FEATURE : GREEN DATA CENTRES
ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY OBJECTIVES HAVE BECOME KEY DRIVERS FOR OWNERS AND OPERATORS .
TWh , which makes for a combined total of 290 TWh for China and Europe alone .
The fact is that as data centre capacity increases , so will energy usage . And while we may not agree on the exact numbers , few would argue about the direction of travel .
So what can we do to change the trajectory and how can we begin to pinpoint consistency within sustainable strategies ?
A change in demand
Now try and imagine a future that also includes Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), Augmented ( AR ) and Virtual Reality ( VR ), what impacts will this digital consumption have on the data centre industry , and what does it mean for sustainability ?
Those are big questions , many of which people outside the sector won ’ t have considered , but the answer may lie within a recent data centre industry initiative to show us the way forward .
Recently , 25 companies and 17 associations across Europe joined together to sign the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact , with the objective of making data centres climate-neutral by 2030 . There ’ s clearly a growing momentum behind sustainability , but the industry needs to move beyond the environmental easy wins of the past few years and start to address the factors that really address efficiency and PUE ratings – those which have hardly changed in seven years . There ’ s also the question of whether PUE truly is enough to measure our carbon impact . So with this in mind , where can we begin ?
Beginning with the data
Demands for Digital Transformation are a key factor behind data centre energy consumption , but rather than overload you with a tsunami of data , I would urge you to take a short time out to consider just how essential Information Technology has become to almost every factor of everyday life .
Take a typical workday , how do you communicate with colleagues ? What does your role entail ? Then think about your plans for the weekend ( lockdown not withstanding ) – have you thought about the films you ’ ll watch , the apps you might use , or your personal connection to a data centre ?
Back in 2005 , Subzero Engineering started life as a Computational Fluid Dynamics ( CFD ) consultancy . At the time , a large percentage of the industry was using raised floors and experiencing issues with leakages . Yet , with a simple to use and accurate software solution , we were able to show customers how they could analyse their data centre infrastructure and take steps to both improve efficiency and reduce their environmental impact . Fast-forward 16 years and that approach has stayed with us .
Today , we ’ re an engineering-led solutions provider that helps world-leading businesses achieve a
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