What will the datacentre look like in the future? Will the ever-increasing demand for IT resources mean that power consumption will rise to dizzying heights? Will server-room design change? More importantly – a challenge that is faced by all datacentre operators – what measures can we put in place now to ensure that they operate as efficiently as possible? The short answer is that measures will focus on two areas in particular: making equipment more energy-efficient and making better use of renewable energy.

According to the recent Data Center 2025 survey from Emerson Power Networks, while most industry observers think that datacentres will became more efficient, nearly 30% of respondents thought that they would use more energy. This is rather surprising when you consider that 84% of respondents believe that infrastructure equipment will become more efficient, while 67% of them believe IT equipment will become more efficient.
There’s a bit of a disconnect there: one that’s even more surprising given the acceptance that renewable energy will start playing a bigger part. Respondents think that 21% of datacentres power will be solar-derived, a big leap from the one per cent that is currently powered by solar energy. Respondents see similar big rises for wind, thermal and hydro power, all indications that renewable energy is set to have a big impact on datacentres.
There’s certainly been a global drive to ensure that datacentres are designed to work more efficiently. The European Union is working particularly hard to improve the way datacentres operate and has instigated no fewer than six separate projects aimed at optimising the performance of datacentres: DOLFIN, GENiC, GEYSER, Green Data Net, DC4Cities and RenewIT.

Article by Max Cooter on November 27 2014.

Read more