If the growth in the number and scale of data centers in recent years is unstoppable, this growth is even more rapid during the COVID-19 epidemic. With the shift of work and study from offices and schools to kitchen tables and lounges, our dependence on Internet and cloud services has greatly increased.
So, more data centers were created, with more being "mega scale" data centers, which means data centers with at least 5000 servers or 10000 square feet of space (or even larger). At the same time, we also see a parallel development trend in micro data centers, which are relatively small in scale and closer to the edge, and generate and use data at the edge.
Considering the importance of data centers, or more precisely, the functions, systems, and organizations they support, countries have regarded data centers as an important component of their critical infrastructure.
Disadvantages of Data Centers
However, while data centers can bring many benefits to society, businesses, and consumers, they also have a drawback: data centers require a significant amount of energy consumption. The resource consumption of data centers, whether it is computing power itself, required cooling systems, or peripheral support systems, has attracted great attention from people.
In November 2020, the European Commission released a study on green cloud services and data centers aimed at promoting Europe to become the first continent to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This study emphasizes the growth of energy consumption in data centers of EU member states and proposes technical and policy solutions to address this issue. The technical solutions include improving the efficiency of cooling systems, reusing waste heat, using renewable energy to power data centers, and establishing data centers in cold climates.
To be fair, few data center providers are not actively seeking ways to reduce the energy required for facility operations. Not to mention anything else, as the research results show, the sustainability qualification of data centers will be the most important consideration for customers when choosing providers.
We are trying to find ways to reduce the time consumption of data centers, and every watt is crucial.
Monitoring solutions can play an important role
In terms of data center security, video surveillance can play a core role, just as it plays an increasingly important role in social security. Like other parts of data center infrastructure, the energy consumption of video surveillance itself is also subject to strict scrutiny.
Network video cameras create data, which requires transmission and storage, all of which consume energy< Span style="text decoration: underline; color: # 007AFF;">Technologies such as Zipstream can reduce the overall energy consumption of monitoring systems, reducing bandwidth and storage requirements by an average of 50% without losing any forensic details at the required image resolution and frame rate.
Similarly, cameras equipped withedge analysis functioncan analyze video materials themselves, thereby reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted through the network. The demand for analysis through high power consuming servers is also correspondingly reduced, thus further saving energy.
Low light technology also helps to reduce overall energy consumption. The environment of data centers is generally sparsely populated. However, some video surveillance cameras still require bright lighting to provide clear images. However, even in almost completely dark environments, theLight Seeker technologycan provide clear color images and excellent forensic details, thereby reducing the lighting required to achieve safety.
The Power of Marginal Revenue
Considering the overall energy consumption of data centers, it is understandable that people tend to focus on computing power and heat dissipation. However, there are many other aspects of data center facilities that also consume energy, so they should also be included in strategies to improve overall efficiency. A well-designed monitoring solution can directly or indirectly meet security objectives and also contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.
