Infrastructure monitoring: The datadriven path to efficiency
Modern monitoring platforms offer granular insight into how much power
Chris Carriero, CTO, Park Place Technologies
and cooling various systems require. These tools give CIOs the ability to make real-time adjustments, balance workloads more intelligently and detect inefficiencies before they compound.
This visibility is also becoming critical for compliance. With the introduction of reporting mandates like the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive( CSRD), CIOs must be ready to measure and communicate their IT-related environmental impacts – something continuous monitoring makes far more manageable.
Extending the lifecycle: A strategic sustainability lever
Traditionalists believe that shortened hardware refresh cycles ensure performance, but this mindset is shifting. Replacing equipment every three to five years creates not only financial strain but also a significant environmental burden – both from e-waste and the carbon emissions tied to manufacturing.
Progressive CIOs are now taking a more measured approach. Extending the life cycle of hardware through third-party maintenance, firmware updates and modular upgrades allows organisations to reduce their environmental footprint without compromising performance. Some enterprises are formalising this with internal policies or third-party audits that assess equipment health and identify opportunities to defer refreshes responsibly.
This aligns closely with the EU’ s push toward a circular economy. By keeping hardware in use longer and designing for repairability and reuse, IT departments can play a key role in reducing overall resource consumption.
Smarter hardware choices: Energy efficiency at the core
When it does come time to procure new equipment, CIOs today are more likely to consider the energy implications of their choices. Whether it’ s energy-efficient processors, low-power storage options, modular chassis designs, or graduating from OEM management contracts, the hardware decisions made in procurement can set the tone for an IT environment’ s long-term sustainability.
Enterprise procurement teams are increasingly using third-party certifications such as TCO Certified, Energy Star and
EPEAT to guide purchasing decisions. These standards reflect energy efficiency and consider factors like material sourcing, lifecycle emissions and recyclability.
Furthermore, the shift toward modular hardware is helping organisations reduce waste and cost by upgrading only what’ s necessary rather than replacing entire systems.
Innovation Spotlight: Liquid cooling
Cooling has always been one of the most energy-intensive aspects of running highperformance computing environments. But innovations in liquid cooling are changing this dialogue.
Liquid cooling was once confined to niche research centres, but is now seeing broader adoption in enterprise data centres across Europe. By circulating a liquid coolant directly to high-heat components, these systems can remove heat more efficiently than traditional air cooling; this typically uses significantly less energy in the process.
This technology is particularly beneficial for environments with dense computing workloads, such as AI / ML training clusters or advanced simulation platforms. Beyond energy savings, liquid cooling can also reduce reliance on noisy, space-consuming air handlers and allow for greater compute density per rack – an added bonus as physical space becomes more valuable.
CIOs evaluating liquid cooling must consider retrofitting costs, maintenance and thermal design, but the long-term
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