If you're wondering what a data center is and why it can harm the environment, then you've come to the right place.
What is Data Center?
Data Center is a network of systems that collects, processes, and stores data. The data center is very important for every organization to store and process the software, transaction, and information.
Companies or organizations that need to keep their IT infrastructure running 24/7 at all times typically operate data centers. Without them, businesses would be unable to function properly or even exist at all in some cases.
The data center industry is expected to grow by 7% annually over the next 5 years, which means there will be more than 50 million servers deployed worldwide.
Data centers can also be expensive to run because they need special cooling systems to protect their equipment from overheating.
In addition to their high cost, data centers consume significant amounts of energy and water. Data center energy usage is growing at twice the rate of IT hardware growth.
According to the Uptime Institute, by 2022 data center electricity consumption grow 50 percent faster than IT hardware growth rates.
As more companies move into multi-tenant data center facilities, water use is also increasing dramatically.
How Do Data Centers Impact the Environment?
The data center is usually built in a building or a room where thousands of computers and other items like servers are located.
To maintain the temperature of the data center, data centers have huge cooling systems installed on them which help in cooling down the temperature inside the data center.
Data centers are one of the largest consumers of energy in a business. This is due to the number of servers, storage, and networking equipment that are required to run the business.
These servers can consume thousands of watts per rack, and thousands of racks may be in use at any given time. In addition, many data centers have raised floors, which allow for easier maintenance and cabling but also raise the temperature in certain areas within the facility.
The energy used by data centers has many direct impacts on the environment. The most common ways that these impacts manifest themselves are:
Increased Carbon Emissions
Data centers consume approximately 2% of all electricity used in the world today and this figure is expected to grow to 5% by 2020. As a result, they have become an important target for reducing overall CO2 emissions.
Data centers are responsible for more than $7 billion in energy costs annually and consume approximately 1% of all energy produced globally each year. They account for more than 2% of all carbon emissions worldwide!
Reducing the environmental impact of these facilities is important for both cost savings and sustainability reasons.
Energy-efficient equipment such as variable speed drives for cooling pumps and variable frequency drives for fans or pumps can reduce data center power use by installing them.
Water Pollution
The most obvious way in which data centers can pollute water supplies is through leaks from the cooling systems. Leaks in cooling towers can waste significant amounts of water or even contaminate it with chemicals used in the process.
Another significant source of pollution comes from cooling towers themselves. As mentioned above, cooling towers use large amounts of water but they also release dirty water back into rivers and streams as part of their operation.
This dirty water contains chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine, and bromine which can have a damaging effect on local ecosystems when they're released into waterways naturally or through human error like accidental spills or leaks in equipment.
Conclusion:
Data centers are the backbone of today's digital economy. They are repositories that store everything from personal information to business transactions.
Data centers have become an integral part of our daily lives, but they're also an enormous expense for companies that rely on them. In fact, according to a recent study by McKinsey.
Company, data center infrastructure costs account for more than one-third of all IT spending at large enterprises (those with at least $500 million in annual revenue).
Data center power usage is the single largest operational expense for most data centers. By optimizing power usage, you can cut costs significantly and reduce your carbon footprint.
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