Views on the new Uptime Institute report “Energy Efficiency in Digital Infrastructure”
Steve Lewis, VP Americas at EkkoSense, shares views on the “Energy Efficiency in Digital Infrastructure” report from the Uptime Institute.
At EkkoSense we’re serious about optimizing data center performance, so it’s hardly surprising that I’ve been enjoying Uptime Institute’s great new read – “Energy Efficiency in Digital Infrastructure”. Uptime’s paper sets out how the combination of increased AI workloads and tightening sustainability regulations mean that data center energy efficiency has now shifted clearly from ‘a nice-to-have initiative to a business-critical imperative.’
Given this, Uptime asks ‘why is data center energy efficiency so difficult to achieve?’ The paper highlights how the global PUE average has largely plateaued over the last decade, with many data center operators ‘struggling to translate sustainability goals into measurable operational improvements’. And that’s against a background of 1 out of 4 data center owners and operators surveyed by Uptime saying that sustainability regulations are already impacting their operations. More than half expect this to be the case over the coming five years.
So why are so many organizations finding it challenging to ensure that their sustainability goals translate into measurable operational improvements? Uptime’s paper quite rightly suggests that there’s no single solution, but that the barrier is execution not awareness. To help address this, Uptime sets out six key principles that it believes ‘distinguish organizations that achieve sustained efficiency progress from those that do not’. Here’s an outline of some of the recommendations, and I’ve added my thoughts on how EkkoSense can help you deliver:
- Recognize that operations matter as much as design – efficient operations are critical, but you should also recognize that data centres are built with a clear design in mind. So, you always need to be on top of any changes or performance drift. This requires real-time monitoring, tracking all aspects of performance to ensure sites continue to function as their ‘best self’.
- Build cross-functional alignment and dedicated governance – here Uptime calls for a comprehensive governance structure. EkkoSoft Critical’s ability to provide instant real-time capacity, power and cooling views, set clearly defined alerts, automate reporting, and compare historical performance trends makes governance business as usual.
- Embed efficiency into every improvement cycle – Uptime talks about building efficiency into upgrade and improvement cycles. Because EkkoSense is all about real-time performance tracking, our customers find that efficiency quickly gets embedded in their DNA.
- Elevate IT efficiency as a priority – with enhanced visibility into power consumption and capacity, EkkoSense customers get to reduce over-cooling waste, improve planning accuracy, and control energy costs.
- Pursue facility-side efficiency with discipline and rigor – here EkkoSoft Critical already tracks what Uptime sets out as the five primary areas: white space optimization, cooling system performance, electrical distribution efficiency, capacity planning integration, and measurement & metrics. And, when it comes to rigor, there’s nothing more rigorous that having an onboard advisory tool like EkkoSense does. Running a Cooling Advisor session every day is a great way to check that you’re fully on top of facility-side efficiency. Discipline also comes from robust and safe processes such as our Zone of Influence algorithm that has been tracking and calculating site cooling performance every 2-5 minutes across hundreds of customer sites for the last ten years. That’s extremely powerful!
- Recognize that sustainability and operations are complementary – Uptime quite rightly highlights how many energy efficiency measures can also improve operational effectiveness. That’s why within EkkoSoft Critical we have built-in tools like our AI-powered Auto Cooling Anomalies Detection that detects any abnormal changes in performance to provide a clear early warning – way ahead of any traditional BMS alert. We’re able to draw on over a decade of proven AI impact, turning over 50 billion AI data points into clear, auditable operational optimization decisions. By removing thermal & power risks, releasing critical power and cooling capacity, and cutting cooling energy costs, it’s a great way of ensuring that operations and sustainability work hand in hand.
The good news for EkkoSense customers is that our EkkoSoft Critical software directly addresses these key Uptime principles and their subsequent operational requirements. We recognize that AI workloads, power constraints, and sustainability pressures are all driving an increased demand for tools that can unlock intelligent data center optimization. That’s why organizations across 50+ countries already use our software to reduce operational risk, free-up power capacity, and lower energy consumption. If you aren’t a user of EkkoSoft Critical, please get in touch to book a 1:1 strategy session to see how we can solve your data center management challenges.
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