PodChats for FutureCIO: Architecting for sustainable data centres

Back in February 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook (now Meta), stated “there is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.”Of course, Zuckerberg had a vested interest because central to connecting people, the core business of Meta (formerly Facebook), are data centres. Today, data centres are the information backbone of the digital economy, connecting communities of people, businesses and organisations.As for Meta, the company has invested over US$20 billion in its 85 data centres globally, including one in Tanjong Kling, Singapore. But its data centre accounts for just under one per cent of the estimated by 8,271 operating globally, according to Cloudscene.As environmental, social and governance (ESG) become the talk of the town, from Boardrooms to consumers, data centre operators are left with little choice but to be seen as taking a serious look at how to be more energy efficient. After all, data centres as energy-intensive enterprises accounting for one per cent of global electricity use.In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Samuel Lee, CEO of Digital Edge, to talk about to architect sustainable data centres.1.                   Datacentres represent a sizeable carbon footprint for businesses (1% of global electricity consumption is from data centres). As businesses pursue a carbon neutral or net zero carbon initiative, what does this mean for the data centre?2.                   The paradox of the present is that businesses are consuming more data. More data is good for business for data centres (DC). But businesses expect data centre operators to be more ESG responsive. What are DC operators doing to solve this paradox? 3.                   How do you see data centres in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore evolving to meet customer expectations (and plans) around ESG?4.                   When evaluating their DC requirements, what should CIOs and heads of infrastructure and operations include in their planning (and selection of DC operators) to support company ESG goals?