Sustainable Investment

Jeff Safovich, Chief Technology Officer at RiT Tech, on why the grass can be greener for the data centre sector in Ireland

For anyone with their heads still in the sand, last summer’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made for sobering reading. The UN scientific study issued a ‘code red for humanity’, warning of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade.

Fortunately, this climatic crossroads has been reached, as technological breakthroughs in areas such as machine learning and automation are heralding a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which presents opportunities to reshape almost every sector in every country.

And contrary to the recent protests of People Before Profit, that chance for change includes the data centre industry in Ireland.

The eco-socialist group is calling for a halt to building further facilities on the grounds that data centres already use 12 per cent of the country’s electricity and make hitting the Republic’s climate goals unobtainable.

However, at RiT Tech we are championing the adoption of Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM) technology that can provide a foundation on which collaborative efforts can create a sustainable future for those entities historically much maligned for being energy inefficient.

The ‘universal’ aspect of this approach is paramount. Just as climate change demands a united global response, delivering sustainability to the facilities responsible for maintaining technology’s march is multifaceted and needs a holistic answer.

For data centre owners, that means a realignment in their thinking on the ecology and economics of their operations.

From an ecological perspective, XpedITe – RiT Tech’s UIIM solution – is already an essential aid. The innovative toolset has been designed to integrate and interrogate its surroundings to create a comprehensive picture of a data centre’s topology that charts the role of every asset and its interdependencies. Why? Because it is evident that accurate and actionable data is a crucial tool for promoting innovation, growth and sustainability.

Aside from enabling resource optimisation, XpedITe can automate the provisioning process for new assets and services at lightningquick speeds, assessing the impact of infrastructure changes on things like power and temperature, and thus on energy efficiency and pollution.

Consequently, the economic advantages of implementing UIIM are clear. The enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of equipment, resource utilisation and operational processes result in a reduction in costs and unplanned downtime, which are brilliant for bottom lines and the level of service available to customers.

Being sustainable is not just about separating plastic from paper, it is about staying in business by evolving with your markets. Thanks to XpedITe, the two are no longer mutually exclusive. www.rittech.com