Innovation needed to reduce datacenter carbon impact

More innovative management of datacenters and the deployment of next generation technologies will be key to dealing with global climate threats as well as the current energy crisis, new research has concluded.

 

The report, sponsored by hybrid multi-cloud computing player Nutanix, aims to help business decision makers to minimise energy costs and radically cut the carbon footprint of their datacenter assets.

 

The current energy crisis, it noted, has led to soaring energy costs across Europe, making energy efficiency and supply a number one priority for CIOs and datacentre providers alike. Events such as COP27 have raised awareness of the need for businesses, across the board, to put sustainability and climate protection at the top of the strategic agenda. However, while the majority are keen to do just that, there is little in the way of objective information when it comes to what the options are, the comparative benefits and the inherent risks of different approaches, said Nutanix. This is particularly the case when it comes to IT infrastructure and the datacenter, which need to be high on the agenda for organisations’ net zero plans to succeed, it concluded.

 

“Datacenters and digital infrastructures as a whole account for a substantial share of worldwide energy consumption with a considerable carbon footprint,” commented Sammy Zoghlami, SVP Nutanix EMEA, “In EMEA alone datacenters consume over 90TWh per year with an emissions level equivalent to roughly 5.9 million vehicles. Action here can have a huge impact on climate change but has to be tempered against the need for businesses to compete effectively in increasingly digital marketplaces. Hence this report which examines in detail how different datacenter technologies compare when businesses examine the pros and cons of looking to achieve their climate neutrality goals.”

 

Key findings of this report include:

  • Alongside automation, innovative cooling systems and renewable energies, the transformation of traditional 3-Tier architectures towards next generation models – like hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI) – will be key to realising the savings potential in datacentre energy consumption and carbon footprint.
  • Measurable benefits could be achieved across a range of organisations from large scale hyperscalers and managed service providers to large enterprises and small businesses.
  • In comparison to traditional 3-tier IT platforms, next generation HCI architectures could potentially reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint by roughly 27% per year.
  • Across the EMEA region HCI transformation has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 56.7 TWh and cut emissions by 14.2 million tonnes of CO²e over the period 2022-2025
  • By 2025 a full changeover to HCI across UK datacentres could potentially save 8.1 TWh of energy and 1.8 million tonnes of CO²e, roughly the same as taking 400,000 cars off the road
  • Large-scale co-location datacentres offer a much lower PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) factor than typical on-premise facilities. Switching these to HCI architectures could potentially boost energy saving towards 30-40%.
  • Next-generation co-location datacentres could provide access to renewable energy through long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and so contribute to an organisation’s climate neutrality goal without having to invest in CO2 certificates.
  • Businesses planning the move towards an HCI architecture within their own on-premise datacentres should also evaluate next generation cooling technologies as energy prices rise.
  • The datacentre industry has delivered significant energy efficiency improvements over past decades and is now one of the most advanced in terms of both energy efficiency and decarbonisation. Nevertheless, future energy demand will rise substantially and will result in large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. Innovative technologies, like HCI, could create considerable efficiency potentials and have a strong impact on energy cost savings.

 

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Book of the Month*

The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck

By Dr Christian Busch
Serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. To other people it looks like “good luck”, but it is more the ability to recognise and seize an opportunity, rather than have good fortune thrust upon one. Finding a wallet stuffed with money on the conference room floor is good luck, whereas holding it up and asking if anyone has lost their wallet might be the beginning of a valuable friendship – that would be serendipity.

Chance encounters, or strokes of fortune, feature in countless stories of business success. This book looks beneath the surface, reveals and teaches the mindset that can transform pure chance into opportunity. The author is director of the Global Economy Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, and a lecturer at the London School of Economics.

Serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. To other people it looks like “good luck”, but it is more the ability to recognise and seize an opportunity, rather than have good fortune thrust upon one. Finding a wallet stuffed with money on the conference room floor is good luck, whereas holding it up and asking if anyone has lost their wallet might be the beginning of a valuable friendship – that would be serendipity.

The author says “This is a book about the interactions of coincidence, human ambition and imagination”. In the above example: finding the wallet is the coincidence; ambition is the desire to make something of the discovery; add imagination and you open up a whole menu of possibilities: from spending spree to earning a reputation for honesty – or even making a wealthy friend.

Business is typically forged on human ambition and imagination, but early success often feeds an appetite for control – and “control freaks” can be blind to the opportunities thrown up by the unexpected. They only see chance events as distractions. If plans go awry, they may blame the failure on “bad luck” rather than admit their own inflexible attitude.

The author himself admits to being “a German who is used to planning” and prone to feel anxious when something unexpected happens. That makes him an ideal teacher, because he has worked hard to discover and analyse the mindset that enables one to “connect the dots” and cultivate serendipity. He presents a goldmine of examples from science, business and life where an apparent mishap or failure lead to a breakthrough.

Indeed, studies suggest that around 50% of major scientific breakthroughs emerge as the result of accidents or coincidences. A well-known example is Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, launching the whole field of antibiotics. Other examples include X-rays, nylon, microwave ovens, rubber, Velcro, Viagra and Post-it Notes – where would we be without these!

The book goes beyond the ability to recognise and respond to opportunities in chaos, but the subtitle – The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck – is actually a bit misleading. True, he does show ways to develop better fortune, but it would be better to call it “inviting” or “encouraging” good luck. For example, he suggests better ways to start a conversation with a stranger – ways that will make it more likely to lead to chance connections or shared interests.

The publishers may have chosen the word “creating” to make the book appeal to the human desire to control – for control freaks are exactly the readership that would benefit the most from this book’s wisdom and practical advice.

For the rest of us, it offers a great way to rediscover the sense of play that is so important in life – and too often lost in business.

 

“Following the success of The Serendipity Mindset hardback, a paperback edition has also now been launched under the title “Connect the Dots”.

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