19 Life Is On | Schneider Electric www.se.com Integrated report Strategic Report Data centers of the Future Data centers are the lifeblood of the digital world. From massive cloud data centers enabling global peer-to-peer communications for billions of people, to the smallest micro data centers supporting expanding edge computing applications, data centers must be sustainable, resilient, efficient and adaptive. Critical attributes of evolving data centers: Sustainability – Sustainability is more than just reducing power consumption, it’s about creating direct customer benefits. Beyond just tracking their company-based emissions, data centers must account for the emissions of their upstream and downstream supply chain. Robust data is the key to rounding out an organization’s sustainability profile. Resilience – By reducing exposure to hazards and associated risks, like unanticipated blackouts, data center owners can mitigate unplanned downtime. Through monitoring and data analysis, data center teams can proactively avoid uptime threats and support business continuity. Efficiency – Data center efficiencies, which often encompassed only process and hardware performance efficiencies, will soon include human resources, CapEx, and total cost of ownership (TCO) efficiencies. By equipping devices with intelligent sensors and adding more digital services and remote monitoring capabilities, data centers will drive more efficient operations. Adaptiveness – A new threshold for business success has emerged: deliver goods and services with speed and precision. As customers demands increase, data centers must also adjust. More agile designs now allow data center owners to pivot, quickly scaling up or down to handle changing consumer demands. China International Intellectech Corporation (CIIC) boosts energy savings As part of the Zhongzhi Group, CIIC is a leading human resources company in China, serving more than 20,000 customer companies across the country. By deploying Schneider Electric’s low footprint Uniflair ™ InRow ™ Cooling and Hot-Aisle air containment system, CIIC succeeded in boosting energy efficiency and achieving a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.5°C, while reducing the required system footprint space by 70 square meters. Innovations introduced in 2021 include: • Galaxy VL: The new, energy-efficient Galaxy VL is designed to help data centers grow while minimizing footprint and cost of ownership. As a Green Premium ™ product, it delivers top performance, supports sustainability objectives, and fills a previous gap in the market for the midrange power segment. • Monitoring and Dispatch Services: Designed for single-phase systems within edge environments, Monitoring and Dispatch Services provide both customers and partners with advanced remote troubleshooting and on-site support. End users can reduce OpEx, improve cost predictability, and reduce costly business interruptions. • Smart-UPS Ultra: The first of its kind, APC Smart-UPS Ultra is redefining the single-phase UPS, making it lighter and more powerful. It uses lithium-ion technology to power distributed IT and edge computing sites to ensure uptime and resilience. Leading change in the data center industry “The data center industry has unique characteristics, such as high energy intensity, rapid growth, large power consumption, and water usage, that require specialized metrics. Standardizing these metrics will help with adoption, improve benchmarking, and progress sustainability within the industry.” Schneider Electric Energy Management Research Center, Guide to Environmental Sustainability Metrics for Data Centers for Data Center Apps, Analytics, & Services EcoStruxure ™ IT Advisor expert team 7 x 24 services Edge Control Digital platform for monitoring Connected Products Modular solution, access control, Netbotz, UPS 1-2% Estimated global energy consumption by data centers (1) 50% Growth in IT sector electricity demand by 2050 (2) 50% Reduction in carbon intensities of data centers by 2030 (2) (1) https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aba3758 (2) https://www.se.com/ww/en/insights/tl/schneider-electric-sustainability-research-institute/digital-economy-and-climate-impact-2