Big companies are investing more in data centers than ever before. And as we heard at our Bisnow national Data Center Investment Conference & Expo (DICE) last week, it's why IT pros are now getting a cushier seat at the executive table. (Does that mean CEOs need to learn how to play World of Warcraft?) At the Renaissance Arlington Capital View in Crystal City, VA, Himes Associates CEO Paul Himes said that data centers are now an integral part of a company's real estate strategy, and it's vaulting IT professionals to more impactful roles. "Corporate real estate guys have gone down in the pecking order, and IT guys have risen," says Paul, who adds that high-profile data breaches like the one Target just went through is also an impetus for companies to get smarter on how they store data.

While the cloud is maybe the hottest topic in data center circles, CapitalOne facilities chief John McCullen said that security concerns are holding the bank back from going to a public-based cloud. Since CapitalOne holds so much personal information—and given the recent data breaches—the bank is choosing to keep its data private, for now. (So tell them your secrets, they promise not to gossip.) To better control its data, John says CapitalOne won't go to a co-location data center (think multi-tenant).