Report: data centre decarbonisation a priority, but firms struggle to do it

In a recent global study conducted among 1,000 IT leaders and C-level executives, including over 100 in the UK, the importance of sustainability remains a top priority for businesses, but results suggest many don’t fully understand the impact the data center has on their overall carbon footprint

Read the State of Data Infrastructure Sustainability Report here.

Nearly half report cloud migration is the primary approach to reducing data center CO2 emissions, which highlights a common misconception that shifting workloads from data centres to the cloud addresses the problem.

As a result, many place a lower priority on approaches such as moving to high-performance data infrastructure, even though this has proven to be more immediate and cost-effective.

With decarbonising data centres not an easy task, 39 per cent of respondents said it’s the area their organisation needs the most help. A similar percentage (37 per cent) said they need help in using the latest technology solutions to reduce their carbon footprint.

Despite claiming to prioritise eco-data centres, 67 per cent of businesses reported that their CO2 footprint had not changed over the past two years.

Hitachi Vantara, the company behind the study, said that by moving to modern data infrastructure, businesses had the potential to reduce their CO2 emissions by 87 per cent over the next decade. Additionally, an expected 47 per cent increase in the use of high-performance data infrastructure within two years indicated a positive shift towards more sustainable practices.

“To get to net-zero, firms must establish a concrete strategy and implementation plan, with leadership buy-in, that takes a data-driven approach to emissions across the entire IT estate, including edge, on-prem, and off-prem,” said Mark Ablett, president of digital infrastructure at Hitachi Vantara. “However, sustainability efforts can lower energy costs, save storage space, and help streamline operations and data management for greater productivity.”