Digital Sobriety Part 2 Reducing the Impact of Data Centres

Following on from our article published by IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment), the professional body for everyone working, studying or interested in the environment and sustainability. 

The issue of sustainability and our digital environmental footprint is close to our hearts here at Techbuyer. Given that digital sobriety is the pragmatic way to prevent the explosion of our digital environmental footprint, it’s useful to look at what data centres are and how they impact on the environment.

Data centres, the groups of buildings housing most of the world’s servers – are in large part responsible for transmitting and receiving data which keep our online services operational. These homes of the digital world are set to grow by 500% by 2050 and have a significant energy and material cost.

According to The Shift Project, data centres are responsible for 19% of energy consumption within the digital sector; the manufacture, transport and assembly of digital devices could be as much as 50%. Optimising energy efficiency and, whilst at the same time limiting our purchase of new technology is crucial to sustainability. The sector is becoming more aware of this by looking at efficiency and hardware reuse, refurbishment. The trick is to get the correct balance between the two: high grade enough to be energy efficient but also to incorporate as much reuse as possible. Google have been doing this since 2015. We want to help enterprise data centres follow suit. So, we set up a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to explore energy efficiency with new refurbished machines.

Working in liaison with the University of East London, Techbuyer carried out two years of research to analyse IT energy efficiency in the data centre with new and refurbished hardware. We found that new and refurbished machines perform identically in terms of performance and energy draw. We also found that an older generation can outperform new with the correct upgrades. In many cases, the best solution involves upgrading or using refurbished machines, which reduces the use of precious materials and saves money for the organisation. It all boils down to thinking about what you need and then building the best system to get you there. This approach has been in our DNA from the beginning.

Key Points:

• Digital sobriety will be key in reducing the impact of the global environmental footprint made by the IT sector.
• The anticipated growth of data centres by 500% by 2050 urges action to be taken now to reduce our collective carbon footprint. The re-use of material resources will be imperative in ensuring that targets are met.
• The consumption of fossil fuels can be reduced by a shift in thinking and a change in working practices. Re-using materials will bring about significant positive change.
• Cutting edge research is currently directing our work in the area of sustainability, presenting findings which will lead to both efficient and cost-effective solutions.