Green operations need to be a corporate priority for data centre businesses to stay competitive, says Terry Storrar, Managing Director, Leaseweb UK.
With many data centre businesses achieving green targets such as 100% renewable energy use, the industry has already made significant steps towards carbon neutral practices. But with the demand for global power – and data centre services – on the up, delivering this sustainably is a business-critical issue and one that will be scrutinised by customers for the foreseeable future.
No operator, service provider or channel partner can afford to defocus on green investment to stay competitive and, importantly, demonstrate what has now become part of corporate social responsibility.
Consistent green energy supply is a priority
Data centres are a major consumer of power across the globe. The International Energy Agency projects that global electricity demand will more than double over the next three years, with data centres a primary culprit. Rather starkly, National Grid has recently highlighted that the UK’s data centre power use will grow six-fold in the next decade, driven by energy-hungry technologies including AI and quantum computing. This pattern is not unique to the UK; surging power demand is expected to be replicated across the world.
As the number of data centres grows further, the challenge to achieve net zero targets by 2050 is at an immense scale. Data centre businesses must find ways of sourcing and providing consistent, green energy to fulfil future demand. This comes at considerable cost and effort to those in the industry. Yet the stakes are high; failure to deliver this would have a profound, negative environmental impact.
The realisation that going green is a long-haul exercise means that more businesses are investing in innovation, with many exploring new clean energy sources such as hydrogen and solar energy – both of which are under tapped – and others looking at how technologies can help optimise energy use.
Regulations shaping long term investment
Arguably, this long-term commitment to the planet is underpinned by many of the green industry requirements currently in place. More regulations will come into force and, although these will not be completely universal, these will have a role in shaping the industry’s future on a global scale.
Across the EU, there is intense focus on the Climate Neutral Data Pact, and for good reason. Aiming to eliminate the environmental footprint of data centres by 2030, signatories have only one year to go to reach an initial milestone of sustainability performance standards. This is fuelling a sense of urgency in the efforts to optimise power management and reduce energy consumption.
Perhaps less widely discussed are the contribution made by international standards such as the ISO14000 family, that focus on environmental management. Not just applicable to data centre operators, these accreditations highlight the importance of having systems and tools in place for any organisation to steer environmental performance. These standards also help to draw attention to environmental investment with an organisation’s stakeholders.
Customers recognising the value of data centre specialists
From a data centre customer standpoint, it is acknowledged that specialist data centre providers are now the best option for managing environmentally friendly models such as IaaS and SaaS. Industry research has found that organisations migrating from on-premises to IaaS infrastructures can significantly reduce their energy consumption by up to 65% and carbon emissions by up to 84%.
Quite simply, rather than running a proprietary data centre, it makes better sense to tap into the economies of scale and specialist knowledge the data centre industry can provide. The introduction of requirements such as the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework, mandatory for around 12,000 large companies in the UK and requiring these organisations to document their efforts to improve energy efficiency, have been instrumental in consolidating this viewpoint.
Is AI a help or hindrance to sustainability?
New technologies – including AI – are presenting both challenges and opportunities for the data centre industry in its sustainability drive. Spiralling demand for AI technologies is placing unprecedented pressure on data centre operators to provide sufficient power and capacity to support this growth. Data centre experts must balance this ever-increasing compute demand with environmental targets through data centre design and operations.
On the flip side, AI is poised to be gainfully employed by data centre businesses for green initiatives this year. Tools like predictive analytics are enabling better data and resource management and process automation, and enhanced energy and water usage efficiency in line with sustainability performance targets. AI-based technologies can also deliver insights that improve operational decisions like workload management and capacity planning.
This year, with a marked increase and intensity of focus from end customers on net zero initiatives, data centre businesses will be wise to look at new value-added services that could attract a premium from clients looking to qualify their own sustainable practices.
While AI adds a level of sophistication and accuracy to data analysis in data centres themselves, it is also possible to train AI to offer highly individualised reports to customers. These would provide valuable insight into a customer’s own carbon footprint and environmental impact; something that businesses will increasingly need to document their own sustainability initiatives and measures. Although the demand for this type of service is not significant yet, keeping one pace ahead will ensure a data centre business both stands out from competition and is well prepared for meeting the green challenges of the future.
