IBM has pulled out of its sleeve a new series of Web 2.0-ready servers in the iDataPlex family. The new computers are especially tailored to suit the demands of Web 2.0 sites, and can face the heavy traffic usually associated with popular social networking sites.

According to the company, the iDataPlex architecture can accommodate popular domains such as MySpace, Facebook, or Hi5, targets that usually run on entire data center infrastructures with hundreds of dedicated web servers.

IBM's new offering is a blade server powered by Intel's quad-core Xeon chips. Running on Linux, the new servers are a direct competitor to the so-called "white box" servers that are extremely popular with web hosting providers.

IBM claims that the iDataPlex family of servers is extremely powerful, yet they are more efficient in terms of energy requirements than other servers already on the market. According to the company's benchmarks, the iDataPlex units use 40 percent less power, due to the efficient cooling mechanisms and a less-usual form factor.

Average servers use cooling systems that force the airflow from the rear side of the server to the front, and they require more and more coolers to be installed in order to ensure proper ventilation. IBM's iDataPlex units are smaller than the regular 25-inch form factor, and allow the fans to run at lower speed rates.

"The power used by the fan is proportional to the cube of the fan speed, so if you want to double the fan speed you have to use eight times the power," said Gregg McKnight, CTO of IBM's modular systems group.

Moreover, the server units can be equipped with modular liquid cooling system that can control the systems' temperature even when running at room temperatures. This way, data centers can dramatically trim the energy bill by unplugging the air conditioning systems (A/C alone accounts for about 40 percent of the data center's power requirements).