EDITOR’S QUESTION
Although data centre performance
demands continue to skyrocket,
operational cost budgets have
remained flat or have even
shrunk, forcing data centre
operators to do more with
less and find ways to
get more performance
with limited power
resources, all while
lowering their
carbon footprint.
Even though there
have been steps in the
right direction towards
a more sustainable data
centre industry, many
operators or facility owners
have focused on their individual
goals, as opposed to working
together to share best practice and
find the best way to move towards a
more sustainable future.
STEPHANE
DUPROZ, CEO
OF AFRICA DATA
CENTRES
windling resources,
ever-growing amounts
of data, rising energy
costs and consumption
demands for computing
remain top concerns
for data centre operators across the
board. Add to that the slew of new
technologies such as analytics and
Artificial Intelligence, which demands
greater power to support their massive
workloads and it’s easy to understand
why data centre sustainability is a global
challenge affecting businesses, countries
and workloads. However, there is no ‘silver
bullet’ solution.
D
32
Issue 12
Greater transparency in sustainable
practices among data centre industry
players will go a long way towards
bettering collaboration to find ways
to reduce the currently rising carbon
emissions in the industry. Bear in
mind that technological innovation is
happening at an unprecedented rate, so
the industry needs to work together to
find solutions to be more mindful of our
planet and environment.
Ultimately, the growth in the amount of
data requires data centre providers to join
forces with governments and players in
the sustainable energy sector, rather than
working alone. Together, we can work
towards a future of renewable energy
to build a more sustainable industry,
which includes doing our best to meet
sustainability goals, using more natural
sources of energy such as solar, hydro,
wind and encouraging energy suppliers to
do the same.
The need for data centre operators to
collaborate with energy providers and
public sector organisations to ensure
our use of sustainable energy has never
been greater – it is the only way we can
ensure that our growing dependence on
technology for both our business and
personal lives is sustainable.
Moreover, all data centre operators
should bear environmental factors in
mind throughout the design process
and from the ground up. These factors,
while including power and cooling, need
to expand beyond these to include more
innovative ways to go greener.
At Africa Data Centres, we believe in
doing our part towards greener energy
goals. Since March last year, the solar
project on the roof of our facility in
Nairobi has 136 kWh already operational
and producing 193 200 kWh of solar
energy per year and to date, we have
been generating clean solar power in line
with all our system projections.
We are also in the process of constructing
a 10MW project at our Johannesburg
Campus, which also houses our
Johannesburg facility.
We aim to operate extremely efficient
data centres, source as much low carbon
and renewable energy as possible and
always look to expand our partnerships
with government and energy providers. ◊
THE GROWTH IN
THE AMOUNT OF
DATA REQUIRES
DATA CENTRE
PROVIDERS
TO JOIN
FORCES WITH
GOVERNMENTS
AND PLAYERS
IN THE
SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY
SECTOR,
RATHER THAN
WORKING
ALONE.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com