Empowering Data Centers

- Dan Scarbrough

Everyone knows that one of the largest cost drivers for the data center industry is the cost of power. It takes huge amounts of electricity to power and cool a data center, so when it comes to data centers in India it is really important the industry strives to improve power efficiency, reliability, and availability for current and future data center stock.

Currently, the continued lack of availability of reliable power supply is not doing India justice when it comes to its attractiveness as a location for data centers. Presently a significant number of data centers in India rely on backup energy sources such as diesel generators, in order to face the regular power shutdown that can be around two to three hours daily. Thus, while locating a data center, the service provider needs to calculate the trade-off between reliability and tariff reforms in a state. Higher reliability typically comes in states with higher energy costs. Rising energy costs increase the data center operational expenses. In power-deficit India, energy efficiency can offer significant benefits to data centers including increased reliability of electricity supply, reduction in operating costs and an overall enhancement in operations.