The high price of storing and processing data is hurting colleges and universities across the country. In response, some institutions are embracing greener technologies to keep costs down and help the environment. But compared with other industries, colleges and universities have been slow to understand the problem and to adopt energy-saving techniques, experts say. Decentralized colleges often lack a cohesive strategy to reduce energy use. Researchers often resist plans for centralization because they want their own servers just down the hall. As a result, many institutions spend millions of dollars per year powering inefficient machines, outdated cooling systems, and improvised clusters of servers stored in lab closets and back rooms. To reduce data center costs, experts recommend that college administrators: (1) Conduct an audit; (2) Establish a working group; (3) Consolidate; and (4) Outsource.