How do data centers deal with power shortages and security of supply?
Data is a valuable commodity. But are data and applications available without interruption even in times of power shortages? How do data center operators deal with the energy crisis and what impact does it have on companies?
Today, no company can do without data. The demands on availability and security of systems, increased efficiency, sustainability and ultimately also on data management have increased enormously. Data centers, which house a large number of systems and thus also store huge amounts of data, must be fully prepared for emergencies and interruptions, including power shortages, and ensure seamless operation. At the end of October 2022, Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer also gained an insight into how Green, as the leading Swiss data center provider, ensures business continuity and sustainable data center operations.
Rising demand
Due to increasing demand, international cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft are also building their own cloud regions in Switzerland in data centers of large providers. Not only hyperscalers are expanding, but also large companies and SMEs are taking advantage of modern and energy-safe data centers. From SMEs to large enterprises, everyone is on the journey to the cloud. Switzerland as a data center plays a central role in this. Ueli Maurer sees this as a great opportunity for Switzerland. For this reason, he says, policymakers must do everything they can to continue to guarantee legal certainty and ensure the reliability of system stability.
High degree of operational reliability
Green is also feeling the strong demand. In the last three years, Green has more than doubled its capacity. Many companies are moving their own server rooms and systems to external data centers or directly to the public cloud. By outsourcing to Green, they benefit from increased security, energy-efficient management, comprehensive data connections, the necessary specialist staff and a secure energy supply.
"At Green, companies have always benefited from an infrastructure that is designed for seamless and energy-efficient operation," explains Roger Süess, CEO of Green, during the tour of the Green Datacenter in Lupfig. "Our emergency power supply is part of our security concept. At all our sites, it consists of UPS systems backed up by batteries, diesel generators, diesel supplies and secured supply chains," explains Andrea Campomilla, COO responsible for the datacenters at Green. This compensates for interruptions and ensures seamless operations.
Data centers are not part of the problem, but part of the solution
In connection with the energy crisis, the question quickly arose as to whether data centers, as major energy consumers, are not downright energy guzzlers and how and where there is potential for savings. Roger Süess explains: "Over 80 percent of the energy consumption in a data center is attributable to hardware operation. Large data centers are already highly optimized today; they consume less than 20 percent of the total energy consumption for cooling, security and systems. The focus should therefore be on virtualization, more efficient hardware, or the outsourcing of systems. Studies show that older corporate data centers in particular could save up to 46 percent energy during operation. They often cool too much, are poorly optimized and do not implement new concepts such as the use of waste heat as heating, natural cooling with ambient air (freecooling) and targeted cooling. These factors have a very large potential for consumption optimization: At Green, waste heat recovery at the new site in Dielsdorf will supply around 3,500 households as well as industry and commerce with heating and process heat. Since the heat network is designed as a closed-loop system, it supplies cooling back to Green. This reduces the cooling effort in the data center and saves energy. All Green data centers use freecooling over 300 days a year, and servers are enclosed to ensure efficient cooling. In addition, Green continuously invests in optimizing energy efficiency with new concepts and equipment, operational optimization, and the use of renewable energy for data center operations.
How data centers can become power plants
Ueli Maurer sees an interesting benefit of the extensive and expensive emergency power supply of data centers in connection with power shortages: "When we have a power shortage, we need everyone. That's where data centers can make a very important contribution. They have a lot of capacity that they could feed in." Making the existing diesel generators available during a power shortage situation is a concept Green is positive about and is already in close contact with the relevant authorities and the balancing power pool. "The generators are already prepared and could be used in an emergency," says Roger Süess. Green is already supporting the tertiary energy network with the emergency power plant. As soon as the relevant ordinances and details have been clarified, Green can feed energy into the grid with the emergency power supply system. And thus support the energy supply as well as stabilize the grid. "Data centers are part of the solution, and we are ready to help in the crisis situation," Roger Süess states.
The energy crisis affects all companies and raises many questions about secure supply. It is likely to lead to a further acceleration in the outsourcing of IT systems and data centers. It is becoming less attractive for companies to be responsible for security, energy efficiency and security of supply themselves.
Source: Green.ch
