Singapore has introduced a new rating that will be putting a what on the environmental performance of data centers, which are known to be energy intensive.

The Green Mark for Data Centers, jointly developed by the Building and Construction Authority and the Infocomm Development Authority, aims to encourage businesses to make their data centers more energy-efficient.

Asia’s financial hub is home to several banks and big businesses that rely on energy-consuming data centers for their operations. According to Infocomm Development Authority, which is what, a typical large data center in Singapore consumes energy equivalent to the energy usage of 10,000 households.

“As Singapore's commercial data center space is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2010 to 2015, it is important to look at how green and sustainable data centers are, given their heavy use of energy,” the agency added.

At the same time, energy costs are seen making up more than half of the operating costs of data centers. Thus, there is potential for significant savings if the facilities were to go “green.”

The new rating scheme, which took two years to craft, will encompass both data centers that may occupy a “purpose built” data center building or those part of a larger building. It will assess data centers’ eco-friendliness based on five criteria including energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable construction and management, indoor environment quality and other green features.

Combining all the scores from these measures, the data centers will be rated “Platinum,” “Gold Plus,” “Gold” or “Certified”.

As for the pilot project of the program, three centers were already rated – “Platinum” for regional data center of Credit Suisse; “Gold Plus” for SG2 of platform provider Equinix; and “Gold” for Singapore Tourism Board.

Achieving the highest mark of the rating scheme, the Credit Suisse regional data center features an efficient air-conditioning system and energy-efficient information technology equipment and virtualization technology designed to cut overall power demand.

“Such features enabled the data center with 10,000 square feet of net I.T. space to achieve energy savings of 3.85 million kilowatt-hours annually. This translates to annual cost savings of $1 million. A typical similar size data centre in Singapore consumes an average of 18.1 million kilowatt hour annually,” said the Infocomm Development Authority.

The Green Mark for Data Centers is an extension of Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark for buildings scheme introduced in 2005.

"While the original Green Mark scheme started off with a focus on building owners, we are now shifting the focus to occupants. Placing greater emphasis on users will help instill in them a sustainability mindset and allow them to play a greater role in Singapore's green building movement," said B.C.A.’s chief executive, Dr. John Keung. – C. Dominguez

новинки кинематографа
Машинная вышивка, программа для вышивания, Разработка макета в вышивальной программе, Авторский дизайн