How Data centres are becoming carbon neutral

Author by: Rajender Singh Bhandari, Director - Systems Engineering, NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd. India.

In our less than 50,000 years of presence on earth and specifically in last 60 years we have perpetuated ecocide in the name of development. Advancements in technology have spiked consumption of energy both at a macro as well as individual level.

Internet of everything has led to exponential rise in data growth which has triggered mushrooming of Data centres. Data centres currently consumes about three per cent of the global electric supply and accounts for two per cent of total greenhouse gas.

The numbers for former are estimated to rise to 12%. Environmental concerns and global warming issues have started occupying prominent space in corporate agenda. It is imperative that we realize it is time to rate development in technology infrastructure through the filter of carbon emission. Only then, enterprises will take cognizance of every watt of energy adding up their carbon footprint and tilting the needle towards global warming.

Can power consumption reach carbon-neutral inflection point?

 We know that consumption of energy will never die down. It is the basis of our existence and a crucial indicator of economic growth and social development index. Globally, there is inequality in the energy divide. India is 4^th largest energy consumer in the world, but its per capita energy consumption is among the lowest in the world. Noteworthy, is that coal is India’s primary source of energy - ‘Dirty energy’ as we know it. Over-dependence on ‘Dirty energy’ makes it difficult to achieve carbon neutrality or even initiate the reverse process of carbon impact. Shifting focus to renewables and specifically solar and wind sources are crucial steps to consume ‘clean energy’. Further, we need to look for technology advancements that can achieve a crucial balance where carbon footprint generated by the increase in total number of products is offset by manufacturing, running and disposing off those products.

Data centres are at the heart of technology infrastructure. If number of data centres keep going up but energy consumed in manufacturing and running keeps going down, we are set out on the path of carbon reversal!

How do we combat carbon emission, the data centre way?

 Make no mistake, we cannot limit or go back on the number of data centres in the era of data explosion driven by digital content, ecommerce and internet traffic. Then how do we provide for storage of large chunks of data while limiting our carbon footprint? The answer is multi-pronged approach towards reducing inefficiencies that impacts carbon emission and increasing efficiencies that uses up less energy thereby reducing carbon footprint. IT hardware is starting to get greener through measures such as reduced use of hazardous materials, maximizing energy efficiency, better product lifecycle management and greater use of biodegradable components.

Starting at the basics, enterprises need to consider renewable and cleaner power sources to power their infrastructure. Following it up by initiating measures to halt growing power consumption at its source. Consolidating and virtualizing application servers and storage solutions immediately subtracts  dozens or even hundreds of servers and storage devices from power and space equation. Of course, there is an additional benefit of lower cost through increased storage efficiency. It is important that data center industry ramps up its centers basis demand.

Decommissioning obsolete and powering down unused servers is a significant step in that direction. Environment is much more streamlined, resulting in increased agility and accelerated response to business requirements.

Using higher capacity drives like, Flash storage devices reduces energy consumption for power and cooling by over 60%. Efficient utilization of data storage resources via de-duplicating technologies helps save energy by reducing the need to add storage capacity.

What should be our role?

 Our aim for now is to limit the rise in global temperature in the century below 2 degrees Celsius. Towards this cause, there is a worldwide movement toward renewable energy sources which is sustainable and universally accessible. Adoption of ‘clean’ energy source to power our ICT industry is not only pragmatic but also should be taken up at an accelerated pace. Though the contribution by world’s data centre to Green House Gas is tiny today, it is at the risk of becoming the biggest contributor in times to come.

Enterprises need to actively think on the lines of building energy efficient infrastructure designs. There is an urgent need to focus on technology innovations that offsets carbon footprint generated by increase in energy consuming products. Governments should also come forward in encouraging innovations in low emission technologies via recognition/ tax incentives/ subsidies. Disclosure of data centre energy consumption and carbon emission statistics should be made mandatory in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of industry leaders. This will raise the cognizance metrics among the leading players, urging them to spearhead the movement towards carbon neutrality. It is important to initiate cross-industry and cross-sector collaborative actions, with government as one of the key player in an effort to mitigate carbon emissions.

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