Why should data centre customers go green?

The environment is one of the biggest issues on the global business agenda, to the extent that you can’t open a corporate report without coming across terms like ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘environmental impact’. The data centre industry is no exception. Data centre operators have been falling over themselves to prove their green credentials over the last few years and the green movement has been so successful that power usage effectiveness (PUE) has become an industry standard.

Yet despite this progress, the response from customers has been somewhat muted, as end users seem largely reluctant to pay the ‘green premium’. With restrictive regulations on the horizon likely to have a growing impact, it falls to data centre operators to make customers aware of the benefits of going green.

The green revolution

Across the board, the green data centre industry appears to be prospering. Following an EU directive in 2008 which attempted to curtail the huge rise in data centre energy consumption, over 100 organisations began to build or invest in green data centres across northern Europe where the climate helps the cooling process, thereby reducing costs.

For example, Facebook invested in a 30,000 square metre data centre in Lulea, northern Sweden. Running on hydro-electric power with thousands of Open Compute servers, its remote location and green innovation prompted a small boom in the development of green data centres in Scandinavia. This includes Norway’s Green Mountain data centre, which boasts water-cooling and hydro-electric power, along with a location inside an old NATO bunker.

These new green initiatives are largely aimed at attracting international customers but despite their popularity with operators, customers seem to be derived mostly from the Scandinavian region, rather than from across the world. One of Green Mountain’s recent wins was local bank DNB, a reputable firm in Norway, but not an internationally known brand. It seems as if green power suits the deep pockets of webscale giants like Google and Facebook, but is out of the reach of many others. Some may point to a nascent cluster in Iceland with Verne Global, Colt and Datapipe, but beyond that one project there does not seem to be a flurry of activity, certainly not enough to declare a trend.

The challenges of going green

Given the size of a commercial grade data centre, trying to work out what is built and not built is surprisingly difficult. The Finnish data centre industry is a good example: to judge by press announcements it is emerging as a global powerhouse with firms such as Microsoft, Google and Russian search giant Yandex all building data centres. The country is certainly keen to tout its credentials as a green data centre hub, yet as far as we know so far only Google’s data centre has become reality. Microsoft’s announcement came in 2013 as part of the deal to buy local giant Nokia, but two years on there is little evidence of a data centre. The same applies to Yandex, which is also still to break ground on a project announced two years ago.

It’s a familiar story to those with experience of the wholesale data centre industry, where data centre launches can mean little more than some land and some engineering drawings until the anchor tenant lands. The cynic may be tempted to view the data centre industry as a sub branch of the property development industry, so it’s not surprising to see this kind of aggressive marketing. However, it does lead to a certain pessimism, in addition to putting off customers unwilling to take a chance on incomplete projects.

This lack of confidence is reflected in customer opinion, with only a minority of IT professionals claiming that environmental impact is important to their decision-making process. So what could be the crucial factor in driving more demand?

The green benefits

It seems that a lack of awareness is holding the green data centre back. Most IT professionals aren’t aware of why going green may be the right option, possibly due to concerns around performance. In reality, green data centres often boast greater power efficiency, allowing customers to fit more power into less physical rack space than would be possible in other data centres.

In addition, going green usually makes a positive impact on the bottom line. The data centre industry is often subject to a bevy of environmental restrictions, which aren’t likely to disappear: the wider green movement is one of the biggest issues in society. Going green could be the crucial factor in avoiding any penalties that may arise.

The green agenda

With a growing eagerness among businesses to demonstrate their green credentials, we’re seeing new legislation to limit the carbon footprint of the data centre industry, such as the EU’s ReviewIT initiative aimed at having 80 per cent of European data centres powered solely by renewable energy. In addition, the UK’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme can also impose levies on those who exceed the carbon allowance, making green technology a more viable alternative than ever.

There’s a clear gap between perception and reality where the green data centre is concerned. Despite a remarkable rise in the amount of green data centres, most have faced an uphill struggle convincing customers of the benefits, leading to a situation where many facilities are yet to be completed. Demand will grow as sanctions such as the CRC scheme begin to take hold, leaving customers with little choice other than to adhere to regulations and be pleasantly surprised when the numerous benefits become apparent.