INDUSTRY WATCH
EVERYTHING YOU DO IN ‘ THE CLOUD ’ ( I . E PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ) RELIES ON A VAST , ENERGY-INTENSIVE , ON- THE-GROUND DATA CENTER .
As Australia pulls itself out of the first recession in nearly 30 years and the pandemic underscores the fragility of international supply chains , manufacturing has been singled out as one of the core industries driving the nation ’ s postpandemic recovery .
Meanwhile this year Australia is set to see a six-and-ahalf percent increase – three-billion-dollars of spend – in data center investment , with the pandemic forcing businesses to invest in much-needed IT infrastructure to ready for a new era .
With organizations continuing to invest in hybrid IT and workforces and experiences becoming increasingly virtualized , the reliance on this technical real estate is set to rise further . Everything you do in ‘ the cloud ’ ( i . e pretty much everything ) relies on a vast , energyintensive , on-the-ground data center .
The link between the cloud and sustainability cannot be ignored . The accelerating process of creating , storing , sharing and living and working on data has an environmental footprint which can be seen in the data center . We have infrastructure in virtually every data center in the world and we estimate they already account for about five percent of energy consumed .
But data centers aren ’ t – or at least don ’ t need to be – a threat to the movement of sustainability . With digital investments soaring , the manufacturing industry that supports technology set to boom , and the debate around ‘ if ’ changing to ‘ how ’ in our carbon neutral future , now is the time to improve the environmental sustainability of Australia ’ s data center ecosystem .
Lithium-ion batteries on the rise
Utility-scale energy storage is something of a missing link in the industry ’ s effort to power the cloud with renewable energy .
But the rapid development of lithium-ion batteries is changing that , and it ’ s finally gaining momentum in uninterruptible power supply ( UPS ) systems , the backbone of every data center .
Carlo Quiriconi , Industrial Applications Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Vertiv
In fact , looking at what actually powers these data giants presents an opportunity for governments and businesses to reduce their costs and carbon footprint .
While the market for these batteries heats up in Australia , back in the data center they ’ re cooling this down . Content at 35 – 40 degrees celsius , lithium-ion
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