2023 is a key year for digital technology that respects the environment more » PACA economic and political letter

Kevin POLIZZI, Unitel Group President.

CES sometimes holds a lot of surprises because the technologies on display are numerous. At a booth dedicated to the enclosed car, the international motor oil supplier presented one of its subsidiaries, offering to place next-generation servers horizontally in a dielectric oil bath, thus simplifying the deployment of IT resources and environmental compatibility.

Over the past few weeks, many contacts have been asking me about the future of Datacenters and the real use (and economic impact) of the submarine cable platform in Marseille. It was for a time a policy tool to strengthen the attractiveness of the metropolis of Aix/Marseille, then during a turn it became the target of many attacks because the environmental footprint of the sector formed a theme? A few attempts at clarification!

Who are the most important telecommunication networks and therefore the real consumers of energy?

Due to their heavy use of online data and applications, there are many companies worldwide that consume large amounts of bandwidth. Companies that consume the largest bandwidth are typically companies operating in areas such as online media, social networks, online games, video streaming services, and technology companies.

Worldwide bandwidth consumers in 2022:

1. Google
2. Facebook / Meta
3. netflix
4. Amazon
5. Youtube
6. Microsoft
7. apple
8. Baidu
9. Ali Baba
10. Tencent

It should be noted that this list may change depending on technology trends and changes in the industry, and companies may leave or disappear from this list over time.

200 GW in 2019… 400 GW in 2022?

Due to the exponential growth of data and the increasing use of the Internet, the energy consumption of data centers around the world is constantly increasing. In 2019, the total energy consumption of data centers worldwide is estimated to be about 200 GW, which is about 1% of the total global energy consumption. This consumption is expected to increase significantly in the coming years due to the continuous growth of data and increased use of AI technologies.

It is important to note that this electricity consumption of data centers has an impact on the environment due to the production of greenhouse gases associated with electricity generation. Therefore, it is important to develop more efficient technologies to reduce the electricity consumption of data centers in order to limit the environmental impact.

A nuclear unit (isolated reactor) produces 1.3 GW, so the exponential growth and consumption of data centers must focus on implementing a diversified energy mix (nuclear, solar, wind) and take full advantage of new energy storage capabilities (batteries). , hot water buffers, ice stocks)

New technologies to help the planet?

Digital, while consuming a lot of natural resources, is becoming the sector with the largest decarbonization potential in the world… it’s all a matter of balance and fair perception.

There are several new data center cooling technologies designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. Some examples of these technologies are:

1. Immersion cooling: This technique involves immersing the electronic components in a coolant, which effectively transfers heat from the components to the cooling system.
2. Outdoor air cooling: Since 2015, most sites have tended to use outdoor air to cool their data centers instead of air conditioning.
3. Evaporative cooling: Evaporating water to cool data centers is widely criticized today for its excessive consumption.
4. Seawater cooling: In recent years, sites have used seawater to cool their data centers whenever possible, allowing the low temperature of seawater to cool electronic components.
5. Adiabatic cooling: This method uses water evaporation to cool the ambient air before using it to cool data centers.
6. Liquid air cooling: in some special cases it is possible to use liquid air to cool data centers, i.e. coolers with a very low liquefaction temperature to cool electronic components.
7. Cooling with thermal sensors: This technique uses thermal sensors to detect heat and regulate the temperature of data centers (by temperature or power consumption).

Who are the key players in digital transformation (IAAS/PAAS)?

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS): A market leader in cloud computing services, it offers a wide range of data center services, including data management, infrastructure as a service, and storage services.
2. Microsoft Azure: Offers a full range of cloud computing services, including data management, infrastructure as a service, and storage services.
3. Google Cloud: Offers a full range of cloud computing services, including data management, infrastructure as a service, and storage services.
4. IBM: Offers a full range of cloud computing services, including data management, infrastructure as a service and storage services.
5. Alibaba Cloud: Offers a full range of cloud computing services, including data management, infrastructure as a service, and storage services.

Towards a more virtuous and sovereign industry!

Admittedly, the data center industry compared to other more traditional industries (logistics, industry 4.0 or . However, there is another reading that these consumptions are often optimized compared to the deployment of resources in the center of aging or underutilized companies. There are probably 3 factors between consumption and the economy of overconsumption of scattered resources.

PUE and WUE

PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) are both energy efficiency metrics, but they measure different aspects of energy use in data centers.

PUE measures the energy efficiency of a data center by comparing the total energy consumption of the data center with the energy consumption used by the IT servers. Specifically, it is calculated by dividing the data center’s total energy consumption (including lighting, air conditioning, etc.) by the energy consumption used to power the computer servers. PUE 1.0 means that all the energy used in the data center is used to power the computer servers.

WUE (Water Use Efficiency) measures the efficiency of water use in data centers by comparing the amount of water used to cool data centers to the amount of energy used to power computer servers. It measures the efficiency of water used to cool data centers.

Both metrics are important for measuring data center energy efficiency, but they focus on different aspects of energy and water use. PUE focuses on overall energy usage, while WUE focuses on water usage for cooling data centers.

Thus, the exponential growth of needs due to the increasingly important digitization of the economy (competitiveness, performance, reduction of the carbon footprint) must be placed at the center of these strategic infrastructures, which are real technological foundations and accelerators of sovereignty for our economy. transition.

This A critical lack of French actors in this regard may attract attention. We have leased a little of the Elysee Palace to a foreign power . We bet that in 2023, the new players will be able to establish themselves in the market with everyone’s support and support! Who knows ?