It takes an enormous amount of electricity to cool a data center. According to Global Market Insights, on average, cooling systems represent 40% of total data center energy consumption. And then, of course, there is the collateral cost on the environment.
In utilizing approximately 3% of the global electricity supply, data centers account for about 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to Yole Développement, a market research and strategy consulting company. While 2% may not seem like much, that makes the data center industry’s carbon footprint equal to that of the airline business. Stream a video or audio file, conduct a search, send an email to a friend or colleague, access a customer relationship management (CRM) application, or binge-watch the latest must-see over-the-top (OTT) television series and, to some degree, you’re tapping into the finite resources that make the internet work.