Energy is viewed as a resource that should never be compromised at the risk of disrupting the delivery of critical business services. The energy industry, however, is experiencing transformation of its own. New ways of achieving energy efficiency through hardware, software, and behavioural change are emerging. In addition, the introduction of renewable energy systems at the national and distributed on-site scale represent opportunities for data centre transformation. To understand the implications of these trends in the context of informing data centre strategies, organisations should first recognise how energy is used within data centres. Most data centres that serve a minimum of 1,000 business users with multiple applications, will have an energy system comprised of four main load structures. Combining these load structures indicates it’s feasible for an in-house data centre that serves 1,000 business users to consume more than 1GWh of electricity in a year. This equates to the annual electricity supply to more than 200 average UK households. It’s important to note, however, that the relative profile of these loads and overall energy requirements can vary significantly. There are numerous considerations for individual data centre design, including management, hardware, software, networking, mechanical, and electrical system composition. Therefore, a direct comparison of data centre infrastructure is challenging. Unsupported comparative generalisations can’t be made in relation to the merits of in-house, co-located, or cloud data centres from an energy implication perspective.
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