IT Infrastructure -
Sep 4, 2024
Innovate-with-sustainable-datacenters
Blog
Innovating with sustainable data centres
The demand for IT capacity continues to rise. Data is being generated at an unprecedented rate—and it must be accessible from anywhere. As a result, data centres are facing increasing energy consumption, which has prompted the sector to innovate more aggressively in the field of sustainability. In this blog, we explore how sustainable data centres can contribute to a greener future.
Greener energy consumption
Data centres are leading the way in the use of renewable energy—outpacing nearly every other industry. Electricity is sourced both domestically and internationally. The European data centre sector has collectively committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2030.
Commitments to energy efficiency
The number of data centres in the Netherlands is growing rapidly, driven by the expansion of digital services and data volumes. Yet the increase in energy consumption remains relatively modest. By relocating inefficient server rooms to larger, more energy-efficient facilities, overall consumption has become significantly more sustainable. Thanks to these improvements—and the growing adoption of cloud applications—energy usage has remained largely stable.
Energy savings through remote working
The surge in remote working has increased reliance on digital infrastructure, which is powered by data centres. Since the shift to working from home, overall energy consumption has dropped by 10%, while data centre electricity usage has risen by just 1–4%. If everyone worked remotely just one day a week, this could result in an annual reduction of 24 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
Sustainable design at scale
To keep pace with evolving trends, data centres must be sustainable, efficient and scalable. Large enterprises have the resources to design and manage data centres with optimal efficiency. In contrast, small office racks tend to consume more energy and are often outdated. In SMEs, these systems may run for a decade, while larger data centres upgrade more frequently with energy-saving servers. Smaller servers in factories, shops and offices may be less visible, but they will increasingly strain the electricity grid in the years ahead—making it all the more important to monitor them closely.
Sustainability should be embedded from the design phase. It starts with location: where is the data centre situated, and is there scope to generate renewable energy on-site? These are critical considerations that must be addressed early on.
Sustainability goes beyond hardware
Sustainable business practices extend far beyond measuring energy consumption. To achieve meaningful results, sustainability must be an integral part of operations and service delivery. The three pillars—People, Planet and Profit—are inseparably linked and a healthy balance between them should always be the guiding principle for sustainable data centres.
Want to find out more?
Get in touch with Mark Jongen, Solution Specialist – Data Centre.
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This post was published on Sep 4, 2024.