WE ESTIMATE THAT THE GLOBAL DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY IS CURRENTLY OVERSPENDING ON COOLING ENERGY COSTS BY OVER £ 1.5 BILLION EACH YEAR . improvements – particularly given that cooling data centres can account for up to 40 % of their total energy consumption . We estimate that the global data centre industry is currently overspending on cooling energy costs by over £ 1.5 billion each year .
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
DEAN BOYLE , CEO , EKKOSENSE
he simple answer is I ’ m not sure there ’ s any
T way now to persuade people to use less data . As consumers we ’ ve all grown addicted to using the many different online services that are the key driver of global data growth – and our collective data habit shows no signs of slowing down .
Statista research shows that the volume of data generated worldwide each year has quadrupled since 2018 , with 2020 – the year of global lockdowns – seeing 56 % annual growth alone . Video now accounts for over half of global data traffic and it ’ s easy to see how . We used to watch YouTube videos at a 480p resolution – that works out at around 500 MB an hour . Now though , most of us watch at 1080p or 3 GB an hour , while 4K actually eats up as much as 16 GB for an hour ’ s hi-res viewing . And with billions of people using YouTube , or services such as Netflix , you quickly begin to add up to the 120 zettabytes of data that are expected to be generated this year .
So if consumers aren ’ t prepared to ease up on video streaming or stop using social media services such as Facebook , Instagram , Snapchat and TikTok , and if organisations won ’ t slow down on their
Digital Transformation initiatives , how can we relieve the pressure on data centres ? And perhaps more importantly , is there anything data centres can do to reduce their energy usage ?
At EkkoSense we believe that addressing data centre cooling efficiency needs to be a key area of focus for operations teams . It ’ s one of the most effective ways to optimise performance and secure environmental
WE ESTIMATE THAT THE GLOBAL DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY IS CURRENTLY OVERSPENDING ON COOLING ENERGY COSTS BY OVER £ 1.5 BILLION EACH YEAR . improvements – particularly given that cooling data centres can account for up to 40 % of their total energy consumption . We estimate that the global data centre industry is currently overspending on cooling energy costs by over £ 1.5 billion each year .
That ’ s why the EkkoSense team focuses on making it as easy as possible for operations teams to gather and visualise their cooling , power and space data at a much more granular level . Using EkkoSoft Critical , our 3D visualisation and analytics platform , teams can visualise airflow management improvements , manage complex capacity decisions and quickly highlight any worrying trends in cooling performance .
Having access to this kind of insight can make a huge difference . Our research found that data centre cooling utilisation currently averages just 40 % across the industry . Effective data centre optimisation helps release this expensive cooling capacity , helping organisations to handle increased workloads and protect against unnecessary spending on additional cooling . Using this approach , we ’ ve also been able to reduce data centre cooling costs by an average of 30 %, in turn helping to unlock immediate carbon savings that can contribute directly to corporate net zero programmes .
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