EDGE COMPUTING
Efficiency at the edge Sustainability and edge computing don’t often go hand-in-hand, but as technology continues to develop, this may soon be a thing of the past. Marc Garner, vice president, secure power division, Schneider Electric UK&I, highlights some key considerations for achieving energy efficiency at the edge.
32 www.datacentrereview.com March 2020
ata centres are the cornerstone of today’s digitised economy. As the demand for digital services continues to grow, more businesses are deploying distributed IT systems at the edge of the network to increase application reliability and support digital transformation strategies. However, with increased digitisation, there is an environmental trade off to be considered, mainly due to the growing amount of electrical energy required at the edge. Various analyses suggest that today, the global installed base of IT consumes between 1,000 and 2,000 TWh of electric power, equivalent to 5-10% of all power generated. Additional research estimates that by 2030, IT will consume as much as 30,000 TWh. Clearly, increasing the capacity of electrical generation in a sustainable way is an issue that is beyond the scope of the data centre industry alone, but it is beholden on such a large consumer of electricity to make every effort to increase the efficiency of its operations and to reduce its impact on the environment. Today, Schneider Electric is committed to improving energy consumption and reducing CO2 emissions across all areas of its business. This includes reaching carbon neutrality across all of our company sites by 2025; goals to achieve net-zero operational emissions by 2030; and most importantly, to have net-zero emissions throughout our entire supply chain by 2050.
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