The significant increase in the total power consumption of circa 50.000 data centers in Germany in recent years has prompted attempts to optimize the energy efficiency of German data centers by means of certification measures. Studies have shown that less than ten data centers in Germany use such certificates because their operators’ preference is not always for energy efficiency, but rather for other requirements, which are not always compatible with energy efficiency regulations. Instead, individual use cases play a major role in the data center constellation, and are used to achieve the associated individual goals. The ProDC framework (Preference-oriented Data Centers) which can be used to optimize efficiency by identifying individual strengths and weaknesses in data centers through a preference-oriented approach and a suitable evaluation method is elucidated in this paper.