You mentioned at the Premier 100 conference that Google now spends more money on power than it does on the capital costs over the lives of these machines. What steps have been take to make the server farms more energy efficient?

One is using [switchable] power supplies. We also do circuit designs to make the machines more efficient. We're trying to make our server farms as efficient as possible, in terms of heat dissipation and with as little cooling required as needed.

What are some sources of green power that Google is utilizing?

Look at our public announcements. We don't directly say which of those sources are currently used in our data center. We've markedly reduced our carbon footprint. [Note: Last year, Google announced its intention to become carbon-neutral in 2007 and beyond, and the company claims that it's on track toward meeting those goals.]

What's the coolest thing about your job?

That's a good question. It's to interact with supersmart people. You can't walk the hallways here without coming across someone with a superexciting background who is doing something completely different from what their background is in. That's pretty darn cool. And I get to work with these people. I don't have to be the guy [charged with finding] to find a 10 per cent cost reduction.

What are the biggest misconceptions that people outside of the company have about your role at Google?

Usually when I'm at a cocktail party, it's not so much about what I do for a living as it is about people who talk about their love of Google. They mostly express how excited they are about using our products and how they use them.

OK, then what is the most exasperating question that people outside of Google ask you?

"When are you going to release Product X?" Because people are so excited about the products we have, and there's so much creativity coming out of Google engineering, they want to know when we're going to release this function or that. And I can't answer. We just have so much work being done in our engineering labs.

And even if I knew, I still couldn't answer. There's so much innovation happening all the time, you don't know the next big thing that's going to happen. It's a really cool problem to have.

Let's switch gears for a moment. How do CIOs need to change their approaches?

The language we're using in the job must change. Increasingly, I don't think there's a meaningful distinction between technology and the business. It hasn't always been true. If you look at a company like Google, there's no distinction, but we're a technology company, so that kind of makes sense.

I think CIOs [need to] think about aligning with the business and really think about ourselves as being CIOs in the business. [CIOs should be] less budget-focused.

So how do CIOs make that transition?

We have to admit that there's a problem. We have to reward talent in the organization for taking risks and applying all of the innovation that's available to us and being truly a business function.

How do you see your own role evolving?

I feel like every three to six months I'm in a different job. Change is fast here. I can't predict what will happen down the road, but what I spend my time doing today won't be what I'm doing this summer or in the fall.

What are some of the things that concern you lately?

At the highest level, it's not that much different from anyone else -- to make my employees as productive as possible; for anyone who needs help, get it to them quickly; to make it possible for our users at Google Checkout to feel secure to buy from different merchants; and to support the growth of Google Apps.

When I go to speak with CEOs of Fortune 1,000 companies, I say "Here's how we run our company using Google Apps. Why don't you try it, too?"