EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
TONY JACOB , VP OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION , DIGITAL REALTY
hen designing and building a new data
W centre , our key priorities are safety , delivering on time , to the right quality , on budget , all while minimising any undue impact on the environment or local community .
Across the data centre industry , it has been common practice to build on brown and greenfield sites – essentially undeveloped land – which can be used to construct a campus to our exact design and specifications . However , we are also looking for ways to repurpose existing buildings , instead of building new – a more sustainable practice .
We understand that this can take longer as it requires time to find a suitable building that is resilient and large enough to house a data centre , plus the time needed to plan the facility around the restrictions and confines of that particular building . It ’ s also more expensive : on average , repurposing can cost as much as 20 % more at the construction stage than building new . But , when looking at it through an environmental lens , it delivers in value , which is a key priority when ensuring that every data centre we ’ re building is done in a responsible manner , while also benefitting our customers and our business .
We also need to think about how we build . Building facilities that leverage the natural , sustainable resources around us – air , wind , sunlight and water – and use them in a way that doesn ’ t create waste , but is part of a circular system instead , is crucial when considering the lifetime of a facility .
Wind and sun can provide the energy needed to keep a data centre hall connected and operating , and across our European portfolio at Interxion , it does – we ’ re powered 100 % by renewable energy .
However , doing the same in cooling is more complex , so the need to constantly innovate and find new solutions is important when designing and building new facilities . For example , our Cloud House facility located in London ’ s Docklands leverages the surrounding dock water to cool the facility before it ’ s pumped back into the Docklands to ensure nothing is wasted . We also recently switched on our € 15 million river cooling solution in Marseille , which uses surrounding river water to cool our data centres located in the dock of Marseille .
Every site is different , so we can ’ t expect to repeat our approach to Cloud House and Marseille everywhere ; however , with each new data centre , we make it a priority to look at how we can use surrounding resources to run that facility across its lifetime with minimal impact on the environment .
It ’ s a never-ending quest for balancing perfection and pragmatism – working for some of the world ’ s most innovative customers is a privilege , while very demanding and stimulating at the same time . Nothing stands still in our world and the increased demand we ’ ve seen over the past two years has certainly altered what our customers expect of us – there ’ s never a dull moment .
WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR WAYS TO REPURPOSE EXISTING BUILDINGS , INSTEAD OF BUILDING NEW – A MORE SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE .
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