There has been a dramatic increase in the number of companies around the world committing resources to environmental sustainability initiatives. But, the difficulty lies in actually making progress towards one’s goals and fulfilling one’s pledges.
The datacenter business, digital transformation, and data expansion have all accelerated in recent years. The datacenter industry in Asia Pacific is projected to develop at a CAGR of 12.91 percent from its 2020 valuation of $25.58 billion to a total of $59,83 billion by 2027.
In terms of environmental impact, datacenters accounted for around 1% of global electricity demand, with an estimated 200-250 terawatt-hours of electricity use annually (TWh). With the ever-increasing demand for data services, datacenters have become some of the world’s largest consumers of energy, as reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to the NASSCOM research titled “India – The Next Datacenter Hub,” investments in hyper-scale datacenters have increased as a result of the move to the cloud, and the worldwide datacenter market is predicted to attract $200 billion annually in capital expenditures by 2025. By 2025, investments in India are projected to exceed $5 billion per year, thus the country stands to benefit greatly from this expansion. With India’s ambitions to replace Silicon Valley as the world’s datacenter capital, it’s crucial that businesses have a firm grasp on the myriad factors that should be taken into account while constructing green datacenters.
When attempting to increase the environmental friendliness of their datacenters, businesses should focus on the following four areas:
1. Ecology
There are a number of novel approaches that may be taken to lessen the overall amount of heat wasted in datacenters and the carbon footprint of infrastructure. Sustainable hardware solutions, enhanced layouts, and cutting-edge cooling technology are just a few examples.
Direct Contact Liquid Cooling (DCLC) and Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC) are two future technologies that drastically cut down on the power needed to keep servers at a comfortable temperature. These technologies, which utilise coolants to reduce the datacenter’s carbon footprint, allow businesses to take steps towards achieving their sustainability objectives without sacrificing data management and optimization.
Case in point: PhonePe’s first green datacenter in India, which is also powered by India’s first smart cooling technologies. In addition to saving the organisation over 25% on electricity costs, the 4.8-MW facility’s DCLC and LIC capabilities will help them significantly lessen their impact on the environment. The data centre is designed to have a PUE of 1.27, which is significantly lower than the normal PUE for air-cooled datacenters, which is 1.6. As the average home uses roughly 18 kilowatt-hours per day, this amounts to a power savings of about 1.58 Megawatts, which is enough to power the lights in an additional 2000 homes across the country.
India is actively attempting to increase its use of renewable energy sources including solar and wind, and already has an installed renewable energy capacity of 89.63 GW, with 49.59 GW capacity under execution. Green datacenters, which make use of renewable energy sources, can pave the way for businesses to adopt a more environmentally friendly business model.
2. Monetary
Whole datacenter operating expenses can be reduced by a significant amount if their energy efficiency and consumption are improved.
Any steps taken to reduce datacenter energy consumption can have a major impact on operating expenses. Businesses can save money and improve efficiency in other areas by focusing on IT and business advancements made possible by datacenter automation.
Business entities should put money towards environmental integrity by using cutting-edge technologies, renewable resources, and mindful consumption. Organizations can save money and improve efficiency in other areas by focusing on business and IT innovations made possible by the automation of datacenter operations.
3. Conformity
Government leaders and climate experts met in Glasgow in 2021 for the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), where it was reaffirmed that countries and organisations must increase their efforts to reduce global warming in order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The government of India has mandated the use of green Technology as a means of cutting down on carbon emissions. It’s no surprise that the same care has been taken to comply with national and industry regulations and lessen the IT department’s impact on the environment at the corporate level.
The best way for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and ensure they are in full compliance is to establish concrete goals to increase the energy efficiency of their datacenters.
4. Effectiveness
Customers aim for near-100 percent rack and datacenter space utilisation in an energy-efficient datacenter, which means they want to accomplish more with IT equipment in a smaller physical footprint.
More and more people and groups are realising that they must act to protect the planet. In order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, datacenters should be built with energy efficiency in mind. They can successfully aid in environmental protection while reducing their long-term running expenses by collaborating with the right technology partners and implementing a holistic approach that addresses the environmental, financial, regulatory, and efficiency factors.
