conflict with the data center team. The first is mainly looking at the numbers under the line, the latter needs to provide more and new services (at more and new costs, unfortunately).

Then there is facilities. They tend to get in odds with the two other groups too: with C-level because of (again) costs, and with IT because of lack of coordination between the two. They report to different branches of the company.