Book excerpt: The Green and Virtual Data Center sets aside the political aspects of what is or is not considered green to instead focus on the opportunities for organizations that want to sustain environmentally-friendly economical growth. If you are willing to believe that IT infrastructure resources deployed in a highly virtualized manner can be combined with other technologies to achieve simplified and cost-effective delivery of services in a green, profitable manner, this book is for you. Savvy industry veteran Greg Schulz provides real-world insight, addressing best practices, server, software, storage, networking, and facilities issues concerning any current or next-generation virtual data center that relies on underlying physical infrastructures. Coverage includes: Energy and data footprint reduction, Cloud-based storage and computing, Intelligent and adaptive power management, Server, storage, and networking virtualization, Tiered servers and storage, network, and data centers, Energy avoidance and energy efficiency. Many current and emerging technologies can enable a green and efficient virtual data center to support and sustain business growth with a reasonable return on investment. This book presents virtually all critical IT technologies and techniques to discuss the interdependencies that need to be supported to enable a dynamic, energy-efficient, economical, and environmentally-friendly green IT data center. This is a path that every organization must ultimately follow. Take a tour of the Green and Virtual Data Center website. CRC Press is pleased to announce that The Green and Virtual Data Center has been added to Intel Corporation's Recommended Reading List. Intel's Recommended Reading program provides technical professionals a simple and handy reference list of what to read to stay abreast of new technologies. Dozens of industry technologists, corporate fellows, and engineers have helped by suggesting books and reviewing the list. This is the most comprehensive reading list available for professional computer developers.