EXPERT OPINION
relies on cloud computing to reduce
the cost of ownership of its technology
suite. As more and more data centres
are established to serve the Digital
Transformation ambitions of countless
industries, energy consumption balloons.
These facilities require a great deal of
electricity, not only for running equipment,
but also for powering the necessary
cooling systems that support 24/7
operations. Organisations that administrate
physical machines are also now required
to ponder more carefully what happens to
them when they are no longer in service.
Some estimates predict that ICT will
account for as much as 21% of global
electricity consumption by 2030 if current
trends persist. Enterprises of all scales
and industry can do something to curb
this escalation. One does not have to
have a formal carbon-neutral plan in
place to select IT solutions aligned with
sustainability. When procurement cycles
kick in, keep in mind that, for example,
adopting a more efficient storage system
would lessen environmental impact.
We regularly see reports of individual
companies that equal the energy
consumption of tens of thousands of
average households. If these companies
replaced just one third of their IT
infrastructure with more energy-efficient
elements, they could see reductions in
energy costs of up to 15% of their typical
data centre bill.
The need for greener solutions
Middle East businesses continue to
cry out for more local data centres that
allow them to move to the cloud without
flouting data-residency regulations. This
demand can be seen in the plans of
provider giants such as Microsoft, which
has already built two data centres in
the UAE and is planning a third in Qatar.
Google and Oracle have also intimated
their plans for Middle East cloud locations.
Innovation with regard to enterprises’
technology mixes will be vital if regional
governments are to realise their ambitions
of sustainable smart societies.
The good news is that there is no tradeoff
between technological advancement
and sustainability. Solutions that
reduce carbon-footprint and run more
efficiently offer the same, or even better,
functionality as those that do not.
Greener solutions can also allow the
continual scaling up of infrastructure and
allow enterprises enjoying stratospheric
www.intelligentdatacentres.com Issue 17
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