And we will go north! Will it be possible to save on the cooling of data centers due to the weather?

In Denmark, the same company developed a groundwater cooling system for equipment as an energy-saving measure. Earlier, traditional air conditioners were used for cooling in the summer months, which consumed a lot of energy. The result is a system that can always provide sufficient cooling while significantly reducing power consumption.

Ireland is another region where data center energy efficiency is developing. The island’s temperate climate makes it possible to successfully apply the principle of free cooling in cooling and save up to 40% of electricity compared to traditional solutions. In addition, Ireland was one of the first in the EU to use renewable energy sources and by 2030 plans to receive 70% of electricity from such sources.

Regarding the wider global environmental footprint, researchers expect the carbon footprint of data centers will be 5.5% of the global totalif there is no rapid introduction of more efficient energy sources.

Are we going north?

In this light, the initiative to harness the power of the North of Russia is understandable. Our energy costs significantly less than in the West, and accordingly, the initiative to build networks of data centers that can serve the needs of our and foreign companies seems quite logical.

Another thing is that, speaking about the project only in the perspective of energy efficiency, we forget about the economic attractiveness of the data center as a whole. And there everything is a little more complicated than the ability to save on cooling servers.

First of all, the issue of supporting the work of electric and telecommunication networks in the conditions of the northern climate in the Russian Federation is acute. The weather there is not entirely Danish or Irish, not to mention the distances and the length of the networks connected with them. Updating infrastructure elements in December in the north of Siberia or somewhere near Copenhagen are two tasks that are slightly different in complexity and cost.

Next, the issue of the selection of qualified personnel in remote regions raises rather sharply. In principle, the staff deficit is to some extent a problem for the data center industry, even in large economic centers of the country. Operators of data centers as IT companies of a certain profile have their own specifics, universities practically do not let out ready-made specialists for the tasks of the industry: this can be a serious problem, since exporting employees from other cities to the North can be too expensive a pleasure, and teaching local ones not only costly, but also an extremely long-term project with vague prospects.

The second critical point: transport accessibility of the northern regions. Anyone who imagines what the north of Russia is from a logistical point of view, it is clear that this point will also inevitably affect the cost of construction and delivery of equipment.

However, for all its complexity, these moments are solvable problems. More serious shortcomings of the project “Data centers – to the north” lie on a different plane.

Necessary but not enough

Any data center is always built for a specific task. The minimum configuration, pretended “by eye”, may not be enough, and construction with a large margin may result in cost overruns and risks of low profitability.

Therefore, it is advisable to immediately understand who, in what volume and with what growth potential of their appetites for IT capacities will “go into” future data centers. From here the technical specifications of the objects will be formed.

It is worth noting that almost all modern cooling systems using free-cooling solutions are already in one way or another used in data centers located in areas with a temperate climate and average annual temperature in the range of 10-15 ° C.

In order to use air to cool the data center, it is not necessary to place it near the Arctic Circle. There is such a nuance: in the conditions of the Far North at the initial stage of the data center project, before it is filled and launched at full design capacity, the opposite need will arise in terms of temperature regulation. Namely – in heat up premises of server rooms.

Finally, the most important thing. Any modern commercial (and corporate) data center is able to generate its surplus value only under the condition of high-quality network connectivity of its resources with the outside world. This refers to the ability to connect to global clouds, IXs, telecom operators, direct connectivity with IT resources of partners and contractors. All these tasks require a modern, well-built network. It can be relatively inexpensive to deploy, provided that the data centers are within reach of the main traffic routes. Otherwise, you will get a good, energy-efficient and modern data center that does not solve the main problem – it does not support the high response speed of IT systems.

The same can be said with respect to proximity to transmission lines with the necessary reserve of free capacity. If these conditions are not met, any cooling savings risk turning into an empty PR trick.

Combination of success factors

It’s important to understand that the meaning of “green” data centers in Scandinavia is not only that they are energy efficient. They are energy efficient and located at the intersection of the world’s major traffic transmission routes. Or very close to them.

In this light, today it is possible to speak of some expediency of building northern data centers in the Russian Federation only with reference to Karelia and some other areas of the North-West Federal District.

Yes, the idea of ​​energy-optimized data centers is in the air. They are being built in Finland, comparable in climatic conditions to most of our North-West. However, in such projects it is necessary to take into account the specifics of users of the services of such data centers. As a rule, these are corporate data centers of large international IT providers. For example, we can talk about the data center of Google, which is the sole user of its own data center. In this case, it is enough to have one communication channel and access to international backbone providers to ensure the economic feasibility of the project.

And now, attention, the question is, what is the attractiveness for Google in building the same data center in Russia? Here we also need to return to the issues of transport and social infrastructure, which will also become acute already at the stage of operation and development of the facility. How to get to this data center, how to carry equipment, where to store it? Finally, how comfortable will highly qualified personnel of such a data center be living permanently somewhere in the north of Siberia?

Started?

While deputies are proposing, a project of a network of data centers in the North already developing: In the fall of 2019, Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU), together with GS Nanotech, announced their intention to build a distributed network of data centers for 10 billion rubles for 20 thousand rack places in the northern regions of Karelia.

The ultimate goal of the project is currently not indicated – who, in fact, will get into these data centers? As I said, the lack of a clear understanding of the ultimate goal of such a project seriously reduces the chances of its success.

Meanwhile, if we talk about the real tasks of the industry today, it makes sense to put an emphasis on optimizing the work of existing platforms: by increasing the productivity of computing resources per rack, increasing the bandwidth of the channels, and most importantly, ensuring the connectivity of data center resources with global ecosystems of IT platforms, marketplaces and services, the introduction of attractive energy tariffs.

If you succeed in these areas, “northern data centers” may not be needed at all.