Published by: Andrew Schaap – CEO at Aligned Data Centers
Even as most all of our daily activities have moved online and people en masse enter the digital space to work and learn from home — increasing IT loads at unprecedented levels that no one in our industry could have anticipated — now is not the time for data center providers and their customers to abandon their shared sustainability goals.
Far from it.
As businesses accelerate their digital transformation virtually overnight, driving demand for data center services, some providers may be balancing the question of maintaining their sustainability goals against having to resort to alternative, less energy-efficient solutions. But to quote Joe Kava, Google’s Vice President of Data Centers, who recently gave a presentation on the adoption of renewable energy, “There is nothing normal about the situation we currently face. And more than ever, the world is counting on us.”
Here, at Aligned, my colleagues and I could not agree more.
Aligned’s adaptive data center was designed to maintain sustainability in light of unpredictable usage and growth models. Moreover, our company was founded on the premise of solving the world’s most intractable sustainability challenges concerning data center infrastructure, energy consumption and water usage. In keeping with that vision, we recently increased our commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability by matching 100% of the IT loads across our entire data center portfolio with certified renewable energy.
With flexible, renewable energy options that address customer-specific sustainability goals, cooling technologies that adapt to varying workloads, and modular mechanical and electrical infrastructure that scales as needed, Aligned has long been prepared for the present challenges. Our focus has always been to provide ultra-efficient, rapidly deployable, and sustainable data center solutions that enable customers to scale easily and efficiently as their business grows, while supporting a clean energy future.
There’s no question that the world has changed before our eyes, with companies finding themselves needing to accommodate more virtual scenarios as our physical offices become digital workplaces; our classrooms become remote learning environments; and video conferencing, social media, streaming services, and online gaming provide much needed human connection and entertainment.
This precipitous surge in internet usage is likely to decrease as we continue to make strides and emerge from the present global health crisis. However, elevated IT loads will be the new normal, bringing to the fore, and intensifying, questions of data center energy efficiency, consumption, and sustainability.
So, let’s not suspend our responsibility to solve the critical sustainability challenges of our time. Rather, let’s encourage and invest our energies in creating long-term value by developing sustainable and efficient data center infrastructure that drives forward our environmental, social and economic objectives.
