When a cloud strategy can keep IT costs from going sky high

Business Insights
07/06/2022

The huge amount of data and development of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) technologies drive the demand for data centres and cloud platforms. There is a lot of hype and buzz about them mitigating carbon emissions, and equally being more sustainable, but how cost-effective and environmentally friendly are they? And how do organisations benefit from a data centre that is carbon-neutral?


The legacy air conditioning

Cooling a data centre big or small is a huge issue. A lot of heat generated from the IT hardware in data centres has to be removed continuously. To replicate an optimal atmosphere, most data centres used by cloud providers employ outdated air-cooling methods for their IT infrastructure. This normally involves a lot of hardware, such as air-conditioning units, condensers, compressors, evaporators, and humidifiers that use huge amounts of power to work efficiently. Not to mention uninterruptible power supply systems including backup generators. Cooling a data centre can use up to 40% of its total energy consumption!


Liquid and immersion are cool solutions

So, are there more environmentally friendly data centre cooling solutions available?


The answer is yes, by swapping traditional air-cooling methods for liquid and immersion cooling, data centre operators can remove all the air-conditioning hardware and get hugely reduced power consumption. Plus, greatly improved hardware longevity and reliability which reduces carbon footprints even further. Liquid immersion cooling uses between 30% and 40% less electricity than a traditional data centre.


The innovative liquid immersion method cools IT servers by placing them in a biodegradable dielectric liquid. This type of data centre cooling is up to 1,000 times more efficient than air conditioning. It’s a process that not only makes all components less susceptible to temperature changes but also enables them to be placed much closer together, enabling a simultaneous increase in computer and storage capacity, reducing data centre footprints. Liquid immersion cooling creates a transferable heat source that can be channelled to heat buildings in the vicinity of the data centre and uses very little water.


Improved cloud resilience

PeaSoup the first cloud company in the UK to deliver fully operational cloud services using liquid immersed technology, is involved in a project with local councils, helping to make them and residents more sustainable by purposing liquid cooling to partially heat buildings.


By using liquid immersion, the level of performance, reliability and stability of the cloud platform is hugely elevated. This technology helps to reduce environmental impact and improve overall cloud resilience, allowing for demanding applications such as AI and ML to run smoothly. When companies need additional computing or storage capacity, they simply can add or remove more resources (virtual machines or data storage), keeping the costs down when not needed.


A fully liquid-cooled cloud is a commercially viable way for keeping costs under control while offering a greener, more environmentally friendly cloud and hosting industry. This trend has been accelerated over recent years as customers look to reduce their CO2 footprint and seek out providers which support long-term Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.


The liquid cooling technology significantly reduces power usage and has nearly no water consumption, eliminates noise pollution and overall data centre floor footprint; at the same time increasing reliability, the longevity of IT components and the lifespan of the hardware. This in turn means that the costs frequently associated with becoming sustainable, become financial efficiencies, benefitting not only businesses but the entire environment.


A greener future

Reducing their impact on the environment, specifically net-zero carbon emissions, liquid immersion cooling data centres provide businesses with simple and cost-effective cloud solutions that are considered truly green without offsetting or carbon credits. They are successfully equipping companies with the necessary technology to meet the current and future standards and regulations imposed in relation to sustainability and CSR.


IT equipment immersed in a dielectric liquid is more reliable with predictions of very minimal outage rates and the length of service prolonged by more than 40%. Long maintenance intervals and savings on the manufacture of new IT equipment add to the sustainability benefits.


PeaSoup strives to develop cloud services with a mindset to reduce our impact on the environment. Not just as an “offset”, but a truly sustainable position, where the whole chain of supply can be seen to provide benefit to the environment.


For businesses looking for technology solutions to support the pathway to a reduced carbon footprint, or to simply align with ESG values, let your supplier walk you through the options available. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution’: every business has different cloud needs, so proposals are tailored to suit customers’ requirements.


Find your way to a greener and more efficient solution through PeaSoup or call 01932 450400