Energy Efficient Data Centres

Our Green Data Centre Vision

Digital Realty Trust's green data centre vision is committed to improving the data centre energy efficiency and performance of our data centres through the creation, adoption and promotion of industry-leading best data centre practices and experience. We are pioneers in developing green data centres, as well as, adopting and building to LEED and BREEAM certification requirements. We are also a Contributing Member of The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to developing the green data centre vision and promoting data centre energy efficiency.

Defining Energy Efficient Data Centres

In the data centre industry, the Power Usage Effectiveness - PUE metric has emerged to effectively incorporate the key evaluative elements of data centre energy usage to deliver a meaningful efficiency calculation. This standard would be analogous to the “Miles Per Gallon” figure used within the auto industry to allow consumers to evaluate fuel efficiency between varying models and providers.

The Fundamental Design Elements of Energy Efficient Data Centre

The operational efficiency of a data centre is a function of effective power utilisation and heat removal. The achievement of both of these objectives requires sound implementation principles and the selection of a provider that understands the importance of energy efficiency in order for its customers’ to cost effectively expand operations. Among the elements required to achieve this objective are:

• Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle — Using a hot aisle/cold aisle configuration that places your equipment racks in alternating cold (rack air intake side) and hot (rack air heat exhaust side) aisle ways is an effective way to balance the hot and cold air input and output within your facility.


• Operating Temperature — Operating your data centre at the proper temperature can also dramatically decrease your power consumption and corresponding electrical bills. Current ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) specifications specify a data centre operating temperature of 72°F (22°C) as opposed to 68°F (20°C).


• Building Management System (BMS) — A Building Management System (BMS) enables you to capture and trend key performance data on major system components to identify variances in usage levels.


• Build-Out Incrementally — Units like generators and UPS systems are designed to operate at peak efficiency when they are performing to their maximum design conditions. By using incremental building methodologies power efficiency is gained by purchasing the appropriately sized units for the space to be built out.


• Focus on Flooring — The proper distribution of the perforated tiles of your raised floor is a simple, yet effective way to reduce the heat in your data centre and the load on your cooling components. By ensuring that your floor is properly sealed and that your perforated tiles are not blocked or covered by equipment you increase the overall flow of cool air throughout the data centre.