Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4. Six possibilities for arriving at a more sustainable data centres
Apart from taking these measures, the choice
of location for a data centre is important from a
sustainability perspective. The use of free cooling
for instance requires a low outside temperature.
Being able to reuse heat demands that centres are
positioned in an area where one is able to reuse
this heat, such as for example in market gardening
businesses.
In the construction of sustainable data centres,
data centre operators may utilize standards. Cur-
rently, the TIA-942 standard is operational. The
standard norm NEN 381888 is under development.
The TIA standard deals with the lay-out of the
data centres, its cabling, the degree of availability
of the data centres as pursued and the environ-
mental considerations that need to be included in
the design. The latter considerations concern the
mode of fire protection and the materials used in
this, the humidity levels in the centres and the
specifications for electricity and cooling. Some
of the requirements to data centres are subject
to the desired availability of the ICT provisions.
This desired availability is expressed by means
of a tier classification. Better availability often
leads to deployment of more hardware. And extra
hardware means extra cooling equipment, extra
materials etc. A demand for 99.995% availability
leads to an N+N demand with regard to hardware.
This means that for every device, exactly the same
device is on standby. At N+1 (99.982% avail-
ability) there is at least one device on standby for
every type of device.
Daily Practice at the Five
Studied Data Centres
Major Actions in the Field of Sustainability
Figures 5 and 6 show which of the measures, as
stated in figure 4 are implemented in Dutch prac-
tice. The figures are limited to the most important
measures. Figure 5 mainly focuses on measures
that involve location, the use of outside air, the
use of energy measurements and aspects of data
centres layout. Figure 6 describes the concentra-
tion of ICT equipment, their consolidation and the
use of new ICT equipment in these data centres.
Figure 5 and 6 demonstrate that in 2009, the
concentration of facilities is often given priority
in the five organizations that were studied. Both
the Rabo Bank as well as the City of Amsterdam
