IBM Green Innovation Data Center

A typical scene from your average data center, right? Well, not exactly. This is one half of IBM's Green Innovations Data Center in Southbury, Conn., where Big Blue's internal IT staff pushes the green envelope. This facility, which hosts several internal IBM applications, is packed with millions of dollars' worth of IBM hardware, of course, but also some of the latest energy-efficiency techniques.

On the far right, you can see one of those: a back door heat exchanger designed for its high-end iDataplex server system. Called Cool Blue, the system circulates cold water through the door to lower the temperature of the heat coming from servers' fans.