Over the last year I have been writing about the new role of the CIO. Columns have included such topics as program roll outs, TCO and cloud, metadata, the role of the CIO driving profits, and technology innovation. This year, I will be discussing the impact of technology on the data center environment both through infrastructure technology as well as data center technologies. Both technologies will require evaluation of the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes system efficiencies and life-cycle costs. From the server and software side of technology I will discuss the benefits as well as the requirements to deploy new technology within the data center.