{"id":52510,"date":"2022-11-14T10:01:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T02:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=52510"},"modified":"2022-11-14T10:01:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T02:01:58","slug":"vertiv-sees-energy-use-efficiency-loom-large-as-data-center-industry-turns-to-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2022\/11\/14\/vertiv-sees-energy-use-efficiency-loom-large-as-data-center-industry-turns-to-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Vertiv sees energy use, efficiency loom large as data center industry turns to 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Data centers will experience increased regulation and third-party oversight in 2023 as the world continues to grapple with the industry\u2019s\u00a0rising\u00a0energy and water consumption\u00a0against the backdrop of\u00a0ongoing climate change. The\u00a0intensified\u00a0focus on the overall\u00a0environmental and community\u00a0impact of the data center is one of five industry trends for 2023 identified by the global data center experts at\u00a0Vertiv<\/a>,\u00a0a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe data center industry is growing rapidly as more and more applications require compute and storage, driving a corresponding rapid increase in energy and water use in data center facilities. The industry has understood that pursuing energy and water efficiency aggressively is key for future success and survival,\u201d said Giordano Albertazzi, Vertiv Chief Operating Officer and president, Americas. \u201cIncreased regulation is inevitable and will lead to important innovations across our industry. The process may not always be easy or linear, but it can be navigated with the help of expert data center partners and innovative solutions that can anticipate the changes while meeting the always increasing requirements of the data center applications.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advances in chip design and manufacturing that limited server power consumption through the first decade and a half of the 2000s reached their limits in recent years, and a spike in\u00a0the amount of energy\u00a0servers\u00a0use has followed. In a recent report,\u00a0Silicon heatwave: the looming change in data center climates<\/em><\/a>, the Uptime Institute cited data from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) that showed server power consumption increasing by 266% since 2017. This surge is among\u00a0various\u00a0technical and market forces driving the focus on environmental awareness and sustainability\u00a0in\u00a0several of\u00a0the 2023\u00a0trends identified by\u00a0Vertiv\u2019s experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those trends\u00a0are:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data centers face increasing regulation<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mounting pressures to meet consumer demand for energy and water\u00a0are\u00a0forcing governments at\u00a0all levels\u00a0to take a harder look at\u00a0data centers and their outsized\u00a0consumption\u00a0of those resources.\u00a0Data centers are\u00a0estimated to be\u00a0responsible for\u00a0up to\u00a03% of global electricity consumption\u00a0today and projected to touch\u00a04% by 2030. The average hyperscale facility\u00a0consumes\u00a020-50MW annually \u2013 theoretically enough electricity to power up to 37,000 homes.\u00a0Vertiv\u2019s experts expect this to\u00a0prompt increasing\u00a0governmental\u00a0scrutiny in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s happening in some places already. Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore have taken steps to control data center energy use, and massive data center water consumption \u2013 especially in areas prone to drought \u2013 is likely to\u00a0trigger\u00a0similar scrutiny.\u00a0According to\u00a0the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Department of Energy,\u00a0the\u00a0water usage effectiveness (WUE)\u00a0of\u00a0an average data center\u00a0using evaporative cooling systems\u00a0is 1.8L per kWh.\u00a0That type of\u00a0data center can consume\u00a03-5 million gallons of water per day\u00a0\u2013\u00a0similar to\u00a0the capacity used by\u00a0a city of 30,000-50,000 people.\u00a0The industry will continue to take steps to self-monitor and moderate\u00a0\u2013 including an increasing preference for\u00a0environmentally-friendly thermal designs \u2013\u00a0but 2023 will see\u00a0increases in\u00a0regulatory oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hyperscalers and others shop off the rack<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a recent Omdia survey, 99% of enterprise data center operators say prefabricated, modular data center designs will be a part of their future data center strategy. That\u2019s more than a trend; it\u2019s the new normal. In 2023, Vertiv\u2019s experts anticipate a continuing shift in the same direction among hyperscalers as they seek the speed and efficiencies standardization delivers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a newer concept for the world\u2019s leading cloud providers, and\u00a0they\u2019re turning to colocation providers\u00a0\u2013 who have been standardizing for years \u2013 to make it happen. Specifically, those cloud providers are\u00a0outsourcing their new builds to\u00a0colos\u00a0to\u00a0leverage their\u00a0in-market expertise,\u00a0proven\u00a0repeatability,\u00a0and speed of deployment. In short order, standardization \u2013 ranging from modular components, such as power and cooling modules and skids, to full-fledged prefabricated facilities \u2013 will become the default approach not just for the enterprise, but also hyperscale\u00a0and\u00a0the edge of the network.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diesel generators see real competition<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diesel generator has long been an imperfect but inescapable piece of the data center ecosystem. It represents stored energy that largely goes unused while still requiring maintenance or fuel replacement after periods of inactivity. Then, when pressed into service, generators produce carbon emissions operators are desperately trying to avoid. Already, some organizations are relying on batteries for longer load support \u2013 up to five minutes in some cases \u2013 and even designing their data centers with minimal generator capacity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are transitional steps to minimize the role of the generator as the industry searches for other options \u2013 including new battery technologies \u2013 for extended backup power. In 2023, Vertiv\u2019s experts anticipate a preferred alternative will emerge \u2013 specifically hydrogen fuel cells. These fuel cells will function much like a generator at first, providing momentary load support, and eventually hold promise for sustained or even continuous operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher densities alter thermal strategies<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of relatively static rack densities, data center operators are increasingly requesting higher-density racks.\u00a0According to the\u00a0Uptime Institute\u2019s 2022 Global Data Center Survey, more than a third of data center operators say their rack densities have rapidly increased in the past three years.\u00a0This is especially true among larger enterprise and hyperscale\u00a0data centers, where\u00a0nearly half of those operating\u00a0facilities\u00a0at 10MW and above reported\u00a0racks above 20kW and 20%\u00a0claimed racks\u00a0higher than 40kW.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is consistent with the maturity of liquid-cooled server technologies and increasing acceptance and adoption of such technologies. The aforementioned increases in server power consumption are happening as the need to add capacity quickly is growing, challenging operators from all sides. This leaves them little choice but to explore the boundaries of existing facilities by adding computing in tight spaces, increasing rack densities, and creating thermal profiles that require liquid cooling. While liquid cooling is not a new technology, the early wave of successful, efficient, problem-free deployments in high-density environments has provided proof of concept that will boost adoption in the coming year. The addition of direct-to-chip cooling to new OCP and Open19 standards will only accelerate this trend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5G meets the metaverse at the edge<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omdia, in its\u00a02022 Mobile Subscription and Revenue Forecast,\u00a0projects\u00a0nearly half of all mobile subscriptions \u2013 more than 5.8 billion \u2013 to be 5G\u00a0by 2027, pushing\u00a0computing closer and closer to the user. The metaverse is an application in search of an ultra-dense, low-latency computing network. In 2023, we\u2019ll see these two activities intersect, with metaverse implementations leveraging 5G networks to enable the ultra-low latency\u00a0features the application demands. Ultimately, this will require higher powered computing in those 5G edge locations, and we\u2019ll see that happening soon \u2013 with early forays in 2023 followed by more widespread deployments in the years after.\u00a0As the edge of the network becomes more sophisticated, so will the infrastructure needed to support it. This will include\u00a0technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality planning and management systems and\u00a0increased adoption of lithium-ion UPS systems\u00a0at the\u00a0edge\u00a0\u2013 an ongoing trend that saw share increase from 2% of sales in August 2021 to 8% in August 2022, according to IDC.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data centers will experience increased regulation and third-party oversight in 2023 as the world continues to grapple with the industry\u2019s rising energy and water consumption against the backdrop of ongoing climate change. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":45539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[96,2727,1656,4266],"class_list":["post-52510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-technology","tag-technology-adaption","tag-technology-investment","tag-vertiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}