How we embrace energy efficiency in the data center
Data centers are the backbone of our economy. Demand for IT infrastructures has been growing unabated for years now, as has the volume of data processed as digitalization progresses. According to some estimates, the share of worldwide energy consumption attributable to IT infrastructures is around two percent – and rising.
As a data center operator, we are aware of our responsibility and act in harmony with people and nature. We are firmly convinced that the use of smart technologies can enable growth while ensuring environmental friendliness at the same time. Many years of experience are needed for that, both to both identify areas with optimization potential and also to implement efficiency increasing measures. We have been fully committed to this task ever since we first started building and operating our data centers.
100% renewable energies
We cover 100% of our data centers’ energy requirements through the use of renewable energies generated through wind power, solar plants and hydropower and encourage our customers to use the same electricity mix to power their hardware. Why? As our contribution toward efforts to promote renewable sources of energy. We use a direct, clear-cut approach because we’re convinced that this is the most sensible way.
Unique expertise in the area of green IT
When we designed and built our own data center from the ground up in 2008, one thing quickly became crystal clear: A data center only runs efficiently if each and every aspect of it works hand-in-hand and they are fine-tuned to one another. This is influenced by a building’s design, its structures, its power distribution systems, the arrangement of individual customer racks and even the environmental control system, which plays a major role. Anybody making changes to one individual parameter will quickly have to make corresponding adjustments to others. We’ve been working hard to do just this and amassed a wealth of unique expertise in this area in the process.
With our state-of-the-art data centers, we achieve a PUE of 1.19 when working at maximum capacity (high-density cloud applications). This score is internationally recognized as an outstanding achievement. In companies’ generally small in-house data centers, PUE scores this low are nearly impossible to achieve.
Green IT recognized
Green Datacenter Zurich-West has already received several awards for its exemplary energy efficiency: The “Watt d'Or” award from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) in 2013 as well as one from Initiative Mittelstand in 2016 for having one of the best green IT projects.
Our energy efficiency programs are managed under ISO 50001 and certified in accordance with internationally applicable standards.
