SAN FRANCISCO -- Dell plans to release a reference architecture in the future that will pave the way for enterprises to reduce power consumption and go green in the future, Dell CEO Michael Dell said in a keynote at the Oracle OpenWorld 2007 conference on Wednesday.

Reducing power consumption and going green is just one part of reducing IT complexity in the future, he said.

Online transactions are putting an infinite demand on servers, which puts an infinite demand on energy, Dell said. About 1.5% of U.S. energy in 2007 was consumed by data centers and by 2011, 70% of U.S. corporations will witness disruptions because of power constraints, Dell said, citing Gartner statistics.

Dell did not detail the reference architecture, but said it will help corporations determine how green they are today, and help create plans to get more green in the future. "We call it your Greenprint, stay tuned to hear more about that," he said.

While the Greenprint reference architecture will help other companies, going green starts within his organization, Dell said.

"Dell will be carbon neutral by the end of 2008," Dell said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.