Climate change is affecting all areas of our lives, and data centers aren’t immune to the changes that the planet experiences. Global temperatures are rising significantly, causing weather systems that create havoc for ecosystems and disrupt regions like coastlines and areas prone to wildfires.
We’ll have to learn to adapt to the changes occurring on our planet, but how does our climate emergency affect technology and the businesses that rely on it?
Learn more about the climate change challenges data centers face and how to approach them.
Sustainable Energy
Data centers use an incredible amount of energy to power their servers and equipment, and it’s only increasing every year. Their carbon footprint is growing, and the only way to stop it from getting worse is to adopt more sustainable energy practices.
Data centers can utilize green energy consumption methods by upgrading cooling systems, creating better airflow, using modular design in construction, and using low-power servers. Some data centers already use artificial intelligence to be more energy efficient. All these practices can make your data center greener.
Efficient Cooling
Most data centers use traditional HVAC systems to cool their facilities, meaning that their energy costs are primarily for cooling equipment. Implementing more efficient cooling systems that use water can help reduce costs, but more and more data centers are relocating to cooler climates. Expanding into mild climates can offset exorbitant cooling costs created by extreme temperatures.
Planning for Natural Disasters
Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, and unpredictable weather patterns mean there is a greater chance of outages and losing data. Data center managers and owners need to create a disaster plan to ensure the facility can run on backup power to reduce the possibility of redundancies. A plan would consider the type of disasters they could face and create step-by-step actions with an analog copy available to all employees.
Undertaking climate change challenges that data centers face now will prepare you to deal with problems when they happen. Learn more about how server rack manufacturers use seismic design to help protect data centers by checking out the blogs at AMCO Enclosures.