CIOs are finally getting a handle on this Green IT thing, according to Gartner Research vice president John Phelps.

SearchCIO.com reports that eco-consciousness and good ol’ cost savings initiatives have begun to align in earnest this year, resulting in IT strategies that are decidedly green. These include, according to Phelps,the steadily decline of raised floor designs in new data center builds builds. Just 3 percent of data centers today dare place their racks on a solid slab (non-raised floor), but that number will climb to 50 percent of new facilities by 2015.

This makes sense as data center infrastructure vendors continue to innovate, especially around targeted air flow and liquid cooling technologies that bring temperature management closer to the heat-producing components of servers and IT equipment. Plus, it’s just as Matthew D. Sarrel of the Sarrel Group predicted. Those perforated tiles bring their own maintenance and management issues, plus they can prevent data center operators from pursuing IT growth strategies that revolve around super-dense racks because of weight restrictions.

Catch the rest of Phelp’s insights in Laura Smith’s article at SearchCIO.com.