DIGITAL REALTY
Growing Green “ The energy consumption of data centres has gained much attention in APAC due to the extent of their carbon emissions ,” says Fong . “ According to a major local telco in Singapore , almost 7 % of the total energy used in the country comes from data centres . That is a significantly higher percentage than the 1-2 % average you see in the rest of the world .”
If APAC is to balance astronomical growth with sweeping sustainable change , its data centre operators need to think , build and run green . Digital Realty ’ s approach to increasing its sustainability in APAC is firmly rooted in its efficiency commitments .
Fong explains that the company is “ Deploying better technologies to improve cooling , improving the energy utilisation of facilities and IT systems , and adopting ‘ smart ’ approaches and AI to identify where energy can be reduced .” He adds that , “ We prioritise innovations in cooling efficiency because 35-40 % of total energy consumed by data centres is used to run energy-intensive cooling equipment .” In Southeast Asia , more than 95 % of data centres still use air-based cooling , a highly inefficient system from the days when facility management more or less boiled down to the mantra “ keep it as cool as possible and don ’ t worry about the costs ”. Fong explains that , for Digital Realty , “ Liquid cooling technology is considered to be the preferred solution to effectively cool down heat-intensive CPUs and SSDs ,” noting that modern liquid cooling systems “ can reduce power consumption by 20-30 % and water usage by up to 50 %.”
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The Road Ahead The coming year will be one of simultaneous , sustained growth and expansion for Digital Realty in APAC , as new data centres open across the region , leading to new opportunities for stakeholders , partners and customers alike . Looking to the months ahead , Fong and his team have lofty ambitions , and every intention of achieving them . “ We aim to propel Digital Realty to become the recognised data centre leader across APAC ,” he says . “ We ’ re also aiming to seamlessly execute our expansion efforts in Hong Kong , Japan and Singapore , as well as opening our first facility in South Korea .”
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