Supermicro released its second annual Data Centers and the Environment report based on an industry survey of over 5,000 IT professionals. Results once again show us the majority of data center leaders do not fully consider green initiatives for the growing build-out of data center infrastructures, increasing data center costs, and impacting the environment.
86% don’t consider the environmental impact
Responses from IT experts showed that most businesses (86%) don’t consider the environmental impact of their facilities as an important factor for their data centers. Data center leaders primarily noted Total Cost of Ownership and Return on Investment as their primary measures of success. 22% of respondents noted “environmental considerations” were too expensive for them to be considered a priority for their company.
Almost 9 out of 10 data centers are not designed for optimal Power Effectiveness, potentially costing each data center more than $1.4M annually based on national averages. Companies are still moving towards colder ambient temperatures for their data centers, compared to 2018, the number of businesses this year focused on keeping their facilities and servers below 24°C increased by 13%, now consisting of over two-thirds of respondents. This is especially wasteful, since leveraging free air-cooling equipment designs running at higher than 26.5°C enables data centers to decrease operating costs.
The number of businesses partnering with a certified recycling company dropped by 14% from 2018 to 2019, and the number of companies reporting recycling the hardware themselves dropped by 5%. With e-waste already contributing to 2% of trash and 70% of overall toxic waste in the US.
Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro said:
“The 2019 survey findings establish again that consideration of the environmental impact for data center equipment selection continues to be an IT industry challenge. We are continuing our focus on Resource-Saving Architecture to help end-customers save both energy and hardware acquisition costs while reducing the environmental impact.”