The present trend of going green is pervasive and even data centers, known to be power guzzlers are seen to be transforming and advocating techniques that would bring them within the green fold. Marketsand Markets, the international research firm confirms this trend and forecasts that green data centers are set to grow more than three-fold –from $22.76 billion to $75.89 billion in the next five years.
Although Asia Pacific is expected to show the highest growth pace, North America will continue to remain the largest market holder for green data centers.
The report, "Green Data Center Market-Global Advancements, Worldwide Forecasts & Analysis (2014-2019)" highlights the reasons for this greening effect and explores the global green data center trends.
According to the research report, the obvious and primary reason for the green transformation is the dire need for low power-consuming techniques at these facilities. To just understand how much of power these facilities devour, one just has to look back to a few years ago when the electricity that powered computers at Facebook (News - Alert) heated up the machines and other critical components almost to the melting point. Of course, technology has improved since then, but the basic problem of rise in number of data centers, increased power consumption and increased operational costs, still remains.
With harsh environment laws imposed by the government, and in order to get economic benefits for being an energy-conscious organization, the race to become more energy-efficient is truly on. This greening process is pretty complex given that no single factor can make a data center green. Of course, although clean energy will make it more sustainable, it’s just not enough -- more needs to be done.
And, we are seeing the changes: virtualization, which allows servers to run multiple virtual machines on the same hardware, use of cloud computing, use of low energy processors in servers, newer delivery models, and the more recent trend of locating servers in colder climates (like Google (News - Alert) and Facebook have done) – are all contributing to the overall process.
With remote access of data centers now a reality, a revving up of national and international policy initiatives that aim to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental organizations like Greenpeace taking up cudgels in favor of increasing the green concept, the IT world is clearly setting on a green path that very much includes green data centers.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson