The Rise of Environmentally-Friendly Data Centres
In the modern economy, Data Centres are a hugely significant part of industry. They provide the core digital infrastructure that now runs the global economy.
Because there is such a huge demand from both businesses and individuals to be connected to each other 24/7, Data Centres now create a significant drain on energy resources globally, which has often deemed them as less than environmentally-friendly.
Thankfully, many Data Centre operators are now coming to the realisation that these levels of energy consumption cannot be allowed to increase indefinitely. As a result, they are now taking the necessary steps to ensure that their facilities are more energy efficient, and sustainable in the long-term.
How to make your Data Centre more friendly to the environment
One of the most prominent methods that is being used to make Data Centres more environmentally-friendly is the use of Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM). This is a method that looks at the Data Centre in a holistic way, which enables the operator to have greater control over the energy usage and then consider how to improve these efficiencies, all from one central interface.
There are a number of other methods in which Data Centres can become greener, and one of these is through the use of more natural forms of air-cooling rather than via power hungry high-energy mechanical units.
There are also new types of energy efficient servers being manufactured, which can actually operate at much higher temperatures, meaning that they require far less cooling to work at maximum efficiency.
Natural methods of cooling are also an environmentally-friendly option, and one which is already being used by some of the technology giants. In fact, one of the Data Centres for Google – which is in Hamina, Finland – makes use of the sea water that surrounds it, a natural resource, to power the cooling system that it uses.
Many of the other larger technology firms, such as Microsoft and Apple have either built or supported energy efforts that are renewable in order for their Data Centres to be powered by solar or wind energy – this all helps to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
Why it matters so much
Both Cloud Computing and Big Data have grown, and this means that the way we rely on Data Centres is only going to increase as well, together with the energy that is required in order to power them.
While some of the advances in superconductor technology are able to offer the potential of Data Centres that are more efficient in the future, for now, it is up to operators to be responsible for ensuring that their Data Centres are as environmentally friendly as they can be.