data centershave not said their last word

The Uspenski Cathedral is a famous monument of Helsinki, Finland. From the month of April, it will be a huge boiler. Shelter dug during the last war was remodeled to accommodate the new "data center" for Academica, a telecommunications operator. The heat generated by the computers will be recovered and resold to feed the circuit of hot water in the city. "This will heat 1,000 apartments of 90 square metres," said USA Päivänen, commercial Director and marketing of Academica. Our "data center" will be the most eco-efficient on the planet.

As greedy as a city

The argument makes smile specialists. "Nature has good back, fun the it Manager of a company of the CAC 40.". What interests me, it is to save on my data centers. After both better if the measures I am have a positive impact on the environment... "Cut costs, everyone is upgraded. Ten years ago, France Telecom-Orange needed 100 "data centers" occupying millions of square meters to manage networks and information systems. Today, it remains 18. "In 2011, we will open a campus multi -"data center"very high capacity to partially replace the current computing centres", announces Philippe Bourhis, Director global business development IT"Division, Orange Business Services companies. The weight loss cure has been any drastic at HP. "Following Digital, Compaq, Tandem redemptions, etc., HP was himself with 85 centers in the world, explains Philippe Roux, head of marketing for HP France business solutions." In three years, we have reduced this number to three campuses of two "data centers" each. "Same EDF launched the Noah project, which aims to consolidate its infrastructure by end 2010.

These cuts were made possible by more powerful and less bulky machines as servers "Blade", of reduced dimensions. And, thanks to the "virtualization" of operating systems, multiple applications can run simultaneously on a single server, which allowed to pass equipment less occupancy rates of 15 on average over 60.

Other side of the coin, "data centers" fighting records of energy consumption. "In ten years, their needs have been multiplied by five to reach up to 2.5 kilowatts per square metre", says Philippe Roux. Larger data centers now suck as much as a city average! "Our"data center"will need term 32 megawatts, the equivalent of what consume the 50,000 inhabitants of the town of Grasse, calculates Charles - Antoine Beyney, President of Etix DataCenter, a French company which plans to launch the construction from June next to a"data center"of 25,000 square meters - with 10,000 square metres dedicated to the hosting solutions for customers - in a former puppet postal sorting centre., East of Paris, which will have to be completely rehabilitated. "The carbon tax, if she sees the day, can be quite brutal for us", summarized Michel Brignano, Director for the France of Equinix, an American firm that manages 50 datacenters around the world, including three in the Paris region.

Consequence, "at this rate, by 2100, a single large"data center"will need all electricity produced in the United States", warns John r. Thome, Professor at the laboratory of heat and mass of EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) transfer, in Switzerland, joined by Internet.

10,000 euros per square metre

All involved manufacturers (IBM, HP or GSI to the servers;) (Emerson for cooling...) themselves are therefore racing in the optimization of "data centers" (read below). A carrier market, for two reasons: despite the cuts made by major groups, the computing centres multiply in the world (estimated same that the amount of electricity they consume in total doubles every five years); and this power swings part in smoke.

The application world for "data centers" explodes: American Research, studies and advice firm continues specialized in "data centers", believes that the needs (expressed as the number of cabinets - the famous "chassis", still called "bays" or "racks" - hosting servers in "data centers") grew by 7.5 in 2009, but should rebound in 2010 ( 12), before accelerating in 2011 ( 14) and 2012 ( 16). "The construction is on average to about 10,000 euros per square metre", calculates Jason Schafer, continues Research analyst. Is the price per square metre for an apartment in the beautiful areas of Paris! However, gaps are between the different categories of centres. "Construction costs are divided between the land, 2, the buildings and walls (9), architect and master of book (7) and 82 for mechanical and electrical equipment including the conversion of current, batteries, etc., described Bernard Ourghanlian, technical director and Microsoft France security." Since 2004, the only costs of the mechanical and electrical equipment increased by 16 per year.

But the big problem is the waste of energy. "In"data centers"classic, slightly more than half of the energy is actually computer equipment s telecommunications, continues Bernard Ourghanlian.". The rest, a little less than half, is swallowed by the cold groups, air conditioning, UPS and generators. "A general impression of waste to put into perspective: data centers can also be used to make savings. "When you purchase your ticket of train online, you no longer need to take your car to get to the station," said Alain Le Calvé. Some studies, such as that of the ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy), show that 1 kWh consumed in a Computing Center, 10 kilowatt hours not consumed elsewhere. ""data centers"have not said their last word...