WEMO24-Compiled Report-Interactive compressed (002) 4154-7882-8116 v.1 - Flipbook - Page 108
How to meet Data center AI/
Gen AI consumption increase?
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Actions: Making IT more
sustainable
1. Optimize existing resources. Within IT departments
there is a notable potential for optimizing existing
resource utilization. For example, analysis conducted
by the Capgemini Research Institute revealed that
30% of cloud resources were either unused or misused.
By addressing such ine昀케ciencies, IT departments
can reduce energy consumption and minimize the
environmental footprint of their digital operations.
This optimization extends beyond mere energy savings,
encompassing the broader potential of digital tools to
accelerate the ecological transition.
2. Integrate eco-design into project management and
digital service conception. Eco-design is a global
approach that allows environmental issues to be
integrated at the earliest stages of the project lifecycle.
This is crucial because an estimated 80% of emission
impacts are determined during the design phase,
making them di昀케cult to reduce later. To address this
challenge, organizations must develop frameworks
to apply to projects at the earliest stages to enable
teams to make informed choices about functional
speci昀椀cations, architecture, hosting, and other points.
3. Repurpose waste heat and embrace direct liquid
cooling (DLC) to improve data center operations. Data
center operators have an opportunity to repurpose
waste heat generated in data centers. While the
waste heat from data centers typically has a lower
temperature than what is required for district heating
systems, the use of heat pumps or similar converters
can be used to increase the temperature and make
it suitable for various applications, such as heating
swimming pools, supporting agricultural activities
in greenhouses, or warming nearby neighborhoods.
Integration of these solutions into the broader energy
management schemes of new industrial zones can
enhance their overall e昀케ciency and sustainability.
Further, data center operators can also implement
innovative cooling technologies to further reduce the
environmental impact of data centers. DLC, which uses a
refrigerant or water directly at the processor and server
levels to optimize cooling efficiency, offers a more
effective cooling system than traditional air-based
systems. As this technique gains traction among data
center operators, IT functions have the possibility to
substantially lower their energy consumption,
contributing to a more sustainable digital infrastructure.
5 Capgemini Research Institute: World Cloud Report. https://www.capgemini.com/insights/
research-library/world-cloud-report/
6 ScienceDirect: Sustainable Production and Consumption https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/pii/S2352550920314433#bib0040
WEMO 2024
IT functions are increasingly challenged to make better
and more sustainable decisions to reduce their
environmental impact. Here we explore several key
actions to effect change:
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