Reimagining the Data Center: A Glimpse into Tomorrow — by Johann Thor Jonsson, Director of Site Selection
When I look back in time, the 1990’s were really a decade of digital calm before the storm. Data centers were growing exponentially to support an increasing demand for data storage and internet connectivity at a scale which was only just beginning to touch the tip of what would become the dot-com boom. Even then, we simply could not have predicted the sheer extent of investment and innovation to come.
And, today, the digital revolution continues to accelerate at an unstoppable pace. What does this mean for the data center industry, how will it set the scene for our future and what effect will it have on our environment and everyday life? These are the questions we’re exploring at atNorth as we envision the future of the data center.
Pushing the boundaries of the DC’s role in society
For years, the data center has been regarded as the digital backbone of the internet. But, with power scarcity becoming a limiting factor for growth, not to mention concerns over available land and other environmental constraints, the data center industry now needs to meet the constantly evolving digital revolution as well as prove their sustainability credentials and actively show how they can benefit the regions they inhabit.
It is high time for all data center operators to increase their focus on the opportunities generated by our operation and to start to find and deploy ways to positively affect the local communities surrounding our operations.
atNorth’s vision is “more compute for a better world”, where data center ecosystems are pivotal to self-sustaining, thriving societies, with a commitment to environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, and community integration is paramount. We hope this can become a new norm in the design and deployment of the data centers of the future.
DEN02: bringing the future of the data center to light
Last month, we announced plans for our largest data center to date: DEN02. This mega-capacity facility will be one of Europe’s largest data centers designed from the beginning to implement heat reuse at unprecedented scale.
With ever increasing rack density and heat being generated, this heat reuse deployment will raise the bar on what is currently being designed and deployed. DEN02 will focus on the sustainable use of excess heat for both the local community through district heating and new commercial initiatives as well as attracting sustainable power production in the form of wind and solar energy farms, around the DEN02 site, and lastly initiating projects to help balance local power grids to ensure stable energy supplies.
For example, in metropolitan areas, we will see more appetite for classic district heating models such as those in use at our existing sites like SWE01, while more rural, and larger megasite locations call for a new approach to solving industrial scale opportunities including, for example, providing heating for large-scale greenhouse sites or supporting land-based fish farming to name some examples.
In the Nordics, an overwhelming portion of available fresh fruit and vegetables are imported due to its unsuitable climate. Once operational, atNorth’s DEN02 will support neighbouring large-scale greenhouses in collaboration with Wa3rm – a leader in bio-based operations for waste streams, where Wa3rm will be able to produce thousands of tons of vegetable for the domestic market. This partnership aims to reuse excess heat to grow vegetables on an industrial scale, a process that will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of importing them from abroad.
Operating as a sustainable community hub for jobs, education, and business is also a powerful model for future data center builds, especially when coupled with DEN02’s ability to attract renewable power farms around the site to take the pressure off the national power grid infrastructure.
Being a part of the community can have a tremendous, positive impact on residents and businesses while also stretching to employment generation, skills, apprenticeship, and internship training programs. Further beyond, this new site could serve as an innovation hub, with other tech companies and businesses following suit with investment into the area.
In short, DEN02 sets a new baseline for large-scale, sustainable data center deployments. When we look into the crystal ball, we see this as the next generation of data centers: sites that don’t act as standalone but that function as a beating heart that gives back to the community, utilize renewable energy, support the grid and as such meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.