THE EDGE loud data centres are some of the most egregious offenders
C when it comes to emissions and environmental impact .
With demand for cloud computing rising exponentially , overcoming climate challenges requires a fundamental change in data centre technology – and Firmus has the answer .
Built around a uniquely efficient immersion cooling system , powered by majority renewable energy and leveraging open-source solutions , Firmus ’ Supercloud sets a new precedent for sustainable public clouds .
Challenge
The rise of cloud has led to transformations in computing , business and even our daily lives . Reduced costs , improved agility and enhanced security are just a handful of the benefits that cloud offers , so it is no surprise that demand for the technology is growing every day . However , the price of progress is environmental impact .
Data centres are responsible for a staggering 2 % of global greenhouse gas emissions and that number is rising . This is largely due to the inefficiency of traditional data centre designs .
The worldwide average for data centre energy efficiency is 1.59 power usage effectiveness ( PUE ). 1 . This means that for every megawatt that is spent powering computers , the data centre requires an additional 590 kilowatts to run ancillary building support systems – mostly cooling – that needs to remove the vast amount of heat that the computing IT load generates .
This value has been stagnant for some time , resulting in inefficient data centres that are costly to operate , costly to access and costly to the planet .
This is the challenge that Firmus is working to solve . Initially , the company set out to develop a more sustainable approach to mining Bitcoin – one of the most power-intensive computing workloads in the world .
The project led to the inception of an innovative new immersion cooling
WE ENDED UP WITH A PRODUCT THAT IS ARGUABLY THE MOST EFFICIENT DATA CENTRE DESIGN IN THE WORLD . solution : submerging servers in a bath of non-conductive , biodegradable fluid that is approximately 1,000 times more effective at wicking away heat than air .
Tim Rosenfield , CEO and Co-founder of Firmus , takes up the story : “ We quickly realised that our immersion cooling discovery had applications beyond cryptocurrency and we began exploring what the technology could do for the data centre industry and for clouds .
“ We ended up with a product that is arguably the most efficient data centre design in the world , coming in at 1.03 PUE , as well as among the most capable . At 100KW hosting capacity per 45RU immersion rack , Firmus ’ technology is uniquely suited to hosting GPU and heavy and power-intensive AI servers that are used with increasing frequency for breakthroughs in science , industry and human endeavour .”
Firmus saw that the efficiency of its Supercloud data centre design would enable it to offer a public cloud product www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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