IT infrastructure: forging the future efficiently and sustainably

Exponential growth in data volumes and increasing digitalization require many resources – that’s a fact. According to a study commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), server rooms and data centers were responsible for around 3.6% of annual electricity consumption in Switzerland in 2019. This leaves considerable potential for savings. New studies show that energy savings of up to 46 percent can be achieved with integrated concepts, waste heat utilization and higher operating temperatures.

Climate offender: aging IT infrastructure

Aging data centers present a major challenge: in addition to their actual operation, they consume a further 80 percent of their energy per kilowatt of power for cooling and data center operation. Old data centers are often cooled down in all areas of the facility, instead of on a selective basis. This usually results in valuable resources, such as waste heat, going unused. However, it is practically impossible to optimize resources during ongoing operations. The costs are also considerable.

The three pillars of energy efficiency

Only efficient data centers offer a sustainable infrastructure. Green has more than doubled its data center capacities in the last three years, developing and implementing new approaches to reduce energy consumption. Our three-pillar principle shows how data centers can operate sustainably today:

1. We're increasing efficency
   The technical facilities, architecture and building design of our data centers are coordinated down to the last detail. Hundreds of operating data points are measured and analyzed, enabling our engineering team to make continuous optimizations. Studies have shown that overcooling is an issue for many data centers. We use cold aisle containment and adjust temperatures precisely to individual customer needs and hardware requirements. We only cool the facility to the extent absolutely necessary. In addition, we use the ambient air for natural cooling more than 300 days a year.
    
2. We’re reducing our carbon footprint
   We use electricity from renewable energy sources for our data center operations. With photovoltaic systems installed on roofs and in facade elements, we are contributing to climate-friendly electricity generation.
    
3. We feed the waste heat into the heating network
   Initiated by Green, the Zurich Metro Campus is creating a heating network that can heat more than 3,500 households in the region and supply industry with process heat. The waste heat is able to replace thousands of fossil heating systems. This saves around 20,000 tons of CO2 and 7.6 million liters of heating oil per year, while the heating network supplies valuable cooling through the circulation system at the same time, reducing the data center’s energy consumption in the process. In addition to our free cooling systems, we are also significantly reducing the energy required for cooling.

Metro Campus Zurich goes live

Green Metro Campus Zurich offers modern, energy-efficient and secure housing. On an area of around 46,000 m², phased building work on three high-performance data centers for hyperscalers, companies and system integrators has started. The first data center will go live as early as Q4 2022. With a direct connection to all leading hyperscalers, such as AWS, Google and Microsoft, as well as to the SwissIX Internet Exchange, we are able to ensure minimum latency and efficient data exchange. We are connected to 700 data center locations and 50 carriers across the globe.

Are you looking for sustainable, secure and efficient housing, globally networked and run with operational excellence? Then we can promise you one thing: all you need is Green.