_________________________________________________________________________________ Ark
Data Centres Limited
When considering the end-to-end data ecosystems Pip highlights that we need to consider the internet as though it is a global utility with ‘ end users ’ ( IT equipment used by people , businesses , and processes ), connected via ‘ networks ’ ( wires / fibre / wireless / satellite transition systems ), to ‘ processing / storage centres ’ ( data centres ). If we consider the energy used by this global utility ( approximately four per cent of global energy demand ) some 50 per cent of the energy consumed is through ‘ end-user ’ devices . “ There are so many of them and they are always on ,” he says . “ How many people turn their phones off at night ? Televisions , tablets , iPads : they are all consuming energy , even though they are not doing much ”; 25 per cent of the energy consumed is by the ‘ networks ’; leaving 25 per cent consumed in the energy centre . Of the energy consumed in the data centre 85 per cent is consumed by the IT systems the data centre supports , only 15 per cent of the data centre consumption is to support the IT systems we are all using . In other words , data centres per se do not use four per cent of global energy consumption , they use less than 0.2 per cent of global energy consumption . It is our insatiable use and demand for data that is driving the energy consumption of the global internet .
“ So , my goal , when it comes to sustainability , is to make users aware of the impact that their IT behaviours have on global energy consumption and to ask questions such as : ‘ Do we need to store ALL data , ALL the time , FOR ALL time ?’ ‘ How many photographs are stored , multiple times on the internet and never looked at ? They are literally burning energy ’. ‘ If you are live streaming a movie on a mobile device on a train doing a fully integrated service provider for data centre infrastructure
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