Lessons Learned Leading a CEBIT Workshop

“Cooperation is Key” was the message Techbuyer got from the workshop we ran at CEBIT’s 360 Lounge this June. The theme –  how can we live more sustainably in our data centres –  brought together diverse industry specialists from generator suppliers to consultants concerned with creating quality standards across the whole of the data centre industry, academics, a representative from the German Federal Environment Ministry, giants like Rittal and Schneider and much smaller companies like ours.

It was wonderful to see such a diverse range of people come together and discuss ways we can make the industry more sustainable. We learned a lot about how the whole ecosystem works and issues that need to be discussed. These included energy spikes from CPU usage, which we had never heard of before. Following the presentations, we were given the chance to continue the discussion with a series of workshops, one of which we led. We found the results of the discussion really interesting and wanted to share some of them here.

Complex organisms

Building, maintaining and managing the engines at the heart of the digital revolution is a complex operation which requires continuous knowledge refresh from all those involved, whether it is suppliers of the physical security technology, cooling equipment, software design or energy supply. The challenge lies in helping all these diverse skill sets to work together to make sure we make the best choices going forward for sustainable growth in data centres worldwide.

Dwindling supply

 As a refurbished supplier of servers, storage and networking, Techbuyer’s sustainability focus is on extending product life and understanding the value of the goods we keep in use. We spend a lot of time researching what goes into servers, what the options are when it comes to recycling and how much energy is saved by reusing equipment that has such a high carbon cost of manufacture. Conservative estimates are that 10% of servers, storage and networking introduced into data centres are refurbished but we firmly believe that figure is not high enough given how long the products last.

Finding another way

Looking at companies like Google, who are public about using 75% refurbished parts in their spares programme, and the large manufacturers, who use both refurbished and new parts in their maintenance contracts, there has to be a higher reuse opportunity than industry currently takes. We found out at the workshop that this is true of other forms of equipment, not just servers, storage and network. A power supplier told us that generator sets last for a long time, up to 10 years, and is often refurbished for use again. The question is how we can extend on that, think about remanufacture and designs that enable the equipment to be recycled without losing any of the materials inside.

Oversight is important. With the sector still relatively young and experiencing rapid change and development, one consultancy explained that their company focus is on designing training and quality systems that bring all this innovation into a working ecosystem.

Attendees also suggested some innovative ways of dealing with the energy spikes that exist in the market. Running servers at a low percentage of their capacity is an inefficient use of energy because we get less computing for the power used. However, the system has to cope with spikes in usage from CPUs in particular so running the building without spare capacity is not safe. Meshing individual data centres into a grid would help with this so that spare capacity from one site could be used for one with spiking in power usage. It’s a fascinating idea which just goes to show how much there is to be learned by industry coming together.