Data centers are the backbone of many businesses and institutions, and their importance is growing with digitalization. At the same time, they are also major energy consumers, thereby contributing significantly to climate change. Hence, Green IT, the sustainable use of IT resources, has become increasingly crucial in recent years. But what specific requirements are placed on data centers regarding Green IT?
Energy Efficiency: This is perhaps the most apparent requirement. Data centers should focus on hardware that consumes less power and use energy-efficient cooling systems. A measure of a data center’s energy efficiency is the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), which gauges the ratio of total energy consumption to IT energy consumption.
Waste Heat Utilization: Instead of leaving the waste heat generated in data centers unused, they can transfer this heat to external systems, such as the heating systems of buildings.
Use of Renewable Energies: Wherever possible, data centers should source electricity from renewable energy sources or even operate their solar or wind power plants.
Resource Conservation: This concerns both the hardware itself and the construction and operation of data centers. By recycling IT components and using sustainable materials in construction, data centers can significantly reduce their ecological footprint.
