By Tony Bartlett, Director Data Centre Compute Solutions, Dell Technologies South Africa
Data centres are vital to today’s global, tech-centric economy. But as IT managers are keenly aware, there is a cost to this valuable service, both in terms of the budget required to keep up with growing capacity demand and in terms of data centres’ energy use. We have recently experienced the most significant energy price increases in five decades, so it’s no wonder we are also seeing a shift to energy efficient, sustainable (also known as green) data centres to lessen their environmental impact and reduce operational costs.
Many experts estimate that data storage and transmission in and from data centres use 1% of global electricity. In Africa, the data centre market is expected to top $3 billion by 2025. As a result, data centre owners in South Africa and across the continent will continue to weigh innovative technology with the opportunity for cost savings and operational efficiency when partnering with technology and equipment providers.
Looking ahead, data creation is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23%, resulting in approximately 175 zettabytes (ZB) of data creation by 2025, according to IDC – and energy consumption will continue to be a hot-button issue as costs increase further.
In this environment, to save resources and costs businesses must act by implementing efficiencies to reduce overall energy use. While some companies have begun this transition, many others are unsure of where to begin. They want to understand the levers they can move to make the biggest impact. They have an opportunity to shift to a more sustainable, energy-efficient data centre while balancing the need for increasingly greater performance. As a partner to many customers on this journey, we recommend three key strategies: optimisation, modernisation and consolidation.
1. Optimise infrastructure
Poor IT asset utilisation, including inactive or underused servers, is the single biggest waste of energy in the data centre. Start by conducting a full audit of the IT environment to identify the most power-hungry and inefficient equipment. Replacing this equipment and implementing modern, more energy efficient solutions can drive greater efficiency, optimise thermals and cooling, and consolidate space requirements.
Another way to optimise a data centre is to squeeze more work out of your current infrastructure. In particular capacity utilisation, power and thermals can often be improved through high-performance hardware, effective device power management, efficient hardware configuration and smart data centre power management.
2. Modernise for energy efficiency
Automation technologies and telemetry data are key, as they simplify and remove the need for human intervention in power management. Implementing these technologies can help to reduce power consumption in off-peak times and identify energy performance issues faster. Other new technologies, like artificial intelligence, software-led applications and eco modes can also support thermal and power needs management of client and infrastructure products.
Knowing when to retire legacy equipment is an important aspect of this analysis to ensure legacy systems are securely and responsibly recycled. It’s important to work with a partner that protects your sensitive data, looks for reuse and refurbishment opportunities to drive a more circular economy, and that is able to reclaim precious, recyclable materials at end-of-life.
3. Consolidate hardware to do more with less
Hardware consolidation is one of the best ways to reduce carbon emissions and the physical footprint of data centres. According to a recent Forrester study commissioned by Dell Technologies, businesses overprovision their storage environment by an average of 37%, suggesting a good number of customers could realise benefits through consolidation. By reducing data, increasing drive density and decreasing excess hardware, businesses can modernise in a way that saves costs while supporting the environment. Businesses should also consider ‘as a service’ models and on-demand solutions like Dell APEX. This can eliminate wasteful provisioning by consuming only what is needed, resulting in power savings.