Negative sentiment drives call for data centre transparency

Kathy Gibson reports from Vertiv Week in Zagreb – With data centres experiencing massive growth around the globe, the industry needs to do a better job of telling people the benefits they offer humanity at large.

Worldwide, uncertainty about possible risks posed by artificial intelligence is playing our in a massive backlash against data centre builds.

While fear about AI taking people’s jobs is part of the concern, narratives around data centres using up available power and water resources are also feeding into prevailing fears.

“But the perceptions will change as soon as AI is able to deliver massive benefits to the majority of people,” says Michael Reffay, MD of France Data Centre Association.

“Right now, what it is mostly delivering is anxiety,” he tells media at the European Data Centre Associations Summit.

“But I believe that AI will help us to solve major global issues. And when that happens, the narrative will change.”

Data centres have typically been the unseen infrastructure behind the services that people consume, and for years have been doing that job reliably.

In fact, most people interact with a data centre up to 40 times a day, says Isabell Kemlin, vice-chair of the Swedish Data Centre Association.

“And these services have changed our lives, saving us time and costs.”
Businesses continue to add digital services to almost every aspect of people’s lives, she adds.

“This data all needs to be stored and handled via an infrastructure that includes the data centre.”

Stijn Grove, MD of the Dutch Data Centre Association, concurs. “Most people don’t realise what the numbers and the infrastructure are that we have behind our lives.”

For instance, in the Netherlands, the high-voltage power utility runs three data centres, the Ministry of Defence has seven, and the police 14. Hospitals and banks all rely on data centres to operate, as do many other businesses.

The fact is, we are not on the cusp of a revolution – we are in the middle of it, says Reffay. “The AI revolution has been ongoing for the last three years. But our data centres have been going for the last 25 years: we have been the foundation for digital transformation and cloud computing – and now AI.

“We support these services and this supports the future of our economies as well.”

Resource consumption

The new flurry of negative public opinion is not grounded in reality, Reffay believes.

“There is a belief that data centres consume too much water and electricity, and do not produce enough jobs or revenues.

“All of these are misconceptions.”

Grove points out that data centres should be seen as an extension of the power grid. Ideally, new builds would be close to where sustainable energy is produced so it can be used without transporting it long distances. Data centres can also act as grid stabilisers, stepping in when wind or solar generation slows.

“If it is planned well, we could have a win-win situation for the data centres and the power grid, leveraging the capital the data centres are able to access.”

Kemlin adds that another useful role that data centres can play is in the reuse of heat to replace gas to heat buildings, or saving on the electricity used to heat greenhouses.

“We need to start looking at solutions in a different way, and also to work closer together.”

In fact, Grove points out that, while data centres use more power, the services they provide result in less overall usage.

“Over 25 years, electricity use in the Netherlands has been stable.”

The fact that electricity is such a big portion of a data centre’s cost means the industry has worked hard to find innovative solutions, says Kemlin.

“As an industry, we have been working on sustainability since day one, to decrease that expense. And there have been some tremendous results.”

Indeed, the same electricity use powers double the amount of compute capacity every year, says Reffay.

“If you were to use a semiconductor from 25 years ago in today’s smartphone, it would be the size of Manhattan,” he says to illustrate his point.

But communities around the world are still up in arms about new data centre builds.

“We need to be more transparent,” says Ronan Kelly, CEO of Digital Infrastructure Ireland, explaining that data centres have typically been shrouded in secrecy to protect sensitive data.

“But there is room for more transparency without having to expose things of a secure nature.”

The positives can be difficult to see when there are so many negative narratives, driven largely by a fear of AI, Kelly says.

“It could be difficult to get an even perspective until these data centres are up and running and are seen to have not stolen people’s jobs.”

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