Quenching the thirst for power

To replicate an optimal atmosphere, most data centres used by cloud providers employ outdated and electricity-hungry air-cooling methods that also need vast amounts of water for their IT infrastructure. PeaSoup says that it is the first cloud company in the UK to deliver fully operational cloud services using liquid immersed technology.

Building huge data centres to meet the explosive growth of cloud computing is putting a strain on the electricity grid and water supplies. The unique proposition of PeaSoup’s fully liquid-cooled cloud is a commercially viable way to a greener, more environmentally friendly cloud and hosting industry.

These vast warehouses simply consume power and water churning vast amounts of data so that we can access more information than we can ever read or watch in a lifetime, at the touch of a screen/button. Servers using liquid cooling technology is a sustainable solution for making data centres less of a burden on finite resources.

Technology fixes to find new ways of storing data have been accelerated over recent years as customers look to reduce their CO2 footprint and seek out providers which support long-term Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. Sustainability should be a pre-condition of approval for new data centres.

Cooling a data centre big or small is a huge issue. A lot of heat generated from the IT hardware has to be removed continuously. This normally involves a lot of hardware, such as air-conditioning units, condensers, compressors, evaporators, and humidifiers that use huge amounts of power to work efficiently. Not to mention uninterruptible power supply systems, including backup generators, in case of mains power outage.

Swapping traditional air-cooling methods for liquid and immersion cooling, data centre operators can remove all the air-conditioning hardware and get hugely reduced power consumption. Liquid immersion cooling uses between 30% and 40% less electricity than a traditional data centre.

By using liquid immersion, the level of performance, reliability and stability of the cloud platform is hugely elevated. This technology helps to reduce environmental impact and improve overall cloud resilience, allowing for demanding applications such as AI and ML to run smoothly.

Liquid immersion cooling data centres provide businesses with simple and cost-effective cloud solutions that are considered truly green without offsetting or carbon credits. They are successfully equipping companies with the necessary technology to meet the current and future standards and regulations imposed in relation to sustainability and CSR.

PeaSoup strives to develop cloud services with a mindset to reduce the impact on the climate. Not just as an “offset”, but a truly sustainable position, where the whole chain of supply can be seen to provide benefit to the environment. It also offers backup and recovery services.

Martin Bradburn, PeaSoup’s CEO, says: “Projects are underway involving reusing of the heat generated by the hardware to heat buildings, which involves a heat exchange system. Similarities to air and ground source heat pumps can be drawn as it uses similar technology and has the same sustainable advantages. The future is sustainable, data can be used as a force for good.”