¿Are data centers sustainable? It is the question that is always asked when talking, especially, about energy and water consumption. And the answer is not simple because each technology company that has data centers has its own design of facilities between which there are important differences.
In Aragon, several companies have announced investment projects in this field, such as Microsoft, Blackstone and Box2bit, as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS), the only one that is currently operating and has also announced the expansion of its investment with an additional 17.5 billion euros in the Aragonese territory.
And what are their centers like? Are they efficient? The study carried out by Accenture reflects that AWs infrastructure is up to 4.2 times more efficient than local installations. What’s more, the study also points out that, when workloads are optimized in Amazon Web Services, a reduction of the carbon footprint that can reach 99%.
These data are possible, as collected in the study, due to the fact that data center design is optimized. It is not the only factor, the company also invests in specifically designed chips, apart from innovating in new cooling technologies, in order for the cloud to be the cleanest and most energy efficient way to run the entire computing infrastructure and devices. business of the companies they operate.
Among the systems that allow these percentages to be achieved are the advanced modeling methods that are used, such as computational fluid dynamics tools, which promote the optimal design of data centers, thanks to the fact that it is possible understand how the data center will work before building it. Additionally, once the data center is operational, real-time physics-based models facilitate improvement and further optimization of designs.
These ratios are also achieved with the innovation in cooling systems so that they are more efficient depending on the time of year. To do this, real-time sensor data is used. In this way, it is possible to adapt to changing climatic conditions.
The lines of work also focus on optimizing the performance of the air flow of the cooling equipment used in data center cooling systems.
In matters of energyinnovation is based on several axes of action among which is investment in chips AWS, which are responsible for powering millions of workloads every day. This line includes the AWS Gravition processor, which achieves high performance and high levels of energy efficiency. Specifically, it is estimated that you get 30% more computing performance, 50% more cores and 75% more memory bandwidth than Gravition 3 processors.
And what happens with the water? At AWS they have set the goal of being positive by 2030. To achieve this, the focus is on reducing the amount of water globally used to cool data centers through innovation and through the use of technologies. in the cloud for continuous improvement of water efficiency.
For example, at the centers in Ireland and Sweden, AWS does not use water to cool its data centers for 95% of the yearchoosing to use free air cooling. Additionally, in the case of Northern California infrastructure, the system was changed to one of direct evaporation to reduce water consumption by 85%.
In Aragon, two water projects have also been carried out with local partners so that AWS technology detects and reduces water loss through leaks in old pipes and increases the flow of reused water on local farms.
These are actions with which AWS has achieved that the company’s global water use efficiency metric is 0.18 liters of water per kilowatt-hour. A leading figure in the water efficiency segment among cloud providers.
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