Eco-friendly data center: a sustainable future?

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a proliferation of data, primarily due to the rise of remote work. However, it is unlikely that the world of work will revert to its previous state after such a significant leap forward. Indeed, for many professionals, remote work has become the new norm. Faced with this influx of data and the associated environmental risks, what can be done? The solution may lie in the concept of green data centers.

What is a data center?

A data center is a facility that houses all of a company's information systems. A data center can also be a service provided by a third-party organization that serves multiple companies.

What do we mean by an information system? It is a set of equipment such as mainframe computers, network and telecommunications equipment, servers, etc

The goal of data centers is to create a controlled and secure environment with continuous power (presence of an emergency system) in order to provide quality IT services to businesses.

Unfortunately, like mining with graphics cards , these data centers are heavy consumers of rare metals, rare earth elements, and electricity. Furthermore, the heat generated by the machines requires very powerful air conditioning units to cool the areas.

The Green data center

An eco-friendly data center, or green data center, is a type of facility designed to minimize the negative environmental impact of the internet. This requires optimizing the entire facility, from project design to the actual operation of the data center. This includes optimizing cooling systems as well as the energy consumed by the servers. Everything must be redesigned to minimize energy consumption while increasing, or at least maintaining, server efficiency. Even the buildings themselves must be redesigned to optimize electricity and water consumption.

Finally, for green data to be as effective as possible, there must be regular analyses to know the performance of the center in order to limit CO2 emissions and water consumption.

What additional benefits do Green data centers offer?

The essential benefits of a green data center are not visible to the naked eye. These range from optimizing heat dissipation to improving airflow design. For example, green data centers tend to favor environmentally friendly techniques such as free cooling or free chilling instead of conventional air conditioning systems, which consume significantly more energy.

Furthermore, in terms of energy, the use of renewable energy for electricity and various water conservation and recycling techniques is greatly encouraged. Every effort is made to minimize unnecessary energy consumption and to recycle whenever possible.

Green data is committed to promoting all so-called ecological techniques. It represents an ethical commitment to sustainability.

Moreover, in France, the company Ikoula, which offers a VMware , is committed to the environment!

The future of green data centers.

There are two types of Green data centers, those that were originally designed as such and those that were originally traditional data centers and have undergone a transformation.

However, not all data centers can afford to transform into green data centers. Indeed, the cost is often prohibitive due to the complexity and specialized expertise required. Furthermore, for some data centers, the entire building needs to be modified and redesigned.

Thus, it would seem that the future leans more towards new green data centers. This is especially true given the large number of organizations interested in this issue. For example, it is highly likely that in the future, more and more green data centers will be installed in very cold regions. These regions offer a cooling system that is both inexpensive and consumes very little energy.

Others are going even further, installing Green Data underwater so that water can be consumed directly at its source and the very low temperature can be used as a cooling system. Naturally, this system will require a very watertight installation.

Conclusion

With the rise of remote work and the emergence of new, energy-intensive technologies, the development of green data centers represents a suitable long-term solution to environmental concerns. It is therefore highly likely that we will see an acceleration in the development of green data centers in the future.