What are the primary cooling technologies used in Equinix data centres, and how do they enhance energy efficiency? How do you monitor and manage the cooling efficiency across your global network of data centres?

Compute-intensive applications, like AI, are pushing the demands on data centre hardware. As the world’s largest digital infrastructure company – we have 260 data centres across 71 metropolitan areas in 33 countries – Equinix has experience and expertise in helping organisations innovate data centre capacity to support the complex, modern IT deployments that applications like AI require. By embracing new standards, such as ASHRAE A1 Allowable (A1A), we continue to deliver air-cooled data centres that efficiently and effectively meet the demands of today’s workloads. And given our focus on the future, we are simultaneously rolling out liquid cooling at our facilities. Liquid cooling is revolutionising how data centres cool powerful, high-density hardware that supports emerging technologies, and Equinix is at the heart of that innovation. We support major liquid-cooling technologies, including direct-to-chip and rear-door heat exchangers, so that customers can take advantage of the most efficient solutions. Additionally, by offering a vendor-neutral approach, we enable our customers to use their preferred hardware provider in their deployments. Today, we have expanded support for advanced liquid-cooling technologies – like direct-to-chip – to more than 100 of our proprietary International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in more than 45 metros around the world.

What sustainability goals has Equinix set, and how do you ensure that your data centres remain environmentally friendly while maintaining high performance?

Our facilities in the EMEA are already covered by 100% renewable energy, and our goal is to extend the reach of this to cover our entire global footprint by 2030. To achieve this, we have executed power-purchase agreements (PPAs) that create long-term financial stability for developers of wind, solar and other clean energy resources. With a guaranteed price paid to clean energy providers over the life of the agreement, PPAs can provide financial certainty to facilitate the construction and operations of renewable energy projects. We also continue evaluating on-site solar opportunities, on-site generation from fuel cells and any other distributed low-carbon technology that fits with our overall strategy. Our journey towards this goal has already yielded significant success, as today we enjoy a position of industry leadership with 96% renewable energy coverage. To date, Equinix has issued USD 4.9 billion in green bonds to drive investment across multiple areas of innovation: Green buildings, renewable energy, energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste reduction and clean transportation. An interesting and particularly topical example of our environmentally friendly approach is the heat export programme at our new Paris 10 IBX, which helped heat a portion of the Aquatic Centre at the Paris Olympics.

What role do you see emerging technologies like AI and Machine Learning playing in the future of data centre cooling and management?

While emerging technologies like AI and Machine Learning are more demanding of compute, they are also playing a transformative role in the future of data centre cooling and management. This is already happening at Equinix, where we’ve improved the energy efficiency of our data centre in Frankfurt, Germany by nine per cent using AI. The software we use enables companies to reduce the energy consumption of their cooling systems by making them more efficient. Specifically, the software, from a provider called Etalytics, models the operating characteristics of the cooling system using telemetry data and creates a digital twin. The twin is then used to dynamically calculate optimum operating strategies in real-time, considering factors such as temperature, humidity and cooling requirements.

Could you describe any improvements that could be made to the performance of data centres, say in terms of PUE?

You’ve mentioned efficiency measurement, and I think this brings up a point worth discussing. One early improvement the data centre industry needs is a better way to measure the efficiency of our computing facilities. PUE, the data centre energy efficiency metric that was created largely with the assumption that air cooling and fans were a necessary part of servers, switches and routers, doesn’t really capture the benefits of liquid cooling. The number is a simple calculation for the total power a data centre receives from the utility divided by the power consumed by IT. The smaller the divisor, the higher the PUE, but the divisor includes the power consumed by server fans, which are responsible for a substantial portion of the total IT power consumption. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling mostly removes the need for server fans, making PUE higher while lowering total power use. So, the newly intensified focus on sustainability and the efficiency with which the total power is used requires a much more holistic measuring stick for efficiency.