PART 3 / 8
This is an edited extract from our business paper Data Center + IT Collaboration to Cut Carbon: An Applications to Data Centers perspective for CIOs, CTOs, CSOs and Data Center Leaders.
Click below to gain instant access to the full white paper now. Or stay tuned as we release a new section each week.
PART 3 / 8
This is an edited extract from our business paper Data Center + IT Collaboration to Cut Carbon: An Applications to Data Centers perspective for CIOs, CTOs, CSOs and Data Center Leaders.
Click below to gain instant access to the full white paper now. Or stay tuned as we release a new section each week.
3.1 Buildings
3.2 Power
3.3 Chips
3.4 Servers
3.5 Software
For large enterprises, commercial data center providers, and cloud companies, GHG emissions reduction should start with an evaluation of the design and construction of the buildings from which digital services are provided. It must also be considered that a new data center is not always a greenfield project.
Smart developers avoid additional embodied carbon costs by making use of modernization and upgrades to existing buildings, including those that are not currently data centers. In existing aging data centers that are suitable for modernization, the shell remains the same and is retrofitted with the latest power and cooling infrastructure using design thinking that provides best ratings for GHG carbon emissions.
An independent study of Serverfarm’s Chicago data center was carried out by consultants HKS. With a capacity for housing more than 4,000 server cabinets, and a rack consumption of 61,320 kWh, the building consumes 25MW of power annually. Were such a building to be constructed today using standard materials, the carbon cost, carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e, would be 9,425,673kgs. The study calculated that by using the existing building, this data center can mean an enterprise gains 4 years of operation before it adds to its carbon footprint (accounting for both operational and embodied).
By now CIOs will have heard of the PUE, CUE, and WUE metrics. Respectively Power, Carbon and Water Usage Effectiveness metrics. What is emerging is that the best PUE, CUE and WUE outcomes are a result of IT and M+E environments working in harmony, further emphasizing the need for ending the silo effect.
Data Center + IT Collaboration to Cut Carbon
Addressing the ESG, decarbonization and sustainability challenges to providing net zero data centers and IT. A paper for CTOs, CIOs and Data Center professionals.
