Here is the era of IoT( Internet of things), tendencies of using cloud technologies, distance services, learning and remote working companies are going even more well adopted with the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the IT sector has a longstanding reputation for using tremendous amounts of energy for storing and processing data.
Data centers worldwide use roughly 416 terawatts per year or about 3% of the total consumed electricity. And provision is that this consumption will double every four years. The electricity consumed in these data centers is mainly by the active equipment (50%) and HVAC (30%) of its total energy expenditure.
“How on earth can we possibly build all the power plants required to supply electricity to twice as many data centers in the next four years? The simple answer is that we can’t. We must find another way” comments Dr. Rado Danila, Forbes Technology Council
WHAT CAN BE DONE
Environmentally Friendly Cooling Systems
The expectations are that the tech brands and data center operators need to continue looking for environmentally friendly cooling choices due to the money-saving potential. It is a fact that stakeholders and customers increasingly expect companies to be more sustainable whenever possible.
Researchers also point out that when companies choose more sustainable methods of cooling (such as free cooling), it’s possible to save up to 80% on cooling expenses.
Intelligence for Cooling
Data center real time monitoring and control technologies, and Artificial Intelligence (by Google) are also an important innovation when it comes to cooling a data center. It is reported that data centers use 75 percent more cooling than needed. According to datacenterknowledge.com, cooling a data center is there for risk management, but the amount of money spent on cooling is more than required.
Lately data-driven decision-making is a must and enables more precise operational control by providing visibility on power, thermal consumption, server health, and utilization.
For an example a global cybersecurity company that was able to raise the temperatures in its server rooms by 3°C, based on the historical temperature readings, making possible a 25% overall savings for the year on cooling.
Cross Technologies
What seems to obvious is that cooling of data center becomes a sophisticated total solution choice. There are numerous technologies, based on air or water cooling, using different sources, working with optimizing the layout, rearranging consumed energy in real time. Estimating optimal systems performance by taking advantage of various technologies, getting in consideration the local climate, landscape, water sources, push us into using cross technologies. These all works for the simple argument decision makers really care about: such as better ROI, improving PUE and lowering data centers` TCO.
Having an efficient data center it is no longer about buying high class, latest generation cooling equipment. An expertise, team that is capable of analyzing, design and customizes a total concept, based on the available information and also the future development of the data center, is what really makes a difference. Of course quality and reliability of the equipment and its maintenance should be also considered.
In conclusion, would like to quote Mr. Lars Strong, senior engineer at Uptime Technologies, saying, that seems to be really relevant to the ongoing processes and tendencies.
Data center efficiency cannot be purchased, it must be managed.
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