Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written by: Khairul Haqeem, Journalist, AOPG.

Dialogues have raged on all sides of the industry, advocating, promoting, and developing more sustainable industrial practices. The data centre is the world’s largest unsolved problem, and it has some business owners anxious. Wavestone estimates that the data centre sector is responsible for roughly 4% of world power consumption and 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions due to its high energy demands.

The Roundtable for Sustainability

Recently, Vertiv hosted a media roundtable discussion at the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur to address the present scenario of the ever-increasing data and the sustainability challenge of the data centre. Teoh Wooi Keat, Vertiv Malaysia’s Country Manager, Danny Wong, Vertiv’s Senior Director of Telecom Sales in Asia, and Chee Hoe Ling, Vertiv ASI’s Vice President of Infrastructure & Solutions, moderated the discussion.

An Overview of Malaysian Data Centre Business

Market Intelligence predicts a 13% compound annual growth rate in data centre development over the next five years, as worldwide internet traffic rose by more than 40% in 2020. Now more than ever, data centres are an absolute necessity. “As of now,” Teoh Wooi Keat says, “the data centre in Malaysia has developed rapidly from 2021 to 2022.” The expansion of the need for data centres is aided by this, of course.

Teoh noted Vertiv’s structured study showing that the data centre market in Malaysia consumes 66MW of energy. And by 2027, it is projected to increase dramatically, reaching 157MW at the very least. Teoh predicted that the actual number will be much higher in a shorter amount of time.

Johor, a state in Malaysia, is home to several data centre operations and is seeing significant new development. Teoh has stated that favourable tax policies in Malaysia and its near proximity to Singapore are major factors. According to Teoh, “Singapore has been implementing a policy of limited quantity of data centre and energy use in Singapore. Consequently, Malaysia is now a regional hot spot, ideal for the development of data centre infrastructure. Teoh then outlined four key considerations for potential investors in Malaysian data centres.

1. Reliable and stable power.
2. An abundant water source.
3. Land.
4. Talent.
5. International connectivity.

Where Do We Stand on the Road to Sustainability?

Big hyperscale companies have been at the forefront of this movement by committing to carbon neutrality or even negative emissions by the end of the decade. These companies are leading the way in developing and implementing technologies that will help accomplish these goals. In order to meet the growing demand for green data centre services from large businesses, several colocation providers are switching to carbon-neutral and water-efficient operations.

“The situation used to be a plug-and-play sort of scenario for data centres,” Danny Wong reminisced on the past. Many company heads just worry about how well their data centres work. On the other hand, things are very different now. Since the advent of 4G and 5G, data growth has skyrocketed, raising serious sustainability challenges for data centres.

While there is an understanding of the importance of sustainability, many local businesses are either completely unaware of or are a long way behind the national sustainability targets for the next decade. Improvements have been made because of a renewed emphasis on operational efficiency but further reductions in emissions and water usage will require new approaches and smarter systems as the sector expands.

Guiding Sustainability

Vertiv has been pushing its clients toward smaller data centre footprints. There has to be a common procedure to minimise energy, water, and carbon footprint in data centres as Malaysia plans to provide 157MW of data storage power in the next 5 years.

Example: “We had a client that utilised our knowledge to figure out what can the firm do to acquire better PUE,” said Chee Hoe Ling. Utilising our AI and ML, we discovered that a shortcut was being used between the break room and the office by way of the company’s data centre room. More power was needed to maintain the hardware’s temperature due to the turbulence generated by alternating blasts of hot and cold air. To think that a 25% improvement in the company’s PUE was achieved just by eliminating the shortcut path is mind-boggling.

Investing in better data centre consultation, like that provided by Vertiv, is a great place to get started when thinking about how to steer your company toward sustainability. Simply switching to an LED light bulb might have a significant impact on your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint. Give that a thought and start planning your sustainability journey.

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