data centre of tomorrow
23
e of tomorrow
tion of the world we live in
, every business has been
ecisions about how they
their data.
ntinues to get bigger and bigger.
Once it was thought that data centres had to be sitting
right on top of the exchange to provide the type of lowlatency,
real-time results today's businesses demand.
However, this is no longer the case. Facilities are now just as
likely to be located in rural locations where costs such as rent
and staffing can be considerably cheaper. Any concerns that
these facilities would offer poorer performance compared
with more central urban locations have been assuaged in
recent years, as IT pros have had the chance to see what
they are capable of.
The negative impact that the surge in data centres is
putting on the planet is well documented and needs to be
addressed. The energy consumption of the world's data
centres is predicted to account for 3.2 per cent of the total
worldwide carbon emissions by 2025 and as much as onefifth
of the total amount of electricity used worldwide. By
2040, storing digital data is set to create 14 per cent of the
world's emissions, around the same proportion as the US
does today.
However, there have been a few shining lights in recent
times. Facebook's facility in Lulea, Sweden uses natural air
cooling from its location in the Arctic circle and renewable
hydropower to keep its carbon footprint down. Similarly,
Switch's data centre campus in Las Vegas is seeking to
codify its sustainability practices including the ability 'to run
forever without water', energy storage system redundancy
and 100% renewable power from local, new, renewable
projects. Finally, the use of a cooling economiser and the
removal of heat through low-temperature ambient air at
Google's flagship data centre has led to it using 50% less
energy than the typical data centre.
Sustainability
There is no doubt that data is one of the world's most
valuable commodities today. Across the world's business
hubs, data centre demand has been driven by the rapid
adoption of cloud services and the emergence of digitally
transformative business models born out of the Internet of
Things (IoT).
With sustainability now at the forefront of many people's
minds – and deservedly so – it would be great to think that
the data centres of the future will impact the planet far less
than they do now.
However, that remains to be seen. n
www.networkseuropemagazine.com