(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Technology giant IBM (www.ibm.com) announced on Wednesday that data center operator Latisys (www.latisys.com) is expanding its data center platform with a rollout of IBM's new iDataPlex server.

Formerly Managed Data Holdings, Latisys changed its name earlier this year to reflect a new brand that unifies its strategy, data center locations and service offerings.

The company provides colocation, managed hosting, managed services and disaster recovery solutions to all small and medium-sized businesses and enterprise customers.

Latisys also announced it joined IBM’s PartnerWorld as a business partner, in which the company will use IBM's global capabilities in an effort to expand its hosting services to gaming and media companies.

The company decided to offer IBM's compact and energy-efficient iDataPlex server, which it calls a "next-generation technology designed for the emerging Web 2.0 style of computing".

Latisys has already been working with IBM to deploy blade servers and manage energy consumption to address both clients' immediate needs and ensure that Latisys is prepared for any anticipated demands.

"We need a hardware platform for the future," says Carlos Oliviera, Ph.d., vice president of Latisys. "As we bring our successful business model to the interactive media and gaming industries, we'll require a flexible, highly reliable and energy efficient data center."

Designed for massive, Internet-scale computing, iDataPlex significiantly increases compute density while decreasing energy consumption and associated data center costs.

The server's power capabilities is equivalent to that of 84 servers in a rack that measures 4-feet by 2-feet.

iDataPlex uses 40 percent less power, increases by five times the amount of computing done in the same space and can eliminate the need for air conditioning in the data center.