I got a surprise reading about results from a new survey conducted by the Uptime Institute. According to the survey, communications between IT and facilities are good or excellent in 57 percent of the companies that responded. In 59 percent of companies, communication was formal, structured and active.

Those numbers are much higher than expected. The popular image is that relations between the two groups are frosty at best. But even if we accept the findings at face value, that still means more than 40 percent of organizations have IT and facility groups that aren’t on good terms.

One reason the results may have been as good as they are is that the soaring costs of energy, combined with the increasingly serious consequences of data center failure, are forcing the two departments to communicate better than they have in the past. When the people in the industry start talking about “throwaway data centers” – brand new facilities that can’t be used because they can’t handle the servers and other IT equipment the owner expected them to handle because the IT needs somehow never quite got reflected in the design – it’s clear that there’s a major problem.

I can’t tell you how to solve that problem. But I can give you two words to consider. Power supplies.

PC power supply units convert AC power into DC. In the process, they waste electricity. A group called 80 Plus is trying to change that. An incentive program funded by electric utilities, 80 Plus is promoting the use of power supplies that are at least 80 percent efficient. The typical 80 Plus power supply draws 13 percent less current than ordinary units. But that’s only part of the story. The more efficient power supplies may kick out 40 percent less heat.

Here’s where things get interesting for IT. Excess heat is a leading cause of PC problems. Switching to more efficient power supplies can improve reliability by up to 40 percent, says 80 Plus. That makes more efficient power supplies a win-win.

If you’re lucky, this won’t be new to your IT department. In fact, they’ll turn around and tell you that they’re already specifying Energy Star 4.0 computers, which must meet the 80 Plus requirements. And your reply can be, “Won’t it be great when they finish work on the 80 Plus spec for server power supplies?”

And if they don’t know about 80 Plus, they certainly shouldn’t mind hearing you out.

Either way, it’s a step, albeit a small one, in the right direction.