Green IT

Green IT
DATA4 is firmly committed to sustainable development

A socially
responsible commitment

Our society is rapidly becoming digitised on a massive scale. The Internet shares knowledge. Huge amounts of data are continually being created by humans and connected machines. Just like air, water and food, data is now a primary need that is essential to our lives and development. Business computing is hybridised between the cloud and proprietary applications, storing an increasing amount of data from its customers and/or products.

Calculation and storage requirements for this data calls for hyper-specialised Data Centers that are hyper-connected, convergent and intelligent. One of the consequences is a huge increase in hosting requirements in colocation Data Centers to guarantee the security, availability and accessibility of this data.

Data Centers concentrate computer power, making them high consumers of electricity and, therefore, the most appropriate places for implementing technology in order to optimise energy use.

This is why DATA4 has adopted a Social and Environmental Responsibility approach and is committed to an integrated management system aimed at reducing its environmental footprint.

Ensuring its sites conform to a
sustainable and virtuous model

As a responsible company, DATA4 endeavours to reduce its environmental impact in a number of ways:

  • Making a long-term commitment to a process of continuous improvement, adopting the good practice of the ISO 14001 and 50001 certification standards under the European framework (EU Code of Conduct for Data Centers) and by following the ASHRAE recommendations, recognised internationally for its thermal guidelines.
  • Hosting Data Centers on campuses to control energy consumption:
    • As the air temperature on our campuses is around 3°C lower than in the neighbouring dense, urban environments, the energy requirements for cooling are reduced accordingly
    • Being located 30 minutes from large cities, social and environmental disturbances are practically non-existent
    • The campus concept enables us to offer a pleasant working environment for those working in the Data Centers and on the hosted computer equipment
    • In addition, DATA4 promotes biodiversity by protecting 70 hectares of listed woodland on its Paris-Saclay campus, together with the associated wildlife (deer and bees)

Optimising the eco-performance
of hosting

As a responsible company, DATA4 endeavours to reduce its ecological footprint in a number of ways:

  • Guaranteeing that 100% of the electricity used in its data centers is 100% renewably sourced energy that is injected into the electricity supplier’s grid. This guarantee has been in place on the Milan campus since July 2017 and on the Paris-Saclay campus since January 2018.
  • Striving to cool using ambient air. On the Paris-Saclay campus, thanks to the integration of Direct Free Cooling technology, the new generations of Data Centers cool computer equipment on average 85% of the time
  • Banning greenhouse gases in fire protection systems: DATA4 promotes the use of nitrogen and water mist in its fire protection system
  • Promoting an optimised layout to its customers, including cold aisle containment solutions for high densities
  • Providing a dashboard for all customers, enabling them to adjust their resources, notably via a portal (providing information on the real-time consumption of energy, relative humidity levels, temperature, etc.)

Eco-
innovation

DATA4 designs its Data Centers to ensure their total life cycle has the lowest possible ecological footprint, as well as optimising continual operational processes.

DATA4 R&D produces original systems, which it then patents, such as the cooling system via a ceiling plenum that provides considerable flexibility for concentrating cold air according to the density of computer racks.

Similarly, in our Data Centers we offer a range of services (D4 Digital Hub) that contribute to our ambition, including the D4 Hub HPC Power calculator, which is a computing grid distributed over the digital heaters.

DATA4 has introduced technology to optimise electricity consumption and increase efficiency, aiming to ensure that as close as possible to 100% of energy used is used directly by the computer equipment.