The Indian data centre service market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.6 per cent during 2010-14, according to a report released by global research firm TechNavio. The increasing need for data outsourcing is driving the growth of data centres in India.

Over the next few years, data centre service growth will be driven by telecom operators, high speed internet service providers, data centre hosting players, power and cooling solution providers, hardware vendors and system integrators, among others.

An important trend in the Indian data centre service market has been that of green initiatives. A green data centre is a repository for data storage, management, and dissemination. In such a facility, the efficiency of all IT equipment and assets like mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems is maximised to minimise the environmental impact of operations.

The market for green data centres is being driven by multiple factors. The most critical of these is the increasing demand for computing power, which involves high energy costs. Other drivers in developing countries like India include unreliable grid power and increasing diesel prices. Growing economic pressure and environmental concerns are also contributing to the adoption of green data centre operations.

Moreover, these are key to the broader transformation taking place in the computing and IT industry. This transformation is inclusive of operational improvements, technological innovations and the evolving data centre supply chain.

The first data centres in India were established in the mid-1990s. Over the years, these facilities have emerged as key business drivers for industries like telecom, banking and FMCG.

Today, the majority of organisations are facing issues related to data storage and security. Companies are outsourcing their IT requirements to eco-friendly and energy efficient next-generation green data centres to reduce costs.

Virtualisation and cloud computing are the two biggest emerging trends in IT. These business segments are playing a critical role in the adoption of green data centres by companies. Virtualisation addresses the issue of inefficiency in data centres – low equipment utilisation rates of assets that consume power and generate heat. Virtualisation results in improved resource management and utilisation as well as consolidation of assets, and allows flexible resource provisioning to IT companies.

In the majority of cases, the cost of power for both IT infrastructure and cooling accounts for about 60 per cent of operating costs. Virtualisation leads to the optimisation of IT equipment, thereby reducing power consumption, which results in lower heat dissipation. This reduces the burden on power grids and plants, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Effective utilisation of equipment contributes to lower operating costs for data centres.

Cloud computing is also emerging as a key technology for the optimisation of resources for data centre operations. With increasing data exchange, sharing and storage have become critical. By adopting cloud computing, the industry is strongly placed to establish data centre networks that help IT companies achieve economies of scale, streamline and align their core services, and reduce costs. More importantly, sharing of data and security networks will be crucial for building cloud-ready green data centres.

To keep services up and running, organisations need to achieve complete automation. To ensure this, data centres need to adopt tools and solutions provided by cloud computing and virtualisation for deploying green solutions. These will help data centres maximise returns from infrastructure.

In India, key vendors in the data centre service space include Reliance Communications, Tata Communications Limited, Bharti Airtel and NetMagic Solutions Private Limited. Currently, several companies are providing tools and solutions for establishing green data centres. There are a number of tools and solutions that help in the measurement and analysis of power consumption by a data centre, thereby allowing the assessment of deficiencies in computing devices as well as the IT set-up.

The most important driver for building a green data centre is a reduction in power consumption through the installation of IT equipment. The following strategies can be adopted to achieve this:

Optimising layout

The first step towards setting up a green data centre is utilising the hot-aisle-cold-aisle configuration, ensuring optimum underfloor depth, closing unnecessary floor openings, using Koldlok cable opening and blanking plates in racks, and avoiding cabling in floor and ceiling voids.

Electrical design with efficient components

This involves the use of switches of the correct size, properly tightened cable terminations and jointed bus bars, correct-sized diesel generator sets, amongst other things.

Effective air conditioning

While building a green data centre, provisions should be made for an optimum air- conditioning design focusing on air flow.

Monitoring and control

A 24-hour monitoring and controlling system should be deployed for power, AC and IT equipment as well as for rack/outlet, room temperatures and battery and UPS.

The choice for computing devices supporting equipment for a green data centre should be driven by efficiency and not by costs. The solutions should be selected on the basis of factors such as free cooling, cooling storage, ambient temperature and non-peak hour plant operation.

With rapid innovations in renewable energy systems, clean and green options like solar and wind power are emerging as key alternatives for powering data centres in the country.