HYPERSCALE
“ The hyperscale market will likely not become a poster child for sustainable processes ”
— Andreas Limpak , director , solutions engineering , NetApp
34 to power more than 50,000 homes . Whether or not the sheer amount of power these facilities demand can be reconciled with a need for drastic climate action is the greatest challenge the industry faces today .
According to Donoghue , hyperscalers have the potential to be a part of the solution , rather than the problem . “ Hyperscale operators have always led the way in terms of sustainability ,” he told us , noting that their more uniform workloads mean that they tend to support a narrower range of applications compared to an enterprise facility . “ Consequently , they can be designed to support those workloads in a very efficient and sustainable way ,” he said . “ They also benefit from large scale and well-funded owners who can invest in mechanisms like power purchase agreements for renewable energy .” Large scale sustainability projects in the data centre industry do tend to stem from the hyperscale end of the market , with companies like Google , Apple and Microsoft all making bold pledges towards carbon neutrality in their data centre operations this year already .
Vertiv has recently partnered with Honeywell on a portfolio of solutions to make it easier for data centre operators
DECEMBER 2020