SUSTAINABILITY data centre resource efficiency . These include IUE ( Infrastructure Utility Effectiveness ) which is intended to help determine how much design infrastructure capacity an operational DC is able to use .
Identifying trends on the infrastructure side of DC construction , Tipley sees a focus on liquid cooling , particularly with high performance computing and data analytics . “ The micro-processors and architectures around high-end servers are pushing really high heat densities . At certain densities , air is no longer an option . Whether it ’ s liquid cooling from a point source , or immersive , we have work streams at The Green Grid with several liquid cooling experts involved to try to make that a viable and less esoteric tech , so 10 years from now it might be more pervasive among the internet giants as they aim to eke out competitive advantage .”
Tipley believes that efforts to reduce the energy consumption of non-IT gear are bearing fruit by focusing on cooling and power infrastructure . What remains is the challenge for each individual DC to “ boutique tweak ” options to make sure its operations achieve optimum efficiency . “ What ’ s left is the most difficult but will yield the biggest impact , looking at the IT itself – servers , software and storage ,” says Tipley , pondering “ how do we make it more effective ? How can a DC generate more transactions for the amount of energy it might use ? Is there a way we could promote at a higher level , or even at a micro level , more energy efficient software that has secondary impact on water , carbon footprint etc ?”
He concludes : “ Sustainability in an uncertain world is difficult , and unexpected events can influence our choices . If you ’ re designing things and expecting no consequences that lead to outages , it ’ s not sustainable . We have to think about a build from that perspective looking at both the environmental and business impact . Did you design in such a way that you could shift your loads to a place that ’ s not being impacted ? That is an interesting conversation to have . It creates new methodologies that play to the strengths of internet giants and cloud providers but there are other ways for smaller enterprises to become involved . We need to promote the circular economy so we don ’ t just pack our landfills with lithium-ion batteries .”
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