A survey will analyze the government's 1,100-plus data centers, counting racks, servers, routers, and switches.

Virsto Software has developed a Microsoft Hyper-V add-on that speeds up access to data in virtualized data centers.

Cisco next week is expected to unveil new and enhanced data center products that are designed to more easily interconnect and allocate resources among multiple data centers and are optimized for cloud computing and virtualization.

While Cisco Systems branches out into consumer electronics, video, mobile data and other areas, one of its biggest areas of focus today is enterprise data centers. The dominant LAN provider thinks the transformation of data centers through virtualization calls for new kinds of connections and a broader role for network technology and intelligence. John McCool oversees this push as senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Data Center, Switching and Services group.

Greg Ness, senior director of the networking automation vendor, talks about managing infrastructure sprawl and offers insight into the standards-oriented Infrastructure 2.0 Working Group, of which Cisco is a member.

Fifty percent of IT executives say their data centers are understaffed, and companies are still looking for more ways to cut costs.

As data center managers prepare for the New Year, they should consider "reinventing" their infrastructure the same way many people reinvent themselves on Jan. 1 by beginning an exercise program, quitting smoking, or sporting a new hairstyle.

Dell (DELL) has been quite active this year in both the enterprise server market and the evolving market for cloud-optimized servers and containers.

IT hardware markets are starting to show signs of life and are in position for a small rebound in 2010.

By Ken Oestreich (Egenera)

Last week I attended Gartner's annual Data Center Conference in Las Vegas. Four days packed with presentations and networking (of the social kind). Lots of talk about cloud computing, IT operations, virtualization and more.