How to make data centers more sustainable

Just a few weeks ago, Gartner analysts said that sustainability and related issues will surpass all strategic technology trends in 2023.

This week at its IT Infrastructure, Operations and Cloud Strategies conference, Gartner described how enterprise data centers can make sustainability a reality.

“IT leaders must avoid wasting value by prematurely replacing IT infrastructure,” Philip Dawson, vice president and analyst at Gartner, said at the conference. “They can do this by using real-time health analytics to maximize the life of their data center assets.”

“On-premises data centers and cloud providers are extending the life cycle of infrastructure from three to five years and from five to seven years to help maximize opex cycles and reduce capital expenditure investments associated with refreshes,” said Sen said.

Most importantly, the most effective way sustainability can reduce costs is through increased energy efficiency and optimizing power consumption. Dawson said it is critical for infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to determine where and how data center infrastructure can be optimized to consume less power without impeding essential business operations.

Organizations need a sustainable technology framework to improve the energy and material efficiency of IT services, and it must achieve enterprise sustainability through traceability, analytics, renewable energy and artificial intelligence. Frances Karamouzis, distinguished vice president and analyst at Gartner, said earlier at the research firm’s IT Symposium/Xpo 2022 that the framework should also be required to deploy IT solutions to help organizations achieve their own sustainability goals.

“Target areas like data center power consumption are low-hanging fruit because it’s easy to measure,” Karamouzis said. “What enterprises need to look at is what they should deploy as they get more and more data. Are they looking at buying more storage in the same old way or are they looking at it by looking at things like DNA storage and looking at how they The level of redundancy required and implementing technology with a sustainable mindset to optimize the system.”

Gartner says environmental sustainability is on the radar of CEOs, with 9% ranking it as one of their top three business priorities. Nearly 70% of those surveyed by Garnter plan to invest in new sustainable products and make existing products more sustainable, analysts said.

Dawson said some of the things data center customers can do to create a sustainable and eco-friendly data center include:

Businesses should minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their data centers by investing in appropriate GHG emissions offset programs, rather than relying on supply chain inspections or established token programs. They should also participate in a circular economy – one where as much equipment as possible is reused, shared or recycled. According to Gartner, 74% of supply chain leaders expect circular economy activities to improve profitability between now and 2025.

I&O leaders should consider using water use efficiency (WUE) to track the source of water used to cool data centers and move from potable water to gray water—seawater, recycled water, or rainwater collection systems. Additionally, immersion cooling systems can provide sustainability and deliver better computing power to strategic locations compared to traditional air-cooled racks.

Create a baseline footprint for I&O by aggregating and tracking data such as server/storage utilization, power usage efficiency of on-premises or cloud-based data centers, and number of end-user devices per employee.

Establish specific and measurable IT sustainability goals and measure progress. Goals can be long-term, such as emissions reduction or zero waste goals based on the organization’s unique data.

Optimize sustainability processes and partnerships by defining accountability frameworks and formal policies across people, processes, technology and the business.