< PreviousAiredale by Modine has announced the launch of its Cooling System Optimiser solution – a sophisticated controls package that delivers optimal performance across entire chilled water cooling systems in large data centres. This launch is in response to industry demand for sustainable, stable and secure cooling, as facilities move towards complex variable-flow primary-only chilled water systems. Leveraging the benefits of single-loop water cooling systems as well as remaining compatible with a primary/secondary water system setup, the Cooling System Optimiser is designed to ensure data centre cooling equipment like chillers and CRAHs work in harmony, to deliver the required cooling, maintain redundancy levels and increase resilience, all at the lowest possible energy outlay. The solution has been developed in response to operators struggling to correctly optimise variable-flow chilled water systems with traditional Building Management Systems (BMS). As chillers and CRAHs get larger, reflecting the growth in data centre facilities in general, chilled water systems need robust, intelligent controls in order to manage and optimise dynamic supply and demand in real time. Cooling System Optimiser creates an additional controls layer in between the product controls and the BMS, using PLC-based deterministic controllers to “stretch” intelligence across chillers and CRAHs to ensure that operational decisions are taken based on the system as a whole, rather than what inputs the individual product is receiving. AT CRAH level, additional sensors are deployed to ensure conditions at rack level are the basis for cooling decisions. The number one priority for the Cooling System Optimiser is maintaining the white space within SLA by keeping server-inlet air temperatures stable and within defined parameters. Beyond that, redundancy and energy use Airedale Launch Dedicated Cooling Optimiser Solution in Response to Evolving Data Centre Designs SolarWinds Observability Provides Visibility SolarWinds has announced the launch of SolarWinds Observability, a fully-integrated, cloud-native SaaS offering that provides unified and comprehensive visibility for today’s modern, distributed, hybrid and multi-cloud IT environments. SolarWinds Observability enables customers to accelerate digital transformation through powerful machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that make it easy to manage highly complex IT environments. The new SaaS platform blends SolarWinds observability solutions across network, infrastructure, systems, application, database, digital experience, and log monitoring in one end-to-end solution across private and public clouds with single-pane-of-glass visibility. SolarWinds Observability is built for IT Ops and DevOps teams, developers, cloud architects and IT executives to achieve optimum performance, compliance and resilience by providing actionable business insights needed to identify and remediate issues. The shift to the cloud, hybrid IT, remote workforces, and the introduction of new tech tools has resulted in increasingly complex IT environments for organisations around the world and, as a result, technology professionals have now reduced visibility into their networks, applications and infrastructures. PulsantFlex Simplifies Digital Transformation Pulsant has unveiled PulsantFlex – a new solution designed to make digital transformation far simpler, less costly and more flexible. The new PulsantFlex solution enables organisations to migrate into the cloud whenever is convenient to meet the new requirements of hybrid work patterns, distributed IT or the deployment of new applications and business models. Designed with simplicity in mind, PulsantFlex makes it easy to move applications from colocation environments into the Pulsant Cloud. Organisations gain the flexibility they need to prepare for the advances of edge computing and the growth of Software-as-a- Service applications, processing data close to where it is generated. Businesses also benefit from access to hybrid environments. Applications that are unsuitable for cloud deployment for security reasons can be hosted with colocation, while others can be based in Pulsant Cloud for scalability. This gives organisations the opportunity to undertake digital transformation strategies at a pace that suits them. PulsantFlex eliminates the complexities of multiple contracts and billing entities as organisations adopt new applications or services. Organisations can focus on successful IT transformation without the distraction of setting up new contracts. are then optimised. By operating in harmony, CRAHs can eliminate hot spots and reduce their fan speeds to deliver energy savings. At chiller level, additional controllers are added to each control cabinet, with a multi-master controller, managing communications across the created chiller network and between chillers and CRAHs. The chillers are programmed to operate in unison, ensuring that the water flow and temperature reaching CRAHs is exactly what is required, not what the chiller is designed to produce. Free cooling and chiller staging are also managed and optimised. Reece Thomas, Controls Product Manager at Airedale said, “While the BMS has an important role to play as a holistic monitoring and reporting tool, it can lack the ability to fully optimise precise, complex systems. We have developed the Cooling System Optimiser in response to demand for a deterministic control system that can proactively manage the three most important things in any data centre cooling system: resilience, redundancy and energy use.” NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 10STACK Infrastructure ("STACK") has announced plans to develop an 80MW data centre campus in Frankfurt (Liederbach), Germany. The new site will enable STACK to fulfil strategic client requirements and provide essential capacity in the city’s constrained data centre market. STACK acquired the 70,000sqm (17acre) site from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Deutschland (CCEP DE), who had operated a bottling and distribution plant at the location for more than 50 years. STACK worked closely with CCEP DE to obtain the property while also collaborating extensively with the Municipality of Liederbach to foster valuable local relationships and a shared vision for its advanced data centre campus. Focused on energy efficiency and sustainability, the campus will accommodate four facilities which will contribute to a circular economy through the deployment of innovative green technologies such as rainwater harvesting and the provision of excess heat to a proposed local residential development. “STACK prides itself on being a trusted partner to our clients. We recognize that there is an overwhelming demand for fast, flexible, resilient, and efficient data centre infrastructure in Frankfurt, so we’ve taken up the call to deliver exactly what our clients expect,” said John Eland, CEO of STACK EMEA. “We relish the opportunity to be a positive force in the local community while delivering world-class solutions backed by STACK’s global platform.” “The Municipality of Liederbach is proud to welcome its first data centre campus and to facilitate an ever more connected world,” said Eva Söllner, Mayor of Liederbach. “We are confident that STACK will bring several short- and long-term advantages as well as new perspectives to our town and the area so we welcome them and look forward to supporting their growth.” STACK Infrastructure to Expand EMEA Footprint into Frankfurt nVent Launches Innovative and Space Saving Smart RackPower PDU nVent has announced Smart RackPower PDU, an innovative intelligent rack-mounted PDU solution enabling operators to control power in data cabinets, open frame racks and wall-mount enclosures. Smart RackPower PDU features an ultra-low profile space-saving design for improved equipment access, easing server room moves, adds and installations as well as providing more room for cabling and reducing obstructions to airflow in the cabinet for more efficient cooling operations. With an operating range up to 60°C, the new PDUs are suitable for increasingly power dense equipment racks in server rooms, data centres and harsh environments. Available in different configurations to meet a wide range of requirements, the nVent Smart RackPower PDU line-up provides sophisticated models with options for PDU energy metering, outlet level switching and outlet level energy metering. Users can choose the features they need to optimise power at the rack level, from network management and access control, to remote power control at each individual outlet, customisable alarm thresholds and notifications, and high accuracy, billing grade metering to ISO/ IEC62053-21. The high-end RackPower PDUs are complete with nVent’s advanced Network Management Controller (NMC). Based on a ARM A5 processor, the NMC is hot-swappable with toolless installation, giving options for top or bottom mounting as well as display rotation to maximise visibility of data. The MNC includes a USB-C port for future-proof upgrades and expanded sensor support, a Gigabit Ethernet primary network connection and 10/100 Ethernet for redundant networks, dual bandwidth access and high bandwidth cascading. nVent Smart RackPower PDUs enable IP cascading with up to 64 PDUs – the most of any PDU on the market – able to be accessed and managed using a single IP address. Cascading enables ease of management and maintenance as well as reducing cabling and connections. Other features of nVent Smart RackPower PDUs include flexible and future proof 2-in-1 and 4-in-1 combo outlets, user defined electronic colour coding for easy power source identification, two-way DC power sharing for always-on network management and alarms, and extensive environmental monitoring and access control options with plug and play support for up to eight digital sensors. Supporting the Next Generation of Data Centre Engineers Kao Data has joined University Technical College (UTC), Heathrow’s Digital Futures Programme to help support and educate the next data centre engineer. Following the launch of the Kao Academy in May 2022, which was recently nominated for an Open:UK Award, the partnership is a further demonstration of Kao Data’s continued commitment to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning, and builds upon the company’s strategy to help bridge the data centre industry skills gap. As a partner, Kao Data will help support the professional education of students between ages 14-19, sharing its teams’ technical expertise across the spectrum of data centre design, engineering and operations. This will include the impact of innovative technologies such as high performance computing and artificial intelligence on data centre design, and how both computer-aided design software and Computational Fluid Dynamics influence energy efficiency. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 11congatec has introduced its new ecosystem for TSN aimed at networked factories and critical infrastructures. The goal of the comprehensive edge computing platform portfolio for TSN is to make it as easy for real-time solution providers to build time sensitive networks for smart factory and critical infrastructure operato deploying standard Ethernet infrastructures. Such entirely connected solutions need secure, real-time gateway technologies to connect the brownfield and real-time clouds – both synchronised via Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) for various real-time services. The congatec solution platforms are prepared for reliable, low-latency communication at the edge and include Real-Time Hypervisor support for deterministic and secure data processing and data exchange between the devices and real-time clouds in harsh industrial environments. Target applications of the new TSN enabled ecosystem include industrial manufacturing, healthcare, energy and utilities, transportation and logistics, aerospace, government, and public safety. “All the various real-time connected industries must support high-bandwidth and low-latency communication from the devices to the real-time clouds and back again. Providers of such end-to-end solutions need highly homogeneous solution platforms along these data supply chains, from the edge servers of the network infrastructure to the distributed and mobile devices, to make implementation as easy as possible. congatec provides everything needed for such all-encompassing solution platforms – including all interface options to connect the distributed equipment and its peripherals and I/Os via 100Base-T1,” explained Christian Eder, Director Product Management at congatec. congatec’s new TSN enabled edge computing ecosystem spans the entire range of latest Computer-on-Modules supporting even real-time enabled 5G cellular connectivity for real-time 5G clients and gateways, as well as server-grade real-time cloud and base station Server-on-Modules. All those modules are TSN enabled, support Real-Time Hypervisor technology and are prepared to host any third-party real-time enabled cellular 5G connectivity. OEMs can utilise these platforms to deploy their real-time applications in pre- configured real-time virtual machines, focusing all their attention on the development of the application instead of having to concern themselves with the specific settings required to enable the hardware to communicate via TSN. For local wired infrastructures between servers and clients, TSN-enabled smart switching platforms are available as well. Personal integration support and training programs on how to implement IEEE 802.1 Qbv compliant TSN clock synchronisation and time-triggered communication round off congatec’s TSN ecosystem offering. congatec Introduces Its Ecosystem for TSN Networked Real-Time Factories and Critical Infrastructures Schneider Electric's Research Studies that Reveal Sustainability Action Gap Schneider Electric has commissioned two independent research studies focused on sustainability in IT and data centre operations, and the results reveal a disconnect between intent and action, indicating most of the industry is still at the beginning stage of its sustainability journey. The two studies were conducted by industry leading analysts at 451 Research and Forrester. They collected data from nearly 3,000 global participants, including the largest colocation and cloud providers, and IT professionals across many segments and organisation sizes. The 451 Research paper revealed a perception-versus-reality dilemma with many enterprise organisations believing their sustainability programs are more advanced than they are, as “the maturity evaluations of nearly half of respondents (48%) did not match a previous answer.” The Forrester paper focused on colocation and found 73% of organisations ranked sustainability as their #2 business priority, but only 33% said they have created a strategic sustainability plan. “The research clearly demonstrates that across the data centre and IT industry, there is a sustainability action gap – the intention appears to be there, but action is lacking,” said Pankaj Sharma, EVP of the Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric. “Of course, IT professionals understand and have taken steps to address sustainability. But what we lack, with some exception, is comprehensive and supported sustainability action plans and measurable targets to create the change required to address the climate crisis. These two research papers have documented a sustainability action gap and that is our collective challenge to address. Understanding the status of industry-wide sustainability initiatives, Schneider Electric commissioned the two independent research studies, which were designed to help the industry better understand the maturity of sustainability initiatives. Researchers determined many enterprises believe they are further along in their sustainability journey than they actually are. For this group, the main driver of sustainability is business value, and firms start with measuring energy usage then expand into other sustainability metrics and tools. The greatest challenges in their sustainability journeys include optimising energy usage, followed by obtaining consistent data and metrics (for leaders/ advanced firms) and lacking skilled staff (for starter organisations). NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 12HARTING has launched an expanded range of products to support and boost its Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) infrastructure. Semiconductor PHY chipsets, magnetics, cable and piece part mating cable, and pcb connector parts are now available. The range includes straight vertical pcb mounting female connectors, alongside its right angle 'letterbox’ design. These new Through Hole Reflow (THR) parts are fully compatible with HARTING’s M12 range of housings for panel fixing and cable mating. Automation device designers can now benefit from the key features of this new technology by designing it into future iterations of their products. Today, sensors and actuators in the field, are usually connected via proprietary fieldbus or analogue systems. With SPE, there is now the option to connect these devices with Ethernet, the ‘open’ data transmission standard, over a single twisted pair cable. This saves space, reduces device design costs, removes the need for extra Gateways and simplifies installation. HARTING Expands SPE Infrastructure The leading event for the smart buildings sector, Smart Buildings Show, returned to ExCeL London in October and once again attracted visitors from across the industry. The 2022 show boasted over 70 exhibitors, showcasing the latest product innovations, designed to deliver smarter buildings. Over the two day event, 2,283 visitors packed into the exhibition hall and took in presentations from more than 50 leading speakers discussing a diverse range of industry hot topics – from sustainability and ESG to smart building networks and infrastructure. Ian Garmeson, Event Director, commented: “Since launching in 2017, Smart Buildings Show has gone from strength to strength and this year’s 40% increase in attendance reflects the exceptionally high levels of interest in the industry. Thanks to all of our exhibitors, speakers, visitors and sponsors for helping to make Smart Buildings Show the standout event that it is – we look forward to welcoming you all back again next year.” Feedback from visitors and exhibitors has been overwhelmingly positive and many exhibitors have already chosen to rebook stands for next year. Ian Ellis, Siemens Smart Infrastructure, was full of praise for the event and commented: “We had a great couple of days with visitor interest and engagement throughout – exactly what we were hoping for.” Andrea Holbrook, RoofCare Group, was similarly impressed: “We had more visitors to our stand than we’ve ever had before and some of the conversations we had gave us ideas on how we can further develop our products. A great event.” All of the presentations from the 2022 conference programme are now online and can be found at https://smartbuildingsmagazine.com/features/smart-buildings-show- presentations-now-online. Smart Buildings Show will return to ExCeL London on 18-19 October 2023. Smart Buildings Show 2022 Attracts Record Numbers Zymr Establishes London HQ Zymr has announced it is all set to tap into the multi- billion dollar UK market. Founded in 2012, Zymr has been consistently recognised for its breakthrough solutions, strategic insights, and execution excellence. The UK Subsidiary, Zymr Systems UK Ltd, will also become the launch pad for other European Countries where Zymr Inc already has several customers. Europe is jumping into the deep end of the digital revolution and industry leaders want to scale rapidly toward the adoption of cloud technologies to build a safe and secure digital future for all. Ashok Desai, Chief Business Officer, Zymr Inc. said, “Having served 125+ clients, we’re a preferred choice to global ISVs, startups, enterprises and digital businesses, to help them build innovative products leveraging cutting-edge cloud-native, multi-cloud, and open-source technologies, and tools tested and proven with our global customers. We bring well-architected framework knowledge for multi-cloud, multi-tenancy XaaS solutions, thereby accelerating ROI for our new customers.” NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 13 Aerospike Announces Early Availability of Aerospike Cloud Aerospike has announced the early availability of Aerospike Cloud running on AWS. The new Database-as-a-Service solution offers developers and development teams the full power of the multi-model Aerospike Database 6 delivered as an on-demand, pay-as-you-go, fully elastic service. Aerospike Cloud offers easy onboarding and a cost-effective way for developers and data architects to build scalable, real-time applications with a fraction of the servers and operational overhead required with traditional data solutions. “Organisations of all sizes are racing to create applications that leverage real- time data to deliver new business services and enhanced customer experiences,” said Subbu Iyer, CEO of Aerospike. “Aerospike Cloud provides a simple, fast way for enterprise teams to get started with Aerospike 6 and discover unmatched price- performance gains while reducing carbon footprint.” Aerospike Cloud is supported by AWS’s fastest and most performant infrastructure. The result is increased efficiencies with a smaller server footprint to significantly reduce infrastructure costs and carbon footprint. Westermo has introduced a new compact industrial Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch designed to support the ever-growing networking requirements for devices, such as security cameras, wireless access points and monitors. The Lynx 3510 PoE series is capable of supporting networks with greater power demands and is ideal for handling big data, high bandwidth, mission-critical applications typically found within transportation, manufacturing, energy and smart cities. With power and data provided over the same cable, PoE helps to reduce network complexity and offers greater installation flexibility, reliability, and time and cost savings. The Lynx 3510 PoE enhances network capability by supporting the needs of more powered devices, with eight copper ports each providing gigabit speeds and up to 30W output. This is ideal for connecting HD IP CCTV cameras in industrial settings and other power-hungry applications. The Lynx 3510 PoE also offers redundant and fast failover connectivity, with Westermo’s FRNT ring protocol ensuring rapid network recovery should a node or connection be lost. Ensuring the security of industrial data communication networks is of paramount importance, especially with cyberattacks becoming increasingly sophisticated. To reduce risk and increase cyber resilience, the Lynx 3510 PoE has an extensive suite of advanced cybersecurity features. These can be used to build networks in compliance with the IEC 62443 standard, which defines technical security requirements for data communication network components. “The Lynx 3510 PoE is the first product based on a new very powerful platform. Available both as a switch and a router with impressive performance capable of handling the bandwidth of future networks.” said Henrik Jerregård, Senior Product Manager at Westermo. “The Lynx 3510 PoE is extremely reliable and designed to maintain uninterrupted data communications in even the most challenging environmental conditions, and by offering a total power output of 240W, this will help expand the capability of PoE networks.” The DIN rail-mountable Lynx 3510 PoE has been extensively tested to meet a broad range of industry standards relating to electromagnetic compatibility, isolation, vibration and shock. With an IP40-rated fan-less all-metal housing, the ultra-robust switch has a wide operating temperature range. Superior build quality, industrial-grade components, a high level of isolation between interfaces and a redundant power supply all help to extend service life and creates an extremely reliable solution that contributes to a lower total cost of ownership. Helping to reduce complexity, the Lynx 3510 PoE is powered by the WeOS operating system, which ensures continuous operation and support for an expanding range of communication protocols and features, and simplifies installation, operation and maintenance. WeOS provides future-proofed network solutions with high levels of resiliency and security. Westermo Compact Industrial PoE Switch Supports Mission-Critical Networks Exterro Launches Smart Data Inventory Exterro has introduced Exterro Smart Data Inventory, a new solution designed to help organisations build, monitor and maintain a defensible privacy program based on a single intelligent and dynamic data inventory across record types, assets, 3rd parties and processing activities. In order to establish an effective data privacy and governance program, organisations must be able to quickly attain a real-time picture of the data that exists within their internal environment as well as cross border data transfers. Given the sheer volume of data, many organisations struggle to maintain an accurate and up-to-date inventory which is required to comply with a complex global regulatory environment. Exterro Smart Data Inventory speeds the time to compliance by reducing the time to record processing activities, eliminating redundant questions, automatically detecting high risk processing by regulation, and integrating data discovery technology. “A company’s ability to meet their compliance obligations is directly impacted by their ability to understand what information they have, where it lives, how it’s being processed and how long they keep it - whether that’s CPRA, GDPR, PIPL, or any other privacy regulation. Without an intelligent and automated approach to building a comprehensive data inventory, this makes an already difficult and time-consuming process all the more challenging,” said Ray Pathak, VP of Privacy at Exterro. “The Exterro Smart Data Inventory capability is the industry’s first truly integrated solution to seamlessly bring together deep privacy intelligence, process orchestration, advanced artificial intelligence (AI), and data governance best practices in a single platform to eliminate many of the headaches that come with having to manually build and maintain a data inventory.” Conducting a comprehensive data inventory is considered to be the first, and most important step in building a defensible privacy and data governance program. It’s also the most time consuming and costly stage which, when done manually, can take months to complete, is rendered inaccurate or out of date by the time it is completed, and can cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 14 Share your news! Send your press releases, product launches or announcements to: editor@networkseuropemagazine.comRiello UPS has expanded with the launch of a new subsidiary covering the Republic of Ireland. Riello UPS Ireland Ltd is the Italian-headquartered company’s seventeenth dedicated worldwide branch and is a strategically important addition aimed at increasing the brand’s presence in the thriving Irish data centre market, where global tech giants including Amazon, Google and Facebook have major facilities located. The new subsidiary will be headed up by Leo Craig, who will combine the role with his current position as Managing Director of Riello UPS Ltd in the UK. A Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (MIET) and a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Management (FISM), Leo is also a Certified Data Centre Design Professional (CDCDP) and a Certified Data Centre Energy Professional (DCDEP) with more than 30 years’ experience in the critical power protection industry. The subsidiary expects to be fully operational by the new year, with a dedicated team and new premises in Dublin’s IT district. Riello UPS Ireland Ltd exhibited at the DataCentres Ireland trade show in November at the RDS Arena in Dublin. The show provided the new branch with the perfect platform to showcase its range of proven data centre solutions, including the modular Multi Power, high-efficiency NextEnergy, and transformer-free Sentryum. Craig commented: “The Irish market offers huge growth potential for us as a business. Riello UPS is already a well-established brand over here and we have strong links through several resellers and distributors. But having our own office and team on the ground will give us a much better foothold to increase our presence in the months and years to come.” Roberto Facci and Fabio Passuello, the Commercial Director and CEO respectively of RPS S.p.A, added: “The Irish legal entity marks a fundamental step forward of our business expansion, and it is pivotal to further and better serve the growing demand of the data centre industry and the critical power segment.” Riello UPS Expands Into Ireland With New Branch Vertiv Introduces Water-Efficient Liquid Cooling Solution Vertiv has introduced the Liebert XDU, a new generation of thermal management systems that supports liquid-cooled servers and enables the control of liquid quality, flow and pressure. As high-density computing applications such as data analytics and machine learning increase, rack densities and temperatures are exceeding the cooling capabilities of traditional air-cooled units and require more efficient and sustainable solutions. The Liebert XDU coolant distribution system enables the deployment of liquid-cooled server applications into any data centre environment, from core, to edge computing sites. The system is now available across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). “High-performance computing applications such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality are growing in popularity at the same time that data centres are working to reduce their energy consumption and pushing the industry to find new, more sustainable solutions,” said Roberto Felisi, Senior Global Director and EMEA Business Leader for Thermal Management, Vertiv. “Many colocation providers who have traditionally relied on air cooling are now hosting applications with higher power processors that require more efficient heat management solutions like liquid cooling. With the Vertiv Liebert XDU, our customers can meet the high-density computing demand while improving their operational efficiency.” The Liebert XDU is an innovative liquid-to-liquid cooling distribution unit available in two capacities, 450kW, and a model capable of up to 1368kW, circulating water through liquid-cooled server racks and rejecting the heat from the returning warm water. The system uses a closed water loop to avoid any waste and is capable of capturing heat to utilise it to warm nearby offices, homes or farms, supporting the circular economy. The Liebert XDU utilises integrated state-of-the-art controls to vary pump speed to optimise supply water temperature and to provide intelligent flow monitoring and alarms. The compact solution can be placed in the row near the rack it is cooling, or along the room’s perimeter. Vertiv developed the Liebert XDU in close consultation with data centre operators and server manufacturers, who are deploying ultra-high- density, high-performance computing solutions more frequently across many different types of data centres. The company has defined a strategic roadmap to enhance thermal management technologies that enable liquid cooling adoption as part of its increased investments in research and development. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 15 AI Predicts Cybersecurity Attacks Before they Happen Blacklight, the new artificial intelligence (AI) powered software from OwlGaze, can detect cybersecurity threats and predict attacks before they happen. Blacklight’s next- generation predictive AI threat detection offers British businesses and organisations a robust solution for real-time security detection and monitoring, ushering in a new cybersecurity paradigm. Blacklight is the first ever truly predictive, cloud-native, AI-powered cybersecurity threat detection software. It provides a centralised cybersecurity command centre for any organisation, and enables a proactive approach to identify, prioritise and prevent cyber-attacks using advanced correlation and AI. Blacklight’s real-time detection of cybersecurity threats, integrating multiple data points and using advanced pattern recognition, alerts security teams to threats faster and easier than ever before.They committed three-quarters of the energy used by their data centre facilities to be renewable or carbon- free by 2025 and completely carbon-free by 2030. The dichotomy however is that demand for computing power and digital services is growing fast. In the last decade, global internet traffic increased ten-fold and data centre energy use is likely to increase accordingly by 2030. As a result, there is much talk within the market about sustainable solutions and innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions. Let’s take a step back and look at what sustainability means for a data centre and what the next-generation data centre needs to have for sustainability to be at its core. Building efficiency Historically a lot of decisions and considerations around data centre facilities have been related to commercial incentives and lower operating costs. It's only more recently that the focus has shifted to how sustainable the building, its infrastructure and the operation of the facility is and there is now some excellent work being done. However, in my view, it’s going to require an even bigger step forward to hit the net zero target. Performance-related M&E Infrastructure improvements will continue to be relevant but ultimately these will be further enabled and driven by the performance and technologies implemented at the IT layer - after all, the ability to deliver the workload in the most sustainable manner is the ultimate goal. This can only be done by ensuring that resource utilisation measurements are aligned to the relevant IT performance statistics which drive a relevant KPI/metric for the given organisation's use case. Historically the focus has been on carbon reduction achieved both through energy optimisation, and plant upgrades including the implementation of newer technologies. As our energy sources decarbonise, considering the whole-life carbon of the services will become more critical, as embodied carbon becomes a more dominant factor. This is somewhat at odds with the cyclical nature of both IT lifespan and the supporting M&E infrastructure so ensuring that facilities are designed and implemented with this in mind is critical. Using existing best practice considerations including right sizing, modular implementation and appropriate implementation of resilience will continue to form the bedrock; reducing embodied carbon while optimising performance. However, having the ability to accommodate new and future IT technology requirements (such as direct liquid cooling), without wholesale plant replacement, and while still maximising energy performance, will be critical to keeping equipment relevant and therefore maximising lifespan. Reap the benefits Professional data centre operators will be challenged from numerous angles moving forward to demonstrate their carbon reduction credentials. That will include: planning and permitting new facilities or upgrades; meeting reporting and disclosures which it will now in some cases be under a legal mandate to provide; or just addressing internal operational improvement obligations. Increasingly, operators will need to regularly reciprocate more data with their clients to meet each of their obligations. From raw materials to water and energy use, the whole supply chain across the facility lifecycle will need to become more mature in both its consideration of resources and the availability of relevant data. This increased pressure from both up and down the supply chain, along with pressure from investors, may mean data centres that can achieve the 2030 target on time or earlier while integrating seamlessly with customers and the supply chain, will come out on top. Not only will they reduce their impact on climate change but also their operating costs through increased operating efficiencies, while maximising the value of existing capacity, and helping to comply with regulations and initiatives. Conclusion The data centre sector has made some huge changes during a complex and challenging time and we should all feel proud of the progress that has been made. However, to become truly sustainable there are still many things that must change and practices that must end. There is no doubt that it is only through a wholesale approach that our sector can reach net zero. We cannot afford to stand still. Steve Lorimer Group Technical Director Keysource In 2021, 25 operators and 17 associations in the data centre industry pledged to be net zero by 2030, when they signed up to The European Data Centre Association’s Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP). Can We Get to Net Zero by 2030? ENERGY EFFICIENCY www.networkseuropemagazine.com 16 We Get o Net Zero by 2030? ENERGY EFFICIENCY www.networkseuropemagazine.com 17 How Data Centres can Reduce Electricity Consumption ENERGY EFFICIENCY www.networkseuropemagazine.com 18The escalating cost of power is headline news. According to the Office of National Statistics: in the UK, electricity prices rose by 54.0% and gas prices by 95.7% in the 12 months to August 2022. For data centres, particularly those operating inefficient legacy UPS systems, now is the time to review the management of technology and see what changes can be made to reduce power consumption. Within the data centre, there are a variety of culprits burning electricity beyond the load itself, including environmental controls (air conditioning) and UPS systems. How systems are managed will have a significant impact on reducing electricity usage. The escalating cost of power is headline news. According to the Office of National Statistics, in the UK, electricity prices rose by 54.0% and gas prices by 95.7% in the 12 months to August 2022. For data centres, particularly those operating inefficient legacy UPS systems, now is the time to review the management of technology and see what changes can be made to reduce power consumption. Louis McGarry, Sales and Marketing Director at Centiel tells us more. w Data Centres Reduce Electricity Consumption Louis McGarry Sales & Marketing Director Centiel UK ENERGY EFFICIENCY www.networkseuropemagazine.com 19Next >