THE NEXT GREEN THINGHow Teliti International will help clean up our information

and shape the future of green data centres in Malaysia

2 T H E F U T U R E O F G R E E N D A T A C E N T R E S I N M A L A Y S I A

3T E L I T I I N T E R N A T I O N A L

he industrial revolution was an exciting time to

live in. Led by inventions such as the steam turbine and

the internal combustion engine, it gave the world factories,

cars, jumbo jets and power stations. The results were almost

instantaneous: a ten-fold increase in the world’s average per capita

income, followed by a six-fold increase in the world’s population.

Unfortunately, although no one was aware of it at the time, the

industrial revolution would also result in a global reliance on fossil

fuels.

By the time we realised what was happening, it was too late. The

world had become addicted to fossil fuels, and all that reckless

progress had led to a 40% increase in global carbon emissions, global

warming and unprecedented environmental destruction. All we

could do was try to repair the damage.

We now have a chance to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

We can prevent the information revolution from ravaging the

world’s natural resources the way the industrial revolution did. All it

takes is a commitment to change.

T

“We can prevent the

information revolution

from ravaging the world’s

natural resources the way the

industrial revolution did.”

1990sClient-server computing gains popularity. Early data servers now contain large amounts of information accessed by millions of users. Dedicated rooms and 24-hour security are required to protect these data servers.

1980sMicrocomputers gain popularity and are connected to each other via mostly peer-to-peer networks. There is as yet very little need for central data centres.

2000The dot-com bubble gives rise to the world’s first Internet Data Centres (IDCs), mostly built by large corporations with excess capacity being leased out to smaller companies. Privately-owned data centres follow soon afterward.

1990Tim Berners-Lee creates the world’s first web server (pic) along with the first web pages. Desktop ‘clients’ must access information on data servers via web browsers or other technologies. Client-server computing is born.

A greener industryWhile the industrial revolution needed the world’s natural resources for its raw materials, the information revolution only needs data. But although we don’t need coal power plants and automobiles to sell information, we do need to process that data before it can become a commercially tradable commodity.

Most of that data processing takes place in ‘information factories’ we call data centres. Recent estimates say that the world’s data centres currently consume about 330 billion kWh of electricity every year, almost as much as the entire electricity demand of the UK1. Most of that energy comes from non-renewable resources, and it is believed that data centres account for as much as 0.2% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, few industries are growing as rapidly as the data centre industry. Indeed, demand for data centre capacity is expected to grow at about 12% p.a. over the next ten years as businesses continue to automate processes, store data, archive historical information and adopt rich media. The result of this happy boom will be that by the year 2020, data centres will account for more carbon emissions than the global airline industry.

So, for all our back-slapping and effusive self-congratulations, the information economy may yet turn out to be as polluting and environmentally-damaging as the industrial economy.

Dirty dataThe main reason these information factories are proving so damaging to the environment is because they are so inefficient. According to The Green Grid, an association of IT professionals seeking to raise the energy efficiency of data centres, a lot of the energy that goes into powering data centres is not actually spent on the IT equipment itself. Instead, the energy is consumed by data centre support systems such as lighting, ventilation and cooling (see Figure 1). Besides energy utilisation, data centres 1 Greenpeace International (2011) “How dirty is your data? : A Look at the Energy Choices That Power Cloud

The evolution of datacentres

Figure 1: Typical route of electricity from the main power grid through the data centre.

IT EQUIPMENTServers, storage, network routers, firewalls

POWER DELIVERY

Transformer, power distribution

UPS

FROM

GRI

D

COOLING SYSTEMS

Chillers, pumps, fans, air-conditioning

LIGHTING

2008The global energy consumption of data centres doubles between 2000 and 2006. By 2008, the world’s 50,000 data centres are responsible for 0.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions . Data centre energy demand is predicted to quadruple by the year 2020.

1990sClient-server computing gains popularity. Early data servers now contain large amounts of information accessed by millions of users. Dedicated rooms and 24-hour security are required to protect these data servers.

2011Teliti International announces the construction of Asia’s premier Green Datacentre, designed to reduce clients’ data carbon footprints by up to 15%.

2000The dot-com bubble gives rise to the world’s first Internet Data Centres (IDCs), mostly built by large corporations with excess capacity being leased out to smaller companies. Privately-owned data centres follow soon afterward.

have other inefficiencies, too. Server utilisation rarely exceeds 6%, while facility utilisation can be as low as 50%2.

To objectively measure the effectiveness of data centres, The Green Grid came up with the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) efficiency metric. PUE is an easy way to measure how much energy a data centre uses for its actual IT operations and how much it wastes on its support systems. It has received broad adoption in the industry as it enables data center operators to quickly estimate the energy efficiency of their data centers, compare their results against the PUE of other data centres and so decide what improvements – if any – may be made.

The ideal PUE score is 1.0, which means that every watt consumed by the data centre is spent on its IT equipment. However, various studies have found that the average data centre only manages a PUE of about 2.0, meaning that it takes about 200kW of electricity to operate only 100kW worth of IT equipment. That’s like using two power points for a single PC.

Unsurprisingly, these inefficiencies have attracted the attention of environmentalists and regulators, some of whom have taken to using the term ‘dirty data’ to describe IT pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has initiated a programme to create minimum operating-efficiency standards for the country’s data centres, while the European Union has asked data centre operators on the continent to ‘voluntarily’ commit to adopting the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres3.

All these developments have made businesses take a closer look at the way their own data is being managed. After all: energy costs money, and a dollar saved is a dollar earned. These companies are also aware that businesses with legitimate ‘green’ claims are often viewed more favourably than those that are not – like other environmental endorsements and ecolabel schemes, using a PUE-rated data centre gives a corporation’s reputation a certain shine.

The quest to turn dirty data into green data has begun.2 J.M. Kaplan, W.M. Forest, N. Kindler; “Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency”; McKinsey & Company (2008)

3 See http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data_centers.htm

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) calculates the ratio of power used by the data center facility to the power delivered to IT equipment itself (ABOVE). It is the inverse of Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE), which is the percentage of IT equipment using total facility power (BELOW).

6 T H E F U T U R E O F G R E E N D A T A C E N T R E S I N M A L A Y S I A

he Teliti International Datacentre will adopt several best practices designed to maximise its energy efficiency and reduce the data carbon footprint of its clients. It is an environmentally friendly, purpose-built

green facility that is being constructed from the ground up to be both ecologically sustainable and operationally sound.

The Teliti International Datacentre is designed to achieve a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.4, far exceeding normal industry standards and head-and-shoulders above most other data centres in Asia. To achieve this lofty target, it will use cabling and insulation solutions certified to international architectural standards, including a double-skin building façade that reduces the building’s cooling needs by up to 40%.

T

A typical hot-aisle, cold-aisle containment system. Cold air can be distributed from above or below.

DROP-DOWN CEILING PLENUM

Cold aisle

Cold aisle

Hot aisle

Hot aisle

Hot aisle

Walls to separate aisles

RAISED FLOOR PLENUM

7T E L I T I I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Green features• Greenroofsystem:One would not realise it standing

on the outside of the building, but the roof of the Teliti International Datacentre will use a specialised rain water harvesting system that will minimise the centre’s impact on the water cycle. Rain is collected and stored in a 55-litre water tank, after which it is filtered and reused in reticulation systems across the green landscapes surrounding the building.

• Renewableenergytechnologies: Solar panels will be installed on the centre’s roof to help offset the energy demands of the centre’s operations. The backup power system will use a clean, biodiesel generator.

• Hot-aisle,cold-aislecontainment:A best practice that significantly reduces power consumption, whereby server racks are arranged back-to-back so as to maximise airflow and increase efficiency.

• Cloudcomputinginfrastructure:Compute, network and storage resources are deployed as and when required, thereby maximising the IT equipment’s efficiency. Organisations can scale up or down as necessary.

• Best-in-classredundancytechniques:Top-to-bottom power redundancy ensures business continuity for the datacentre’s client organisations. This includes N+1 power redundancy from the grid to all equipment in the data centre as well as a failsafe double UPS system.

The Teliti International Datacentre is designed to reduce organisations’ carbon footprint while cleaning up their data. Located in techpark@enstek in Nilai, Malaysia, it will serve the most data-intensive industries in the region.

When completed, the datacentre will offer:

• Built-up floor area of over 386,000 sq ft comprising two 3-storey buildings

• 120,000 sq ft net-lettable area

• Loading/unloading bay, storage areas and office and business suites

• Travel time from downtown Kuala Lumpur: 38 minutes via Express Rail Link (ERL)

• Travel time from KL International Airport: 10 minutes via road

• Easy access to major expressway networks

Teliti Datacentres Sdn BhdSuite 703, 7th Floor Block A4, Leisure Commerce Square,

No.9 Jalan PJS 8/9, Pusat Dagang Setia Jaya,46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Tel: +603 7873 7733 | Fax: +603 7873 7337

www.teliti.com

Teliti International is one of Malaysia’s leading IT service providers. With over 200 employees in five locations, the company serves some of the largest organisations in the region. Teliti’s 120,000 sq ft data centre facility will be one of the largest data centres in the world when it is completed in the first half of 2012. Situated on a 5.8 acre brownfield site just a few miles from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the data centre will be supported by world class digital infrastructure partners.