In this article, Dan Smale, Senior Service Owner of Fasthosts ProActive, discusses the various ways to overcome the ‘data centre crunch’ and how Fasthosts ProActive is meeting demand while remaining as sustainable as possible.

Earlier this month, the FT reported that nearly 100tn gigabytes of data was created and consumed last year. It’s expected that this figure will nearly double again by 2025.

There are a few concerns associated with this. With AI, blockchain and the IoT becoming bigger drivers in technology development, the need for data centres will continue to rapidly grow. More data centres mean we need more space and better electricity generation.

But working around these concerns isn’t as simple as we might think. Developers may find themselves needing to overcome hurdles, including local planning restrictions and upgrades to national transmission systems. In some places, such as Singapore and the Netherlands, there are also strict restrictions to limit and control the construction of new hyperscalers. This resistance comes as strong sector growth raises questions about the impact of data centres, including their high energy, heat and water usage, as well as their potential impact on agriculture due to the size of larger data centres.

These concerns mean that we can’t just build more data centres to store all of the information that’s being processed. However, the rapid reliance on data will require extensive new builds, and if restrictions prevent this, then companies will run the risk of losing users, as they will slowly begin to be unable to offer the data storage customers need.

The need for sustainability

Data centres typically use a lot of energy to maintain their servers, and as a result, account for approximately 1% of global energy consumption. This may not sound like a lot right now, but as mentioned, it’s only set to increase. For instance, AI typically uses more energy than other forms of computing, with some reports suggesting that a single model can use up more electricity than a hundred homes use in an entire year. The AI sector is also growing fast, making it hard to know how much electricity it uses and its carbon footprint.

A greener option is to rely on cloud-based storage solutions, as this offers a simple and cost-effective alternative – they still rely on data centres to power, but cloud servers hosted in a specialist’s data centre can reach capacities of up to 40-70%, opposed to just 18% with on-site premises servers. This means there’s a better rate of efficiency, as cloud data centres can consolidate large amounts of equipment to handle traffic spikes much better.

Not only is this beneficial for the environment, but opting for cloud storage can also result in lower running costs for businesses. Traditional on-site storage solutions are also complex and can be hard to manage – resulting in further costs due to ongoing training and maintenance. In order for this to work, however, businesses need to make sure they are opting for a provider that powers their data centres sustainably.

What planning goes into building a green data centre?

While data centre energy efficiency has improved, the growing demand for data has significantly impacted power usage. For data centre companies themselves, some are working around this by ensuring they rely on renewable energy. Emissions can vary depending on what type of power plants provide the electricity to the data centre. A centre that relies on coal or natural gas-fired power plants will collect higher emissions than one that draws power from renewable energy, such as from solar or wind farms. Bigger conglomerates, such as Google, are also investing in renewables to counteract any impact.

Many components can also be made more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, from how the data centre is constructed to the equipment it uses. Centres can also opt for server virtualisation by using virtualisation technology in cloud servers to maximise resources. This reduces the total number of servers and storage devices needed, as it can split a physical server into multiple virtual machines, which will have their own dedicated resources and customers – allowing one server to host multiple customers.

Another way to build a green data centre, especially for cloud hosting providers, is to decrease energy consumption by investing in hardware and software that eliminates inefficiencies. Strategies such as frequency scaling can also improve the energy efficiency of data centre equipment.

Naturally, as churning data can be quite impactful, data centre companies now need to prove they are as sustainable as they can be if they want to expand and build in certain jurisdictions. Turning to green data centres is a way companies can be more sustainable, especially as our reliance on data and the cloud continues to grow.

In 2022, Fasthosts unveiled its multimillion-pound investment in a brand-new, green data centre in Worcester. The data centre incorporates 100% renewable energy, solar panels, electric car charge points, green roofs and best-in-class power usage effectiveness of 1.25 or less.

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