Green is the new Black - Green Data Centers

When you hear the term “green data centers”, you immediately think of some progressive and prosperous country like Iceland, right? And rightfully so. Iceland, due to its natural cold climate and state-of-the-art infrastructure has been a number one location for data centers.

Of course, there are many other countries that have innovative, environmentally friendly solutions, guaranteeing low PUE for their data centers. Let’s take my home state of North Carolina as an example, shall we? Yes, I’m talking about the mighty Apple. Their Maiden data center has started to implement solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power usage, in order to reduce its carbon footprint. When you drive by Maiden, NC you can spot their two 100-acre solar farms. Besides that, Apple has also been using bio-gas from the nearby landfills, to save energy consumption. Well done.

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Energy efficient data centers are becoming more popular, in order to power our “digital” life. As you know, data centers are rows and rows of servers, storing all the information continuously. That can make them really hot and really fast. That only means they have to be cooled constantly. But how? Some are stored at the bottom of the ocean, where temperatures are naturally very low, but access to their racks is not easy. Some other data centers use air conditioning but it’s neither environmentally friendly, nor cost effective.  

Green data centers look similar at first glance, but they operate differently. For example, they may use a standby mode which consumes a fraction of electricity comparing to standard servers, and they are much cooler too!These green data centers also use two different air treatment systems – one sucks the hot air out of the servers, while the other pulls air from outside and blows it back into the room, making it a form of natural “air conditioning”, if you will. What I love about this system is that in cold months, hot air produced by the stored servers, is distributed to the offices located in the same building, heating them better than old fashioned central heating systems.Big kudos to the green energy solutions!

Summing up, regardless of your location, you can save energy and related costs, if you store your information utilizing one of the green data centers. Just remember to take into account factors like climate, overall PUE and accessibility to your server in case of emergency. I guess you will agree with me, that Iceland is still the “coolest” green option when it comes to data centers.

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