The need for data centres is growing but powering them is a challenge of economy . How are data centres finding energy efficiencies and cutting costs ?
COLOCATION
The need for data centres is growing but powering them is a challenge of economy . How are data centres finding energy efficiencies and cutting costs ?
Data centres need electricity to run their equipment and to keep the machines cool . While just how much electricity all these data centres use is up for debate , data storage and transmission in and from data centres is estimated to be around 1 % of global electricity .
This share has hardly changed since 2010 , despite the number of internet users doubling and global internet traffic increasing 15-fold since then , according to the International Energy Agency .
Many data centres are “ colocation ” centres , which are shared by users and managed by specialist companies . As specified on DW . com , these make up the majority of data centres , “ but it is the mammoth ' hyperscale ' data centres owned by BitTech companies that get the most attention ”.
As businesses get rid of their own on-site servers , instead renting space on cloud servers to focus on their core businesses without worrying about IT issues , “ it is frequently cheaper and more efficient to farm out the costs of purchasing and maintaining such equipment to outside companies ”.
Modular and mobile data centres With the increasing demands of virtualised , high density and cloud computing environments , modularity is now at the forefront of contemporary data centre construction due to it providing flexibility and a scalable approach to data centre planning and design , as well as eliminating the need for traditional bricks-and-mortar locations .
Speaking with gulfbusiness . com , Sanjay Kumar Sainani , Global SVP and CTO of Huawei Digital , claims that large-scale data centre power solutions – requiring segment-based construction , distributed
WRITTEN BY : ALEX TUCK technologymagazine . com 77