Would love to see a head-to-head, apples-to-apples vm-based set of benchmarks for a z10/DS8800 rig with full HVAC versus a container of HVAC-less x86 boxes on a transactions/$ and transactions/kWh basis. Doubt such a fair comparison exists from either side, however, I'd be taking the bet that the container would win in both dollars and kWhs.

Gen 4 data centers: ITPACS - no HVAC, no aisles, you never touch a server. Automated provisioning and data transfer means when a server starts experiencing too many the vm gets shut down, moved, and the server shut down; when n servers are shut down the container is shut down and replaced. No one looks at an error log to see what the problem is - no one cares - just send it back to the vendor for refurbishing.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/msdatacenters/archive/2011/02/01/datacenter-efficiency.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/84f44749-1343-4467-8012-9c70ef77981c

To quote a chalkboard comment made by someone in the class of '85 at the [long defunct] Wang Institute: "Natural language processing hard is."