The rise of energy-efficient data centers

The rise of energy-efficient data centers

We are in the midst of a huge era of digital transformation. From the way we order food to the way apps are being built -- almost everything has a touch of digital. With every device being connected, the demand for putting in place the respective IT infrastructure has also gone up. Gartner, for instance, is predicting that there will be close to 20 billion IoT devices deployed by 2020. Not surprisingly, data centers are being built everywhere. A recent report by research firm Technavio says that the global data center market size is poised to grow by USD 284.44 billion during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of more than 17% during the forecast period.

However, even as data centers are being built aggressively, optimizing data center power use is a high priority area for data center managers. For high power density servers, Gartner estimates that ongoing power costs are increasing at least 10% per year due to cost per kilowatt-hour (kwh) increases and underlying demand. Typically, Gartner estimates that 10% of data center OPEX is power, and this number will only increase. The European Union believes that digital industries account for five to nine percent of the world's electricity use.

Data center players have therefore been naturally encouraged to save energy. Currently, the power consumption of data centers accounts for three percent of the world’s total power consumption. To reduce their energy usage, many leading data centers are adopting a host of energy saving mechanisms to improve their data center efficiency.

These include methods such a decommissioning inactive data centers, consolidating servers, replacing old energy inefficient IT infrastructure with new optimized energy efficient infrastructure and managing air flow in a better way. This is important as it’s believed that close to 25% of data center power goes into cooling. If a company makes the right investments in cooling systems and in renewable sources of energy, there's a direct impact on profitability.

From Amazon to Google to Microsoft, all the leading hyperscale data center players