Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future by DCD Magazine

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innovation for a sustainable and digitized future Eaton Technology Summit Data Centers - EMEA

xIntegra is the latest step in the evolution of Eaton’s Data Centre power management capabilities and digital expertise, an integrated systems-engineered approach that shifts from the traditional mix-n-match design and procurement of individual elements to a group of intelligent components, acting together as a complete system along the power train. Through designed-in optimisation at both component and system level, xIntegra ensures system level performance and integrity at every lifecycle stage within your data centre – from design to implementation, operation to retirement.

To discover more visit www.eaton.com/xintegra

Contents

4 Introduction 5 Chapter one: New challenges 6 Disruptive data center developments

9 Benefits of a systems approach to data centers Addressing market challenges with a modular

10 approach

14 Evolutions in power technology

How data centers can put their power infrastructure to

15 work for utilities

19 Chapter two: Sustainability 20 Changing the status quo

24 On-demand: Sustainable design 25 From data center to energy center 28 DCD Talks sustainability with Mike Jackson, Eaton Chapter three: Accelerating the digital

29 transformation

30 Accelerating the digital transformation: Part one 2023 progress report: Digital transformation and the

32 energy transition

33 Accelerating the digital transformation: Part two 35 Eaton Brightlayer Data Centers suite

>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future

Introduction Today it would appear no sector has been left untouched by digital transformation, with our rapidly changing world catalyzing a change in the way we all do business whether we’re ready or not. As the backbone of this burgeoning new digital world, the data center industry is under constant pressure to innovate, delivering maximum performance, whilst maintaining minimal impact on our planet. With a renewed focus on efficiency, reliability and sustainability, this not only creates the need for a new generation of electrical systems and technology, but a revision to the way data centers are managed and operated. To find out more, DCD was invited to join Eaton at its 2023 Technology Summit. Moving around Europe’s key data center locations, this year’s twoday event was held in Amsterdam, and was designed to bring digitalization and the energy transition together.

Featuring a personalized agenda, attendees were presented with a collection of expert speakers from across the industry, offering invaluable insights to help audiences understand how to approach this pivotal tipping point. From challenges and opportunities, to technological change and environmental responsibility, in this eBook, we bring together a collection of on-demand content from the event, alongside articles and resources to take you on a journey of discovery in finding out what the future holds for our industry. To register your interest in next year’s event, click here.

 To re-watch all the presentations, panels and discussions from the 2023 Eaton Technology Summit, click here to tune in #EatonTechSummit

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Chapter one: New challenges New challenges require new solutions. From the developments currently disrupting the data center dynamic, to changing client requirements and evolutions in data center management, in this chapter we examine how owners and operators can look to address what lies ahead. And it’s not just data centers that are experiencing this sea change, energy utilities are also having to adapt at breakneck speed, presenting an opportunity for data center operators to get more out of their facilities. Read on to find out more.

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Disruptive data center developments

Ciarán Forde, Eaton

But is it disruption, or opportunity?

ith much of the recent outlook for the data center sector having been focused on balancing the growth in digitalization with more sustainable practices, to say that the last couple of years have been disruptive would be an understatement. But we had no way of knowing what was to come, nor could we predict the impact the ongoing disruption to the geopolitical landscape would have on its digital counterpart. Add to that a severe energy crisis and the data center industry really has been up against it. The current situation brings into sharper focus the importance of addressing the issues raised over the last couple of years, as well as

highlighting new challenges. That said, it’s not all doom and gloom – ongoing digitalization, for example, represents new opportunities for the sector. Here, then, are some of the developments – for good or ill – that we can expect to see in the data center sector during 2023 and beyond.

Energy uncertainty The biggest issue we face right now is the extraordinarily high price of energy. The cost has skyrocketed to the point where it becomes a real concern for large energy users, such as data center owners. Can they pass these costs on to their customers? Will the prices

continue to rise? Do they have the cashflow to manage this in their business model? While the argument for a renewable generation strategy has always been around sustainability and the environment, today we need in-region renewables to protect supplies for European countries primarily for reasons of energy security and cost. Microsoft is taking a step in this direction, for example. Its Dublin data center features banks of lithium-ion batteries approved for connection to the grid, to help grid operators provide uninterrupted power should renewable sources such as wind, sun, and sea be insufficient to meet demand.

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This need to accelerate the

generation of renewable energy is, effectively, an extension of the outlook we saw in 2022. But the need for renewables is much more acute now and should serve as a wake-up call to governments across EMEA that they can no longer rely on traditional energy sources.

Broken supply chains Covid-19 had a tremendous impact on global supply chains across many sectors. However, once the pandemic receded, businesses everywhere were lulled into something of a false sense of security, believing they’d been through the worst. No-one was expecting a second body blow, a geopolitical crisis that’s proven to be even more disruptive to some supply chains than Covid. As a high growth market, the data center industry is highly sensitive to supply chain disruption, especially at a time when it’s looking to scale up - with markets for the semiconductors and base metals vital to data center construction particularly impacted.

Certainty in uncertain times: Responding to client requirements with Mike Longman Eaton

The industry as a whole is still struggling with supply chain disruption. And the current geopolitical landscape means this is only likely to continue.

Tackling growing complexity The requirement for digital growth has reached an unprecedented level. Every possible avenue has been explored to fulfil that need more simply, more costeffectively, and in the shortest possible time. But doing so can be contradictory to the nature of many highly complex, mission-critical environments. A data center is home to a wealth of different technologies – from HVAC systems to mechanical and structural engineering, IT and compute. The challenge is trying to accelerate such highly complex, interdependent types of environments to maintain the current trends for digitalization. To this end, data center designers, operators, and vendors are fashioning systems that will reduce this complexity while respecting an application’s missioncritical nature. The industrialization, or modulization of data centers, where prefabricated, pre-engineered, and pre-integrated units, are delivered to site, is one way of making the design and construction of a data center less complex while ensuring faster time-to-market.

Moving beyond traditional clusters

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The need for renewables is much more acute now and should serve as a wake-up call to governments across EMEA that they can no longer rely on traditional energy sources

Until now, London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris have been the traditional data center clusters, either because companies are headquartered in these cities, or because they’re natural economic clusters with

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> Ciarán Forde Eaton

>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future a wealth of telecom connectivity and ideal client profiles. To provide quality of service and to be in closer proximity to centers of population and economic activity, it’s becoming more favorable to build data centers in the secondary cities of the main economic nations and in the capitals of smaller economic nations.

Evolutions in data center management

Competition amongst the data center providers is strong, so many of these Tier II cities and nations provide growth for existing operators or low point of entry for new operators. For this reason, you will see increased activity in cities like Warsaw, Vienna, Istanbul, Nairobi, Lagos, and Dubai.

with Guy Dabell

But this expansion is not without its challenges. Considerations around the availability of appropriate sites, power, and engineering labor all add complexity to an organization’s overall operations, for instance. And many of those countries may not have a lot of experience or personnel to help with the design, construction, and operation of a new data center.

CBRE

Overcoming such challenges will require data center owners to relearn the industry each time they move into a new geography. Regardless of such challenges, though, new markets continue to open up, with many operators trying to achieve first mover advantage into developing secondary markets.

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In fact, many jurisdictions are welcoming data center operators with open arms, with some even offering incentives and subsidies to entice them. One thing these past couple of years have proved, is that we can’t be certain about anything. The after-effects of Covid-19 and the current geopolitical system have left the sector facing a series of unprecedented challenges. But growth opportunities exist. Trends would indicate that more forward-looking operators will be able to weather the storm, to face Connecting the power train to the value chain from grid to chip whatever the future holds.  Systems engineering White Paper

The industrialization, or modulization of data centers, is one way of making the design and construction of a data center less complex

Neil Potter Business Development Segment Team Lead, Data Centres - EMEA Eaton

Executive summary A data centre today looks very different to one just five years ago. And it’s all thanks to the effects of increasing demand on their evolving and expanding capacity, alongside regulatory drivers designed to deliver greater sustainability and efficiency. Accelerating globalisation and the presence of hyperscalers and large colos beyond the traditional hubs are now asking questions of us all. How can we evolve with data centres and support their growth? How can we alleviate their challenges and identify new ones now and into the future? And, critically, how can we do better than before? With this as the driving force for improvements, we must ask if the current way we design, implement and operate our data centres can meet these needs. Alternatively, we need to challenge ourselves to think in a transformational and evolutionary way. This paper explores turning traditional thinking on its head by taking a systems approach to data centres to support the demands of today and tomorrow.

Introduction

It cannot be underestimated how rapid growth within data centre markets has been over recent years. This has been fuelled by the ever-increasing demands we place on the digital world and the need for business-critical functions to be resilient and reliable. While the focus is still on the main ‘FLAPD’ countries, we’re seeing many operators, including hyperscalers, colos and even enterprises, spreading their wings to emerging markets such as Turkey, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Middle East and Africa. FIGURE 3: FLAPD market supply and utilisation, 2015-2022F (MW)

> Ciarán Forde Eaton

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3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0

2015

2016

Supply

2017

2018

Supply Forecast

2019 Utilised

2020

2021

2022F

Utilised Forecast

Source: CBRE Research, Q3 2022

CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE

>Talks



Benefits of a systems approach to data centers with Ciarán Forde, Eaton

CLICK TO WATCH

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Addressing market challenges with a modular approach

Craig Doyle Eaton

Examining the benefits of a modular approach in mitigating data center challenges

ata centers touch most areas of our personal and business lives, and have been described by many as the “fifth utility”.

But a shift to the cloud, coupled with the ongoing adoption of internet-connected devices, and the increasing popularity of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), means there is a growing demand for data storage and processing.

Essentially a “plug and play” solution, modular data centers are prefabricated by experienced providers, thereby eliminating the need for qualified engineers to travel repeatedly to site

Data center operators have no option but to continually expand capacity to keep up. This has implications for sustainability, given the huge

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> Craig Doyle Eaton

Recent research estimated that training an AI model resulted in 25 tonnes of CO2 emission, with a further 25 tonnes generated by the production of the computer hardware needed to build and train that model, and the energy required to run it once it was trained

Grid to chip: Resilience, redundancy and efficiency with Neil Potter,

> Craig Doyle

Eaton

Eaton amount of power required to run a data center, and the size of the carbon footprint this represents. And this, of course, is an area where data center operators are facing increasingly stringent regulatory pressure from governments across the globe.

Challenging growth The global data center market is growing rapidly. Worth $466bn in 2020, it is predicted to reach $948bn by 2030. The volume of data created and consumed across the world is growing too, and is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2030. But with this growth come challenges. The amount of electricity required to manage this data is expected to grow by 400 per cent by 2030, with most of that energy consumed by powering and cooling computational hardware. This rate of growth is concerning, however, with various reports suggesting that data centers already account for between one and four per cent of global electricity use.



These and other challenges need to be addressed for data centers to remain competitive, and to meet sustainability targets, while still delivering the flexibility, scalability, and quality of service their customers expect. The solution may lie, then, in a modular approach to the design, construction, and operation of data centers.

With unprecedented growth across the data center sector showing no signs of abating, DCD’s Dan Loosemore sits down with Neil Potter, to find out how Eaton is supporting its customers through the technological trends driving data center demand today

Environmental concerns All of this obviously has a significant environmental cost. Recent research estimated that training an AI model resulted in 25 tonnes of CO2 emission, with a further 25 tonnes generated by the production of

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CLICK TO WATCH

fo a sustainable and digitized future >> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for

Today’s modular data centers can offer greater energy efficiency than their traditional, purposebuilt counterparts, with the capacity for more advanced, sustainable solutions to be built in from the start

Sustainable data center growth in Europe

> Craig Doyle

with

Eaton

Stijn Grove, Dutch DC Association

the computer hardware needed to build and train that model, and the energy required to run it once it was trained. In total, this roughly equates to 60 flights between London and New York. It’s therefore unsurprising that data center operators everywhere are seeking more sustainable practices in an effort to reduce the size of their carbon footprint. In January 2021, for example, more than 40 companies and trade organizations with links to the data center industry formed the European-based Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, under which they agreed to make data centers climate neutral by 2030.

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The industry faces governmental regulation in this regard, as well. The European Union, for instance, has singled out large energy users – and the data center industry in particular – in proposed modifications to its Energy Efficiency Directive, stipulating the need for sustainability reporting and plans from data center operators.

Supply chain disruption

Under-utilized or nontraditional buildings can be quickly repurposed to accommodate the growing demand for data storage and processing > Craig Doyle Eaton

Other challenges have arisen since Covid. Most recently, the ongoing geopolitical crisis has left most industries faced with the rising cost and uncertain security of their energy supply while, at the same time, exacerbating many of the supply chain issues originally caused by the pandemic. The recent period of growth has meant data center operations across all regions require the same resources, impacting the supply of raw and finished materials. But the effects of the global health crisis, followed so closely by the events in Eastern Europe, have only disrupted those supply chains further – particularly with regard to the semiconductors and base metals so vital to data center construction. And

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with no end in sight to the current political situation, the supply chain disruption seems set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Expanding outreach Furthermore, data centers today are increasingly located outside of traditional clusters such as Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, cities in which major companies are headquartered, or which are natural economic clusters with a wealth of telecom connectivity and ideal client profiles. Instead, potential for growth and a low point of entry mean it’s becoming more favourable to build data centers in the secondary cities of the main economic nations, and in the capitals of smaller economic nations. But considerations around the availability of suitable sites, power, and engineering labour in these areas can prove challenging to any expansion plan. Indeed, many of these countries may not have the experience and personnel needed to help with the design, construction, and operation of a new data center. One of the answers to this, and to all of the challenges outlined above, lies in the concept of the modular data center.

Many benefits The industrialization, or modulization, of data centers, wherein prefabricated, preengineered, and pre-integrated units are delivered to site, is a flexible, scalable approach to data center construction which enables data center operators to increase capacity with reduced cost, complexity, and construction time. Essentially a “plug and play” solution, modular data centers are prefabricated by experienced providers, thereby eliminating the need for qualified engineers to travel repeatedly to site. Designed to provide ample capacity for the required IT compute equipment, each modular unit accommodates aspects such as electrical, cooling, controls, and security requirements

to provide an all-in-one system. Its benefits are manifold. The ability to use pre-fabrication, integration, and testing off-site, for example allows data center operators to adopt a parallel approach to construction, reducing the need for materials and labour to be split between multiple sites. Not only is this vital in light of current supply chain disruption but it also contributes to a more efficient and environmentally responsible movement of materials and people.

Sustainable solutions Today’s modular data centers can offer greater energy efficiency than their traditional, purpose-built counterparts, with the capacity for more advanced, sustainable solutions to be built in from the start. Typically used to provide emergency power in the event of an outage, the inclusion of a grid-interactive uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can enable a data center’s backup power system to provide auxiliary power energy services back to the grid when required. By putting data centers in full control of their energy, a solution such as this can allow operators to choose how much capacity to offer and when. It also means they can choose their price, allowing them to generate revenue as well as contributing to renewable energy. In addition, the efficient use of sophisticated DCIM software can help data center operators to measure, monitor and model their power and energy performance to ensure little or nothing is wasted.

Return on investment There are cost savings to be made, too. Building and maintaining data centers is expensive. Even in developed markets, land is at a premium. With limited space available in urban areas, where many of an operator’s customers are located, it can be difficult to build a large data center. A modular

approach, however, enables a quicker and easier way for operators to scale their operations, expanding and adapting existing sites rather than sourcing new real estate. Under-utilized or non-traditional buildings can be quickly repurposed to accommodate the growing demand for data storage and processing. Not only does this allow data center operators to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded market, but it means that any investment in expansion can be used efficiently. Indeed, predictable CAPEX is critical. But, by with every specification pre-determined before the units are delivered, the modular approach means there are no surprises. The economies of the model are entirely predictable.

Looking to the future Businesses today operate in a digital economy. As a result, the need for facilities to house compute, storage, and associated supporting digital infrastructure is growing tremendously, with a universal need for a faster, more resilient, safer, and more cost-effective way to house digital equipment and data. A modular approach reduces the cost and complexity of data center design, construction, and co-ordination. In doing so, it addresses many of the challenges faced by data center operators today – from environmental concerns to supply chain disruption, and from the expansion beyond traditional clusters to the need for faster time to market and greater return on investment. There will always be a place for a traditional brick-and-mortar approach but, in offering expert system engineering, quality, flexibility, scalability, safety, and sustainability, modular is a strong, viable option in the future of data center construction, and brings with it many advantages. 

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>Talks



Evolutions in power technology with Janne Paananen, Eaton

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How data centers can put their power infrastructure to work for utilities Graeme Burton DCD

ome of the best businesses in the world are successful because they know how to sweat their assets: maximizing the amount of work they get out of their major investments in property, plant, machinery and, naturally, staff.

The rise of renewable power makes balancing the power grid more challenging. But data centers can help by providing grid balancing and other services, argues Eaton’s Forrest D. Secosky

Yet in the data center sector some of the most vital infrastructure assets often play a marginal role on a day-to-day operational basis. For example, the backup engines and UPS, which form part of a highly redundant architecture, may only fully come into play when anything from anomalies in the power supply to a fullscale emergency occurs. But perhaps there are ways such major investments can be profitably put to work for the operator, while helping utilities more efficiently and cost-effectively run their power grids? That idea forms the basis of Eaton’s data centers as a grid concept, in which the data center, instead of being a passive consumer of grid power, provides critical power services to help utilities tackle their grid balancing and other challenges, which have become more acute in recent years with the shift towards renewable energy sources. These services include what is called ‘peak shaving’, frequency and voltage regulation, virtual inertia, and fast frequency reserve (FFR) services. “It’s all about transforming the assets that the data center already has, or could have in the future, to be

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fo a sustainable and digitized future >> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for more interactive with the grid,” says Forrest D. Secosky, commercial marketing manager, data centers, at Eaton. He continues: “For instance, data center facilities have a range of storage assets, such as UPS or battery, and energy storage. Increasingly, they might also have alternative ways to generate power, such as a microgrid incorporating solar or wind. Most will have diesel or gas generators for backup, too.”

VPPs and demand response for data centers

These could act as either a system reserve or a fast-frequency response mechanism, without compromising their primary purpose for the data center. Indeed, the data center operator could set the parameters for which the UPS provides power to the utility for grid services, ensuring they are always retaining sufficient back-up capacity to handle pretty much any emergency that may arise.

with Lucy Plant,

“So there’s a multitude of ways that a data center could participate in either the power generation to support their own operations or sharing that power back with the utility to help manage the ups and downs of demand on the grid,” Secosky adds.

EnelX

It’s not just the vagaries of minute-by-minute demand from consumers that utilities are grappling with, but the even harder to predict perturbations in supply wrought by the roll-out of renewables, particularly in the form of wind and solar. So much so, that the cost of balancing power grids has gone through the roof.

CLICK TO WATCH

There’s a multitude of ways that a data center could participate in either the power generation to support their own operations or sharing that power back with the utility to help manage the ups and downs of demand on the grid > Forrest D. Secosky Eaton

In the UK, for example, shrinking baseload power as coal and nuclear plants have closed has seen grid balancing costs balloon from £1.2 billion ($1.5bn) in 2019 to more than £4 billion ($5bn) in 2022 – and with further closures of both looming in the coming years, those costs are not going to be coming down. Hence, the provision of grid balancing and other power services will not only enable data center operators to put their investments towards increasingly profitable work, but should also help contain those costs as more coal and nuclear power plants are closed for good – a classic win-win. “It all comes down to the energy they have on site, and the batteries – the UPS – in particular,” says Secosky. “There’s usually plenty of additional capacity built into the system just because of the minimum sizing requirement of the UPS.” After all, for safety’s sake – perhaps a fault means that the backup engines don’t automatically start-up as intended – there’s typically a large margin of error builtin to the calculations when UPS and backup engines are specified prior to installation. In addition, they are typically over-specified in order to cover the very worstcase scenarios, so there is typically plenty of unutilized capacity to spare.

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Moreover, while it may take standard diesel backup generators no more than a minute, at most, to take over the running of the facility, the UPS infrastructure is typically designed to be able to keep things ticking over for five or more minutes. But data center operators will need to make a few investments in their next round of upgrades in order to be ‘grid ready.’

Battery power! This will mean upgrading UPS systems from old-style lead acid batteries to Lithium-ion as valveregulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries are not designed to handle the number and frequency of cycles, and the longer service life these new grid-interactive services will entail. “Historically, VRLA batteries have been most popular. There’s now a lot of new battery chemistries available, but our focus at Eaton is primarily on Li-ion, at the moment, because of the sheer number of charge and discharge cycles possible with Li-ion compared to lead acid,” says Secosky. “As a result, more and more UPS systems are being shipped with Liion batteries these days, which can be leveraged in this way.” Lead acid batteries, though, are considerably less flexible. While they can be adapted to support Fast Frequency Reserve services, due to the small amount of activation and short discharge required, it’s not possible to provide the full gamut of potential services. “You’d wear out the batteries. But on the other hand, Li-ion batteries today are probably not being cycled as much as they could be,” says Secosky While the upfront cost of Li-ion batteries is greater, their overall total cost of ownership is ultimately lower, adds Secosky. On top of that, of course, data center operators will need to ensure that their UPS can support the provision of grid-balancing

There’s now a lot of new battery chemistries available, but our focus at Eaton is primarily on Liion, at the moment, because of the sheer number of charge and discharge cycles possible with Li-ion compared to lead acid > Forrest D. Secosky Eaton services, and that their data center software is capable of handling the interface between the facility and the power grid. Eaton’s latest UPS systems can be equipped with tried-and-tested EnergyAware firmware built-in, which means that it is actively ready to provide grid balancing and other services to the grid – and already tried and tested across North America, Ireland and Scandinavia. When paired with the company’s Brightlayer Data Centers suite, data center operators can automate responses to grid anomalies, such as peak demand occurrences or frequency response issues. The EnergyAware algorithms mean that data center operators can allocate a specific portion of the stored energy in their UPS system for these services, but they always retain overall control. For the grid operators, on the other hand, such grid-interactive infrastructure is akin to a virtual machine that they can spinup under particular conditions, backed by a pre-defined agreement with the data center facility. The

Brightlayer Data Centers suite coordinates and documents these actions for regulatory compliance and financial reporting.

Giving back While grid balancing is currently the number one service grid operators need, in the future, new applications could contribute even more, suggests Secosky. This could even, perhaps, invert the current dynamic in many parts of the world where data center organizations need to wait until the grid operator is able to provide sufficient capacity before they can open or expand a facility, to one where the operator can provide on-site generated power to the grid, enabling them to open and operate regardless. There is another element, too, that also needs to be addressed, admits Secosky: grid balancing services also need to be supported by the power utilities and that entails investments in grid upgrades on their part. This is where utilities in the EMEA region, beset by some of the highest power prices in the world in recent years, have taken a global lead, he adds, but much of the work required to support grid-interactive services is already being done in order to support renewable power. Moreover, a number of data center operators have also been exploring these capabilities in partnership with Eaton. So in the future, believes Secosky, new data center developments can – and arguably should – be constructed with gridinteractive capabilities built-in from the design stage, not just for perfectly sensible financial reasons, but to support sustainability throughout the lifecycle of the data center’s UPS infrastructure, too. For more on how Eaton is helping optimize data centers for the digital, low-carbon future, visit Eaton.com/DataCenters. 

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What matters: Building data centres to exceed big expectations.

Data centres are uniquely positioned to benefit from the energy transition and the potential for power to flow bi-directionally because of longtime investments in always-on power. Traditionally, power flowed in one direction from the local utility to energy consumers. Today, power can flow through the electric grid and between an increasing number of decentralised renewable resources and electrical loads at the edge. Discover how data centres can substantially increase revenue and play a vital role in powering a low-carbon future: Eaton.com/datacentres

We make what matters work.

Chapter two: Sustainability As rack densities continue to increase, with great power comes great (environmental) responsibility. In this chapter, we examine the role of the data center in supporting renewable power adoption, the sustainable progress of data centers in Europe, as well as the ways your facility can help green the grid. We discuss the power paradigm in terms of the move to net-zero, achieving the holy grail of carbon neutrality, and some of the design solutions aiming to deliver maximum performance, with minimal impact on our planet.

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Green data centers: Changing the status quo

Claire Fletcher DCD

A green data center requires a green grid, and to achieve that, our mindset must change

limate change: a planetary issue that affects us all. But with data centers now consuming ever

increasing amounts of the world’s power, there is a certain moral obligation for the industry to act – not to mention the soaring demand for sustainable solutions at both a corporate and customer level. Data centers are the lifeblood of the digital economy; intelligent management of energy, power and cooling is as critical as the management of the infrastructure that sits inside them. A recent research report by S&P Global Market Intelligence, commissioned by

Eaton, ‘The intersection of digital transformation and the energy transition’, revealed some of the factors guiding the efficiency and sustainability efforts of data centers today, with several coming to the forefront as most important. Fifty percent of data center respondents cited the need to increase renewables, followed by improving energy storage (47 percent), providing power intelligence insights to more people - from technicians to the c-suite (41 percent), and promoting that story to regulators, markets and customers (40 percent). It’s clear from the findings that in order to ensure our increasingly digital world is a sustainable one,

data center operators must recognize that changes need to be made and that new energy business models will be key to how data centers view and manage their power needs. Afterall, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, or so said Albert Einstein. That same sentiment is shared by Ciarán Forde, data center and IT market segment lead for Eaton’s electrical sector, EMEA. Forde is of the opinion that to meet both performance and sustainability goals, when it comes to data center design and build, the status quo has to change. “Our lives are becoming increasingly digitized, and the

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energy required to achieve this is only going to rise as various systems move to an electrified platform. If we want to enjoy the benefits of a digital society and economy, there is an energy price that has to be paid. “The penny has dropped that we don’t want to pay that price with fossil fuel. We want all the energy we need for a digital economy, but now, we want that energy to be green. In order to facilitate the onboarding of renewable energy, how you design and operate a data center will need to change.” The good news is that by 2050, The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that 90 percent of the world’s electricity can and should come from renewable energy. The bad news however, is the intermittent nature of renewable energy poses flexibility challenges not only to data centers, but the energy grid itself.

Carbon neutral data centers with Peter Connolly AlphaTech Realty

“Grid systems do not exist today capable of accommodating such high levels of renewable energy,” says Forde. “I go back to August 2019 when there was a severe blackout and brownout in the UK because two sites, one of which an offshore wind farm, went off grid. It just brings home how much we take energy for granted.” And all it takes is a large spike in consumption or drop in production to severely destabilize the grid. For that reason, a data center can’t just blindly consume renewable energy and say ‘job done’. A challenge faced by the grid operator is a challenge faced by us all, particularly those operating mission critical facilities. “We have to go from being a blind consumer to a good grid citizen,” says Forde. “We have to ask, how do we perform on and what is our relationship to the grid?”

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For this change to be realized, data center operators – alongside other large energy consumers – need an understanding of the energy coming in so they can use their own facilities to help optimize grid performance. “When a data center operator’s biggest risk and cost is grid failure, then it’s in their best interest to help ensure a renewable grid that is more stable and doesn’t fail. With possibilities for the data center to participate in grid services, their contribution could help to make this happen,” says Forde. To make said contribution possible, data center designers now have different parameters to factor in than they did previously. “There have been some significant advances in terms of data center policy related to energy efficiency and their relationship with energy generation and the grid. “For example, there have been moratoriums on data center building in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and more recently Ireland, whereby new policy indicates a preference for data centers to have onsite generation or to be located near sources of renewable generation.

We want all the energy we need for a digital economy, but now, we want that energy to be green. In order to facilitate the onboarding of renewable energy, how you design and operate a data center will need to change

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> Ciarán Forde Eaton

for a sustainable and digitized future >> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation fo

The power paradigm and move to net zero with Karina Rigby

“In many ways, a data center campus can be like a mini power plant in itself, covering its own load, as well as having dispatchable power to help stabilize the grid,” says Forde. “So entirely different concepts in terms of data center design, build and operation.” This kind of proactive participation in the energy challenge would not only benefit the grid and in turn the wider world, but would help transition data centers from their previous status as part of the energy problem, to part of the solution, as well as a potential catalyst for a fully renewable grid in the future. “Data centers are a technical and economic catalyst to the onboarding of renewables and the technology that goes with it. So instead of just 30 percent renewables on our grid, we could get up to 50, 60, 70 percent or even higher. So, with the support of the data center industry and others, we now have a mechanism to reach renewables at that level,” says Forde.

Eaton

The services in which data centers can offer the grid vary, from energy generation and export, to storage and frequency containment. The two main services operators can get on board with are frequency containment i.e., active power reserves that are automatically controlled based on deviations in grid frequency, and/or dispatchable power – sources of electricity that can be programmed on demand at the request of power grid operators.

CLICK TO WATCH

A redesign can be very economically taken on board, because so many data centers are looking to remove their diesel gensets. So, as they move away from diesel backup power systems, the investment in the alternative can be gridinteractive and grid friendly > Ciarán Forde Eaton

Having had access to grid-interactive UPS systems since 2014, Eaton customers are already geared up for frequency containment, but for everyone else, small supplemental modifications to existing infrastructure may be required. This can be achieved via a power aggregator to help them deliver some of those frequency containment services, explains Forde. When it comes to dispatchable power, however, many data centers would need to look at a redesign, and although challenging, should be seen as an opportunity to take the steps needed to realize a more sustainable future. “A redesign can be very economically taken on board, because so many data centers are looking to remove their diesel gensets. So, as they move away from diesel backup power systems, the investment in the alternative can be grid-interactive and grid friendly,” says Forde. Whether these alternatives are an enhanced UPS infrastructure with extended battery systems (for example Eaton EnergyAware), hydrogen fuel cells, storage systems (such as Eaton xStorage) or any other modern more sustainable form of backup power, once factored into the design, they are perfectly positioned to help deliver that grid-interactive supply. What’s more, utilizing existing assets to provide services to the grid, operators avoid having to heavily

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invest in flexible storage systems, reducing capital expenditure and as a result, reducing the cost of energy along with it. A win-win for all involved. And it’s not just about the hardware. As mentioned earlier, in order to be able to facilitate sustainable changes, data center operators need an understanding of the complex energy flows that are to be managed in a grid-interactive data center. Enter, software. “Software is key. It not only provides intelligent operational insights and actionable data but brings policy-based elements of automation and control. Working with a company like Eaton, you can design your data center to be interactive and green grid friendly. This also eases the management burden of the data center operators so they can focus on running their facility,” explains Forde. Eaton is currently extending the capabilities of its own Brightlayer™ Data Centers suite software, so that it understands how to best manage that grid-interactive functionality. Effectively rolling Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Electrical Power Management System (EPMS) into one digital platform, Brightlayer provides 3D monitoring of the entire data center environment, pulling in data from all essential assets within the facility. This gives operators clear visibility and insights into their critical functions and operational data sets, enabling them to increase levels of control and automation. “In many ways it’s like a data center operating system, but we’re incorporating elements of automation so operators can easily set policies and thresholds. They can access the kind of dashboard functionality required which will ultimately act as the vehicle to achieving greener grid-interactive systems,” says Forde.

If an operator wants a truly green data center, they must consider that it can only be realized by the creation of a green grid, so it is in their best interest as a business owner and operator to make this happen > Ciarán Forde Eaton

So, if the technology is available today, complete with a raft of benefits across the board, why is the data center industry so slow on the uptake? Unfortunately, that’s all down to our mindset. Human beings – particularly those that operate mission-critical data centers – don’t like needless change, despite the variety of technology available to them and are reluctant to use any part of their facility for anything other than protecting and operating

the IT load. And therein lies the challenge. “That is the mindset that has to change. If an operator wants a truly green data center, they must consider that it can only be realized by the creation of a green grid, so it is in their best interest as a business owner and operator to make this happen. “If they can use their facility to increase the percentage of renewables on the grid from, say, 50 to 60 percent, that act is far greater than any efficiency they’d be able to achieve in a data center alone,” says Forde. And many companies are on the quest for carbon neutrality, or even carbon negativity, but if they aren’t generating all the electricity they use themselves, they will always be reliant on what comes through the grid. “There is only so much you can do within the four walls of a data center to be considered green,” says Forde. “You could have your PUE down to one, be one hundred percent efficient in terms of electricity, heat and water usage, but you’re still consuming energy, there is still embodied carbon in your facility. How can you truly be sustainable and reach net zero when this is the reality?” However, it is possible. But for these facilities to reach their full potential as the vanguards of green energy, we have to change our way of thinking. Yes, we all want green data centers, but in order to green the data center, you have to green the grid.

To learn more about Eaton’s Brightlayer Data Centers suite and/ or EnergyAware grid-interactive UPS visit their website linked above. Talk with one of their CLICK TO experts today about how Eaton FIND OUT can help you achieve your MORE energy transition goals. 

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>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future

>Talks

 Sustainable design ON-DEMAND:

Designing for sustainability with Alex Miller Arup

CLICK TO WATCH

Modularity and sustainability with Craig Doyle Eaton

CLICK TO WATCH

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From data center to energy center The role of data centers in supporting renewable power adoption

Janne Paananen Eaton

ata centers are central to almost everything we do. Managing the transport we rely on, enabling the supply chains that keep our supermarkets stocked, and communicating with our colleagues and loved ones.

In 2018, Nature reported that data centers and the networks associated with them may lead to information and communications technology (ICT) requiring 21 percent of our total electricity production by 2030.

All is being made simpler, faster and more efficient by data-center connectivity. And, as the last year has demonstrated, data centers are robust in even the most challenging of circumstances.

While data center-based solutions may often be more energy-efficient than the processes they replace, this growth is still a problem in the context of our urgent need to decarbonise power production in order to meet climate targets. As a result, there is an ongoing global effort to make data centers greener, doing more work with fewer emissions.

The increasing amount of work being done in data centers also places more urgency on developing new ways to make data centers more energy efficient and an asset to the grids on which they rely.

Other studies estimate that the ICT industry will consume just eight percent of total supply by 2030. At this level, it becomes possible to foresee a world where digital energy demand can be met entirely by renewables.

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innovation for a sustainable and digitized future >> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovatio This is the ambition of many ICT companies, and the investments being made in renewable energy and supporting technologies are supported by industryleading environmental and sustainability targets.

Power resilience and the evolving role of the grid

The challenge of renewables Renewable energy sources bring green electrical energy, but they also bring other issues and engineering challenges. While some renewable energy sources offer predictable production (hydro), we are in fact moving towards a grid dominated by wind and solar. By nature, these variable renewable energy (VRE) sources fluctuate in their output.

with Jussi Vihersalo

It’s easy to see how this leads to potential problems. An electrical grid system must constantly match consumption with electricity production. This is fundamental to grid and frequency stability. But if VRE has fluctuating output, periods of over- and undersupply seem inevitable.

Eaton

Grid operators are developing ways to manage that potential mismatch. But consumers can do more than consume. Their on-site electrical systems, especially their back-up power systems, can actually help in grid stabilisation and therefore in the successful adoption of renewables. This help comes in the form of ancillary services that can be delivered ‘back’ to the grid operator.

Rethinking the data center

CLICK TO WATCH

This is a complete rethink of the role of power consumers on the grid. Before, electricity transmission was a oneway street from production to consumption; now, we are seeing how it can be bidirectional and interactive > Janne Paananen Eaton

On the one hand, we have an increasingly digitalized world requiring more and more power. On the other, we are seeing an enthusiastic uptake of renewable energy, which, if we are to maintain that momentum, will require innovations in how we maintain security of supply. When thinking about how to build this future, it’s important to remember that these are not independent problems, and that the changes we’re heading towards can be more than a replacement of existing systems. As we transform power systems and digitalize everything from manufacturing to healthcare, we have an opportunity to not just keep the lights on, but to rethink everything about how these essential services work. Data centers, of course, cannot afford power instability: by necessity, they must be ‘always-on’ to support critical services powering governments, life and safety services, financial institutions and more. To ensure continuous power, data centers are outfitted with uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) – sophisticated battery systems and back-up generators which step in to keep everything running when the grid supply fails.

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UPSs need to respond instantly to changes in supply, deliver large amounts of power, and do so with the utmost reliability. In other words, the qualities they need in order to support stable data center operation also make them perfect for providing ancillary services to the grid, such as quickly stepping on or off the grid or feeding in energy. These fast actions can stabilise a grid and contain grid frequency.

EMEA energy policies

Making this a reality requires some work: a data center UPS will need to be aware of how the grid is operating, while the grid will need to be ready to receive supply from data centers as well as deliver power to them.

Nikolaos Kontinakis,

with European Commission DG ENER.B2

Demonstrating that this is possible, and building the systems to make it work, is the topic of our new white paper, in which Microsoft and Eaton have collaborated to show how data centers can support the grid through real-world testing. A UPS at Eaton’s headquarters in Dublin, for example, is now successfully providing fast frequency response services to the local grid by reducing the building’s demand when grid frequency drops. This is a complete rethink of the role of power consumers on the grid. Before, electricity transmission was a one-way street from production to consumption; now, we are seeing how it can be bidirectional and interactive. While before, a system like a UPS was an operational necessity and a necessary expense, now we are seeing how it can be a source of revenue when ancillary services are sold back to the grid operator.

CLICK TO WATCH

As for data centers, we are seeing how their centrality to modern life is about more than just digital services. As they begin supporting the renewable energy grid, we may start to see them not just as data centers, but as energy centers helping to decarbonize electricity and creating a digital and sustainable future for all.  White paper

Grid-interactive data centers: enabling decarbonization and system stability Janne Paananen Technology Manager Critical Power Systems Eaton Ehsan Nasr Senior Engineer Data Center Advanced Development Microsoft

Summary Data centers are one of the fastest growing loads on the electric grid. Since they use energy storage as backup in the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), the growth in data center loads will result in growth in energy storage capacity. As the penetration of intermittent renewable resources increases, the electric grid requires energy storage to maintain grid balances and system stability. Data centers can offer a unique opportunity to help maintain grid balance. This paper will discuss how data centers can monetize existing assets with no negative impact to customers and support to improve grid stability, which enables the integration of more renewables.

Introduction Data center as a data plant Although data centers are considered as loads for the electric grid, every megawatt (MW) of data center capacity includes megawatts of power generation from utilities, megawatts of power generation as a backup system and energy storage system in the UPS. Hyperscale data centers like Microsoft’s are effectively data plants with power plants and energy storage plants next to the data center. Thus, a data center will be an asset to the grid in future, given distributed energy assets are the core components of its design (e.g., backup generators, UPSs), and these distributed energy resources (DER) can provide services to support grid decarbonization. Transition to low-carbon energy systems Organizations and society are moving away from fossil-based fuels to cleaner energy sources to help battle climate change and reduce our environmental impact. This decarbonization of energy systems is mainly based on the use of variable renewable energy (VRE) such as solar and wind power generation, but the transition toward low-carbon power systems is creating new challenges for system operators. Managing the availability of the energy and variations in renewable power generation are subjects commonly discussed with the potential congestion in power systems caused by increasing energy consumption in quickly developing areas.

CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE

While before, a system like a UPS was an operational necessity and an outlay, now we are seeing how it can be a source of revenue when ancillary services are sold back to the grid operator > Janne Paananen Eaton

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>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future

>Talks

in power  Evolutions technology In this DCD>Talk, we sit down with Eaton’s global director of product, data center and distributed IT software, Mike Jackson, to talk about sustainability and how Eaton manages energy

Sustainability with Mike Jackson, Eaton

CLICK TO WATCH

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Chapter three: Accelerating digital transformation We live in a world of instant gratification and when it comes to data, we want it all and we want it now. This need for speed is something data center operators must cater to, but when operating in mission critical environments, unchartered territory is usually best avoided. That’s why in this chapter we outline some of the steps data center operators must take in order to satisfy customer demand, reaching the optimum situation for today’s data-rich environment. We also examine the evolving role of the grid, and how operators can look to transform their power network to optimize digital transformation, both now and in the future.

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>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future

Accelerating the digital transformation: PART ONE

Brian J Curran Eaton

Examining the challenges faced by data center owners as the demand for digital services continues to accelerate

he need for data is accelerating. According to industry analyst firm IDC, 64.2 zettabytes of data were created,

captured, copied and consumed worldwide in 2020 – due in large part to the number of people working, learning and entertaining themselves from home during the pandemic. Meanwhile, DataReportal estimates that more than five billion people around the world use the internet – equivalent to 63 percent of the world’s population. And the number continues to grow. In the 12 months to July 2021, almost 180 million new users joined the online population.

amount of electricity required to manage this data may grow fourfold by 2030 – a concerning increase given ongoing environmental concerns. One thing that’s becoming increasingly clear is that, as the volume of data grows, managing the unprecedented scale and speed of that growth presents data center owners and operators with a range of challenges.

Addressing challenges A conflict exists between performance and sustainability, for instance. While it’s essential to drive a data center’s performance to meet the ever-growing demand for data, this can often run at odds with the size of its carbon footprint.

The growing internet of things (IoT) market is only adding to this explosion in data. Analyst firm IoT Analytics predicts there will be 14.4 billion active connected devices by the end of 2022, almost doubling to 27 billion by 2025.

The complexity involved in running more efficient data centers can be challenging, too. According to McKinsey & Company, 87 percent of companies worldwide believe they have or expect to have a skills gap within their organizations.

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that some have predicted that the

An increasingly competitive climate means it can be difficult to

hire and retain qualified people with the skills and expertise needed. As a result, data center operators can find themselves without the people they need to do everything that needs to be done. Adapting to the increased demands of managing such a large volume and variety of data will require a shift away from traditional standard operational procedures toward more agile micro decisions. Put simply, making decisions every minute or hour will no longer be enough. The need for efficiency means decisions must now be made in near real-time. For the same reason, lowlatency Edge processing is needed to manage the proliferation of IoT devices, as well as the capabilities of 5G-enabled applications. Data center operators will therefore need to consider their transition to the Edge while simultaneously running their core business.

Taking the right steps It’s clear, then, that data centers as we know them are changing. But

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there are important steps that all data center operators must take now to reach the optimum situation for today’s data-rich environment. They should already be assessing the extent to which their processing is digitally enabled, for example, and identifying any gaps in their solutions that must be filled for effective operations and a more efficient use of resources. Certain functional requirements must be maintained to ensure operations meet today’s standards. For example, accurate and up-todate asset management and capacity planning are both key to optimum efficiency, as too is effective and, ideally, proactive 24/7 monitoring. Remote monitoring, in particular, allows data center managers to view data in real-time and receive alerts when the unexpected happens, enabling them to quickly address issues to minimize – and potentially eliminate – downtime. Consideration must also be given to optimizing existing assets and processes to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness. Workflow management and visualization tools are important for better capacity planning, for instance. And failure simulation, which many data center owners haven’t considered, will ensure an organization’s readiness in the event of an outage. But perhaps even more valuable,

Data center operators should always keep one eye on the future, thinking about forwardlooking strategies and investments that will enable them to remain agile in the years ahead > Brian J Curran Eaton

in terms of adopting a more efficient proactive approach, are features such as power anomaly analytics and predictive asset health, both of which can help minimize the impact of an issue occurring before it has an opportunity to take hold – often eliminating it all together. Ultimately, though, the key to unlocking new value from a data center lies in multi-system integration. There’s currently a wall between the data people need to make the right decision, and that data that’s available. It’s why we talk about a single pane of glass; intelligent decision-making requires the right data to be made available to the right people. But this data will often be held in various discrete silos such as information technology service management (ITSM), building management (BMS), data center infrastructure management (DCIM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It’s essential, therefore, to integrate all these systems to fully optimize them.

Looking to the future Finally, of course, data center operators should always keep one eye on the future, thinking about forward-looking strategies and investments that will enable them to remain agile in the years ahead. The goal is to continue testing, learning, and adopting the building blocks that will help solve tomorrow’s challenges.

more flexible, responsive customercentric energy system will also improve sustainability, along with helping customers better manage costs. Greater insights will be crucial, too, to enable the agility and flexibility that’s needed. Investing in data science capabilities such as advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning will help organizations glean the most valuable insights from their data, allowing them to make the right decisions to accelerate their business. But making the decisions that will drive actions to achieve smart value requires the ability to run different scenarios. That’s where the concept of digital twins will become increasingly important. Indeed, running and testing scenarios in this way is crucial to making micro decisions. Data centers must evolve to keep pace with the demands of an evergrowing volume of data – not to mention environmental concerns around their use of power. Embracing that data and enhancing assets appropriately is, admittedly, no easy task. But, by assessing, maintaining, optimizing and integrating those assets – remaining mindful of what might lie ahead – data center owners and operators can ensure they’re moving in the right direction for greater efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. 

As I mentioned earlier, balancing performance against sustainability is key. Eaton’s grid-interactive EnergyAware uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), intelligently leverage a data center’s connected energy storage to manage power and the flow of energy. Not only can these UPSs help optimize energy usage and reduce the cost of energy through demandresponse activities, but they can also support the grid to allow a higher penetration of renewables. Shifting to a smart Energy-as-aService (EaaS) model and offering a

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CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE

>> DCD eBook | Engineering and innovation for a sustainable and digitized future

>Report

Thought Leadership White Paper

2023 data center progress report: digital transformation and the energy transition Introduction

Digital transformation: data center sector dynamics

Commercial data centers are one of the most digitallyadvanced of all sectors, given that new IT technologies are literally their stock in trade. That doesn’t necessarily make the job of digitizing their own operations any easier. They sometimes lack the digital tools needed for timely, actionable insights into critical operational and sustainability metrics. They’re also often overwhelmed with too much data—unclear about which insights truly matter and uncertain how best to report them to meet industry and regulatory requirements. To make things even more challenging, the sector continues to face digital staffing and skills challenges even as the number, capacity and type of data centers needed to power the planet’s digital economy continues to grow exponentially.

Compared to many sectors, commercial data centers are universally engaged in digitalization. None of the survey’s 152 commercial data center respondents indicated they weren’t at least planning, if not already executing, digital transformation strategies. Adoption of digital tools and technologies is, if anything, even more prevalent (see Figure 1).

Those are among the major takeaways from a survey commissioned by Eaton and 451 Research of 152 commercial data center owners and operators on their organization’s digital transformation efforts in eight countries across the United States (U.S.), Europe and United Arab Emirates (see Methodology).

Figure 1: Data center digitalization is strong, with most already in the game 1 and 2 Digital transformation strategy status1

Execution 54%

CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE

Consideration 46%

Digital technology adoption status2

Broad adoption 61%

Some adoption 39%



2023 progress report - Digital transformation and the energy transition

In this white paper, via a survey of 152 commercial data center owners, Eaton and 451 Research examine the global status of digital transformation in data centers across eight countries, spanning the United States, Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

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Accelerating the digital transformation: PART TWO

Brian J Curran Eaton

Discussing data-driven decision-making for the optimum acceleration of digital transformation

anaging the demands and challenges associated with the ongoing rise in data will require

data centers to undergo a digital transformation. While assessing, maintaining, optimizing and integrating their assets, data center owners and operators must also consider the technologies they’ll need for ongoing efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. But, according to Gartner’s hype cycle, it’s possible to be both too early and too late in adopting these new technologies. The question is, then, when should the decision be made?

Only by trusting in the data that’s being accessed and analyzed, along with the decisions that are being made and the actions that are being taken as a result, will it provide value > Brian J Curran Eaton

Fundamentally, it depends on the nature of the decision. For example, growing environmental concerns mean that if a decision isn’t made around balancing performance against sustainability now, it’ll be too late. There are other cases, however, where continuous testing and evaluation means the decision to accelerate can be made at the right time. For instance, deciding on the level of autonomy you want to institute is a very complicated question. Take autonomous vehicles as an example. Full autonomy means a car no longer needs a driver. But most people aren’t ready to sit in the backseat while the car drives itself. Despite this, it’s already

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happening in San Francisco, with the rollout of fully autonomous taxis. Time – and adoption of these taxis – will tell if the decision was made too soon. Your decisions about what level of automation you will need requires some thought and experimentation.

Feasibility, viability and desirability

There is perhaps a sense of unease about the idea of moving to automation that can monitor the entire operational environment > Brian J Curran

Data centers are increasingly moving toward automation. Currently, though, some level of human monitoring of the operational environment will occur. There are cases where an operator will need to perform manual tasks such as walking around with a clipboard to check data. In other cases, the center’s control systems will provide single-device control, like remotely running a generator test.

Running the right analysis to separate the facts from the fears to determine what is possible, and then help people build trust in the data insights and decision-making this autonomy enables.

Trust the data

Even when the control systems provide a single, automated system for multiple devices, an operator will still need to monitor every task and can take control at any time. As in the autonomous vehicle example, there is perhaps a sense of unease about the idea of moving to automation that can monitor the entire operational environment.

Are people ready and willing to embrace it? If not, why not? Are they concerned that they’ll lose their jobs or worried that the machines will take over?

While conditional or high-level automation means the system can perform most, if not all, operational tasks, certain conditions, including the option for operator override, must be met.

This is why it’s important for people to trust in the decisions being made and in the elements that lead to those decisions. It’s important to trust the data and the analytics, the people and their decisions, and the machines and their outputs.

So, we know that autonomy in the data center is both feasible and viable. But is it desirable? Progress in the field of automation requires us

The question is how valuable people perceive that data to be. If they trust it, then it’s hugely valuable, and that’s the point at which they will embrace and implement full automation without fear.

Eaton

This last point is true for any accelerators a business is looking to drive. Whatever that accelerator is, it must be technically feasible, it must be viable from a business standpoint – driving a specific outcome, value and results – and it must be desirable.

With full automation, on the other hand, the system will perform all operational tasks under all conditions with no requirement for operator attention or interaction.

Ultimately, if people don’t trust the data, it’s unlikely they’ll be willing to let that data help them in their decision-making.

Only by trusting in the data that’s being accessed and analyzed, along with the decisions that are being made and the actions that are being taken as a result, will it provide value – value that will offer credibility which will in turn build more trust over time.

What, then, is needed for people to trust the value of the data within their organization? From disaster avoidance to data center and distributed infrastructure management, smart data analysis for things like predictive health monitoring, alarm rationalization and power topology verification will help data center operators gain operational insights into their complex, mission-critical infrastructure, allowing them to make data-driven decisions. By collecting the right pieces of data in a single platform, organizations can then run the right analysis on that data to help them make the right decisions while optimizing and accelerating their business. Demands on data centers are becoming ever more complex. Decisions must be made around which technologies to adopt to meet these demands. But, as Gartner suggests, the timing of that adoption must be right for the business and its workforce. Trust in data-enabled decisionmaking is paramount to knowing when to accelerate, and when not to. Get it right, and your business will be prepared for whatever the future holds. Get it wrong, and you could be left behind. 

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>Brightlayer Data Centers suite



See your environment clearly, with the Brightlayer Data Centers suite The Brightlayer Data Centers suite is a portfolio of digital solutions that will enable you to efficiently manage your increasingly complex ecosystem of IT and operational technology (OT) assets, providing full system visibility.

Click to watch the video

Find out how Eaton’s Brightlayer™ Data Centers suite software can enable data center operators and distributed IT teams to make data-driven decisions using deep operational insights.

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>Brightlayer Data Centers



White paper: Eaton Brightlayer Data Centers Suite

Click here to find out more

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To discover more visit www.eaton.com/xintegra