23 e of tomorrow
tion of the world we live in , every business has been ecisions about how they their data .
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
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