In 2021, will the sustainability of the data center be a priority?

2021.01.31

The huge energy consumption of cloud computing enables the data center industry to promote the global shift to renewable energy businesses.

Since green data centers can effectively power enterprises to reduce power consumption, the demand for green data centers is expected to increase.

Whenever you use any service on the Internet, you are connecting to one of millions of servers located in one of thousands of data centers around the world. In 2020, in many countries around the world, the "invisible" operation of data centers has taken a dominant position and has become one of the basic services.

According to a report, from 11 million units in 2006 to 2020, it is estimated that 18 million servers are deployed in global data centers. The size of the data center ranges from a small 100-square-foot cabinet to a large 400,000-square-foot warehouse.

Since a data center has a series of components that make up its energy footprint, electricity is the main energy input in daily operations. All equipment-servers, storage, networks-are powered by electricity, which means that the impact of data centers on the environment largely depends on the source of electricity.

Although non-renewable energy sources continue to account for a large portion of electricity sources, the transition to clean up the grid is still in progress. As we all know, as of 2020, data centers consume about 200 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, accounting for about 1% of global electricity consumption, which is only an increase of 6% compared to 2010. In short, energy use has been decoupled from data center use.

Future trends of sustainable data centers

Some cloud service providers have continued to expand their infrastructure to support the growing Internet usage and the dynamics of working from home. According to BaronFung, an analyst at Dell'OroGroup, cloud spending will increase this year.

"Given the surge in demand for cloud services throughout the pandemic, this may not be surprising. But we expect that by 2021, all the top ten cloud service providers will resume their expansion cycle, and their data center capital expenditures will be two digits. Data center suppliers (such as processor, memory, storage, and optical equipment suppliers) are confident in 2021 and have been actively expanding production capacity."

More importantly, the demand for green data centers is expected to increase, because it can effectively power enterprises to reduce energy consumption, thereby avoiding carbon emissions and reducing carbon footprint.

To this end, Technavio estimates that the global green data center market will grow by US$44.92 billion from 2020 to 2024. According to Technavio, the increase in purchases of renewable energy will have a positive impact on the market and significantly contribute to its growth during the forecast period.

How green data centers will affect business

As IDC predicts, by 2025, global data will reach an astonishing 163ZB. In view of the increasing amount of data generated every day, many companies are looking for ways to store data with minimal impact on the environment.

As the amount of data produced and processed by enterprises becomes larger and larger, they will seek more cost-effective storage options. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that implementing green practices can not only benefit the environment, but also improve the return on investment throughout the period. Rate (ROI).

In view of consumers' growing awareness and interest in social and environmental issues, they believe that company values are equally important to their responsible business practices. As Deloitte put it, "Energy management has become a competitive bet."

Due to continuous monitoring and effective data management services, green or environmentally friendly data centers use the least amount of electricity, so such data centers can recycle unused electricity for different applications. To some extent, these data centers can consume energy very efficiently, thereby reducing capital expenditures.