| The intense power requirements needed to run and cool data centres now account for almost a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions from ICT, according to analyst firm Gartner.
The main issue is not the current amount of data centre emissions but rather the fact that data centre emissions are increasing faster than other carbon emissions, the firm said in a research advisory.
"Although the figure compares favourably with the 40 percent of emissions from PCs and monitors, it is much more concentrated and rising more quickly," has said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner.
Despite widespread publicity around the issue, not enough attention has been paid to reducing emissions. Organisations should aim to deploying energy-inefficient hardware.
The main reasons for the scale of current emissions are a lack of floor space, a failure to house high-density servers, and increased power consumption and heat generation.
Gartner says green technology is now No 1 in the firm's rating of industry issues. No 2 on the list is unified communications, followed by business process modelling.*
*Colin Barker, ZDNet UK |
