The Green Data Center Alliance (GDCA), uniting data center owners and utilities for IT Energy Efficiency, announced the award of a $500,000 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) contract that will help provide a guide for data centers to significantly lower their energy consumption. The funding will allow the Alliance to create a system of best practices for data center operators, rate selected data centers against standard metrics, provide options for participating centers to improve efficiency, and verify data on energy users. Data centers are one of the fastest growing sectors of energy users in New York State.