Four major themes emerged in Nemertes’ latest data center research, drawn from interviews with 82 data-center managers, CIOs, IT directors and other IT executives from 65 companies. Regardless of size or industry, companies were dealing with major changes centered on issues of consolidation, growth, availability and operational efficiency. This week we examine how availability expectations have changed over time, leading to “extreme availability: 100%,” as one IT executive put it.