As demand for IT infrastructure and data centers increases, operators, providers, and hardware manufacturers develop more sustainable and efficient solutions. Meanwhile, the end customer almost takes this for granted.
“Data centers are actually a very clean business,” notes Hendrik Devos, Technical Sales Leader at Kyndryl. “According to a JLL study, only two percent of global energy goes to data centers. The study predicts a four percent growth in electricity consumption, year on year. This is mainly due to increasing economic activity, the use of heat pumps and air conditioners due to global warming, and electric cars. Only three percent of that four percent growth, a small fraction thus, is accounted for by data centers.”
Activity Without Cars
The participants of the round table on data centers, organized by ITdaily, are pleased to hear these figures. David Louis, Managing Director of Digital Realty, has no doubt that the impact of data centers can also be positive. “Around Zaventem, they’re happy to see us coming,” he says. “We provide economic activity without bringing much extra traffic to an already saturated region.”
Data centers are actually a very clean business.
Hendrik Devos, Technical Sales Leader Kyndryl
Louis and Devos are joined at the table by Kenneth Deviaene, Senior Solution Sales at Combell, Robbert Lambrechts, Technical Presales Specialist for Lenovo, and Thomas Van Tricht, Key Account Manager Cloud Service Providers at Schneider Electric.
Built for a Reason
The panel agrees that the ecological impact of data centers is not so bad after all. “Moreover,” Louis says, “these data centers aren’t just there for no reason. They are built to meet the demand from businesses but also consumers. They often don’t realize that when they watch a video on TikTok, it’s also running somewhere in a data center.”
Data centers aren’t just there for no reason. They are built to meet the demand from businesses but also consumers.
David Louis, Managing Director Digital Realty
Of course, no one denies the sustainability impact of the growth in data centers. Devos: “In practice, a clustering phenomenon occurs, leading to a saturation of power supply in certain regions. If you look at it on a global scale and based on averages, the impact is less significant.”
Better Than in the Basement
Data centers of hyperscalers or colocation specialists are also more visible to the general public. Servers in a company’s basement also consume energy but are less noticeable. Yet their impact is actually greater. Louis: “If all companies were to move their on-premises data centers to specialized buildings, the country as a whole would actually consume less power.”
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Lambrechts also believes that things aren’t necessarily going in the wrong direction when it comes to IT infrastructure consumption. “Processors consume more today than in the past, but if you look at the performance you get per watt, it has increased enormously.”
Suppliers Help
“If you look at a server from manufacturing to recycling, the biggest impact comes from power consumption during its lifetime,” he continues. “As a manufacturer, you can have a huge impact on that. For example, you can use liquid cooling technology to keep servers in air-cooled data centers more efficiently cool by bringing the heat from the hottest components right up to the fans.”
“Furthermore, our servers are certified to function in environments of 30 or sometimes even 40 degrees. The impact of cooling at 25 degrees versus cooling at 30 degrees may not seem significant, but when you look at it on the scale of a data center and a lifespan of five or seven years, the impact adds up,” he adds.
Van Tricht also notes an immense growth in efficiency. “The increase in data center capacity in Europe is many times greater than the growth in electricity consumption of those data centers. This proves that these data centers are becoming increasingly efficient and that we as an industry are working on ourselves,” he believes.
Innovation Versus Perception
Not everything is smooth sailing. IT infrastructure providers and data center specialists, like other companies, depend on what customers want. “For example, we have developed and launched many Lithium-ion UPS systems in recent years,” says Van Tricht. “Lithium-Ion batteries are in many ways much more interesting than traditional lead-acid UPS systems.”
According to Van Tricht, they are significantly more compact and have a longer lifespan, which has a positive impact on the overall cost picture. UPS systems ensure that the power supply of a data center remains uninterrupted during a mains power failure. The higher the efficiency of the UPS, the less power loss, and Li-Ion systems are generally more economical.
There’s more at play than just the technological innovation itself.
Thomas Van Tricht, Key Accountmanager Cloud & Service Providers Schneider Electric
“We monitor these systems, and there are hardly any problems with them,” Van Tricht continues. “It’s a proven and safe technology. But some end customers read about a burnt-out electric car or exploded smartphone, and make a connection, even though the technologies aren’t really comparable. Sometimes there’s unrest, and that’s to some extent a brake on innovation. There’s more at play than just the technological innovation itself.”
Sustainability: Compulsory Inclusion
The importance of the customer is not unfamiliar to Deviaene. “In the past, no one talked about sustainability, but today it’s item number one on the quote. Our customers want to be sustainable, but so do we. We’re aiming for net zero by 2030.”
However, sustainability remains a complex investment according to Deviaene. “It costs money, and actually you don’t get anything back financially. The end customer expects it, they demand that a supplier is 100 percent green, and place that responsibility entirely on the supplier. They themselves aren’t going to pay extra for it, and that’s what makes it so complex.”
This is how the hot potato gets passed on. Combell’s customers are concerned about sustainability, but look to Combell itself for that. That provider in turn partners with data centers such as Digital Realty, where the sustainability question is neatly passed on.
Then it’s up to Louis to invest in data centers that are as efficient as possible. This happens with new infrastructure, but also with the upgrade of old ones. Louis: “Our oldest data center has been around for 25 years. The IT infrastructure will run more efficiently there, the cooling will be optimally regulated and the machines will be renewed. We’re going to invest up to 25 million euros in that in the coming years.”
Time for a Commercial?
The consensus is that sustainability in data centers is actually in good shape, within the context of what’s realistic. IT infrastructure consumes a lot, but everyone at the table is actively trying to keep that consumption as low as possible, and especially to increase efficiency.
Sustainability is an investment, but a necessary one. Whether public opinion will see it that way remains an open question. The experts around the table agree that the man in the street doesn’t know enough about data centers being built to meet a demand that consumers themselves contribute to. A commercial highlighting the role of data centers in society sounds like a good idea to everyone.
This is the third editorial article in a series of three on the theme of AI in practice. Click on our theme page to see all articles from the round table, the video and our partners.