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我们可以让互联网不那么耗电吗？ Can we make the internet less power-thirsty? By Michael Dempsey 目前数据中心的耗电，已经成为一个全球都在关注的问题。如何在科技进步和低碳可持续兼顾，是数据中心行业下一步发展要面对的重要议题。如今，也有越来越多大企业陆续宣布未来对绿色数据中心的目标。Google(谷歌)、Microsoft(微软)、Equinix等企业纷纷宣布，将在2030年实现碳中和。不久的将来，通过科技手段的不断进步，相信这一问题将会得到解决。
没有数据中心就没有互联网 There is no internet without data centres 我们每天在做的很多事情都会和数据中心有着千丝万缕的联系。如网上购物、视频娱乐及阅读这篇文章，它们都涉及到数据被存储并随时可以使用。 So much of what we do every day involves a data centre. Shopping online, streaming TV shows, reading this story - they all need data to be stored and readily available. 这些服务器的及时性和便利性对用户使用非常友好，但这也需要相应付出代价。 The immediacy and convenience of those services is great, but that comes at a cost. 数据中心的运转需要大量的电力来维持，一个大型数据中心设施的用电量约等于一个中型城镇所需的电力。 Data centres need huge amounts of electricity to keep them going - a large facility will use as much electricity as a medium sized town. 这种情况在爱尔兰尤其明显，在那里，相对较小的电力网络维持着日益增长的数据中心设施。 The situation is particularly acute in Ireland, where a relatively small electricity grid is hosting a ballooning number of data centres. 都柏林有超过20家数据中心，微软和亚马逊均在都柏林建立大型数据中心。 More than 20 of these are in Dublin where Microsoft and Amazon have built very large sites. 据能源顾问Baringa称，爱尔兰全国目前总共有75个数据中心，另外超过11个数据中心正在建设当中。预测到2029年，这些数据中心用电量将达到占全国耗电量的27%。 Altogether the nation hosts 75 data centres with 11 more under construction and, according to energy consultants Baringa, they could take up 27% of the national electricity output by 2029. 这种令人担忧的电力需求迫使爱尔兰政府采取行动。可持续性是现在批准新数据中心开发的先决条件，政府表示“新建数据中心必须能够灵活的降低电力消耗”。 That alarming demand for electricity has forced the Irish government to take action.Sustainability is now a pre-condition of approval for new data centres with the government stating that 'new-build data centres must be able to flexibly reduce power consumption'.
对于亚马逊、微软以及其它科技巨头来说，爱尔兰是重要的节点中心 Ireland is an important hub for Amazon, Microsoft and other tech giants 相应的技术正在被研发运用，期待用于降低数据中心对电网的压力。 Technology is being deployed in the hope of making data centres less of a burden on the power grid. 一个开设在都柏林郊区的格兰奇堡（Grange Castle）新的数据中心设施，通过伊顿公司与能源巨头Enel联合开发的软件进行管理，连接到电网。 A new facility, opened at Grange Castle on the outskirts of Dublin, has its connection to the electricity grid managed by software from the firm Eaton in conjunction with energy giant Enel. 如果电网受到压力，数据中心的电力将被切断，同时备份系统将立即启动。 If the wider electricity grid is under stress, the electricity to the data centre is shut off and back-up systems immediately kick-in. 所有数据中心都有完善的备用系统，在停电状况下都能保持设施的正常运行。 All data centres operate sophisticated stand-by systems that keep them running in case of any electricity outage. 备用系统的第一道防线是不间断电源（UPS）设备，这是一种非常成熟有效的电池备用系统，可以在电源中断的瞬间，马上启动并运行足够的时间，以便柴油发电机启动或主电源恢复。 The first line of this defence is Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) devices. These are effectively sophisticated batteries that cut right in the split second they're needed and run for enough time to allow a diesel generator to kick in or for mains power to be restored. 在格兰奇堡，当电网的电频率（以赫兹为单位）波动时，表明电网处于压力状态，伊顿的UPS会进行干预并补充电网的电力。 At Grange Castle, Eaton's UPS intervenes and frees up power on the grid when the grid's electrical frequency, measured in hertz, fluctuates in a way that indicates it is under stress. 当电力来自不稳定的发电源，这种状况可能会发生，例如爱尔兰大型风电场。 This might be when power from unstable sources, such as Ireland's vast wind farms, dips.  数据中心国际专家培训  ATD设计课程 AOS运维课程运维管理的直接目标是优秀的运维人员而非设备本身；全球权威的AOS运维管理专家课程将带您深刻理解运维管理的本质 ATS管理课程正确和系统地了解Tier分级体系会提升数据中心的项目投资回报、减少业务中断风险，ATS课程将全面带您学习Tier知识，帮助您有效提升企业的运营指标和内外部客户的满意度。 点击图片查看课程排期
扫码回复【uptime培训】了解课程详情 许多数据中心已经在使用施耐德电气（Schneider Electric）和Vertiv等公司的成熟技术，预期在一定的时间内降低了对电网需求。 Many data centres already remove demand from the grid for a pre-defined period using established technology from companies such as Schneider Electric and Vertiv. 但目前在格兰奇堡的情况，被认为是数据中心和国家电网之间首次建立起实时、动态的连接。 But the Grange Castle arrangement is claimed to be the first time a live, dynamic relationship has been established between a data centre and a national grid.
Ciaran Forde表示他的公司提供的系统服务可以帮助缓解电网的压力 Ciaran Forde says his company's system can help relieve pressure on the electricity grid 来自伊顿的Ciaran Forde是一位专门研究数据中心的物理学家。他说，伊顿的系统就像一个压力阀，释放数据中心对于电网的压力，是对电网有益的。 Ciaran Forde from Eaton is a physicist who specialises in data centres. He says Eaton's system acts like a pressure valve pulling the data centre off the grid for valuable interludes. 爱尔兰电网运营商为数据中心提供了这种便捷性。 The owners of the data centre get paid for this flexibility by the Irish grid operator. 来自Uptime Institute（认证数据中心的弹性和可靠性的专业机构）的Jay Dietrich表示，营收可能是数据中心业主希望灵活的主要原因。 Jay Dietrich, from the Uptime Institute which certifies data centres for resilience and reliability, says that income is probably the primary reason that data centre owners are keen to be flexible. Mr Dietrich说，“他们这样做不是出于任何崇高的理由，只是为了现金流和收入。”，他之前在IBM从事能源政策和气候变化方面的工作。 'They're not doing this for noble reasons. They are doing it for cash flow and revenue,' says Mr Dietrich, whose career has involved working on energy policy and climate change at IBM. 爱尔兰是这样的全球问题的一个缩影。 Ireland provides a snapshot of a global problem. 2022年7月，大伦敦区主管部门致信西部房地产开发商，提醒他们的新开发项目在接入电网这件事情上，可能会面临漫长的等待。 In July 2022 London's governing body, the Greater London Authority, wrote to housing developers in the west of the capital warning they could face prolonged waits before new developments could be connected to the grid. 尽管伦敦面临住房短缺，新的住宅项目仍可能会面临十年的延期。因为泰晤士河区域的数据中心的电力需求，使得电网无法为伦敦不断增长的人口提供电力保障。 Despite a housing shortage across London, new residential projects could face a delay of a decade because data centres in the Thames Valley were hoovering up electrical capacity leaving the gird unable to guarantee power for London's growing population.
数据中心包括数千台服务器设备来接收、储存和发送信息 Data centres house thousands of servers - devices that receive, store and send data 我们是怎么走到今天这一步的？来自伊顿的Forde先生表示，这是由于云计算产业的爆炸性增长，这一趋势促使许多公司将其大部分数据存储和处理业务外包给亚马逊和微软等第三方公司。他指出，使用“云”这个词汇其实具有高度误导性，因为它其实是“非常实体的设施”。 How did we get here? Eaton's Mr Forde says it is really down to the explosive growth of cloud computing - the trend which has seen companies outsource much of their data storage and processing to third-party firms like Amazon and Microsoft.He points out that using the term 'cloud' is highly misleading, as it is 'a very physical thing'. 云不漂浮在大气中，它由计算机服务器组成，而且对电力有着极大的需求。 The cloud does not float in the atmosphere, it consists of computer servers with a vast appetite for electricity. 爱尔兰目前的状况，对于环境和电网的担忧，已经引发了一场挽救数据中心行业声誉的竞赛。 The Irish example highlights how a combination of environmental concerns and worries about capacity in the grid have triggered a race to save the reputation of the data centre industry. 新的技术方案正在研发中。 New technology fixes are being developed. 在意大利北部靠近瑞士边境的Brunello小镇，数据管理机构Pure Storage正在通过削减比特、字节和一些垃圾信息，对数据中心进行数据优化。 At Brunello, a town near the Swiss border in Northern Italy, data management business Pure Storage is putting a data centre on a digital diet by trimming bits and bytes and junking surplus information. Brunello存储设备使用的软件，当信息被不必要地复制时，这些信息会被识别并被删除。这个审核和删除过程抑制了数据的膨胀。 Storage devices at Brunello use software that spots when information is duplicated unnecessarily and deletes that material. This process of perpetual review and removal restrains ballooning volumes of data. 对于IT部门来说，这听起来像是一个普通平淡的工作，但这项工作正在应对数据中心行业目前最大的敌人。它正在降低数据中心对电力的可怕的需求。Pure公司声称它可以削减数据中心80%的电力使用。 It sounds like a mundane job for the IT department, but this program is tackling the data centre industry's biggest enemy head-on. It is reducing the horrific appetite for electric power that characterises all data centres. Pure claims it can slice as much as 80% off a data centre's power usage.
Pure公司的James Petter说，数据中心公司在关注如何减少电力消耗 Data centre firms are focused on reducing electricity consumption, says James Petter from Pure Pure公司的执行官James Petter是通过英国陆军和可口可乐业务进入这一技术领域的，他直面这一电力消耗问题，并意识到这一问题非常的重要。 Pure executive James Petter, who came to technology via the British Army and Coca-Cola, takes a blunt approach to the problem of power consumption and has no illusions about how important this is. 我们的设备设计都是围绕着低功耗这一原则。目前我们从潜在数据中心客户那里得到的所有需求信息都是关于能源消耗的。 'We design our equipment around the principle of lowering power use. And right now all the requests we get from prospective data centre customers are about power consumption. “他们过去总是先问技术和价格，但现在碳排放和可再生能源方面才是最重要的。关于碳排放，每个人都在关注。” 'They used to ask about technology and price first, but today carbon emissions and renewables are what count. It's all about carbon footprints, everyone's on the bandwagon.' 他表示在过去两年中，能源消耗问题已经成为首席执行官的主要议程。在利雅得的演讲中，他描述了他在沙特阿拉伯采访的最后三家数据中心服务商都对其碳排放感到担忧。 He says that this trend has taken off in the past two years as energy consumption rose to dominate 'the CEO agenda'. Speaking from Riyadh he describes how the last three data centre providers he spoke to in Saudi Arabia were all deeply concerned about their carbon footprint. Petter先生不愿意承认，我们可以存储的数据量可能是有限制的。“宏观趋势是随着数据的增加，我认为会有新的创新，会有新的数据存储方式。” Mr Petter is reluctant to concede that there might be a limit to how much data we can store. 'The macro trend is for data to increase. I do think innovation will continue, there will be new ways of storing the data.' 对我们在云端存储的照片数量进行限制，不符合科技行业的商业利益。 It's not in the technology industry's commercial interest to impose limits on how many photos we all store in the cloud. 但是如果数据中心想要获得规划许可并取得公众的认可，它们就必须关注如何有创新性的举措来减少其巨大的电力消耗。 But if data centres want to win planning permission and maintain public approval they will have to concentrate on imaginative moves that slash their enormous power consumption. 当降低PUE越来越难时，删除数据中心重复存储的数据是否才是降低数据中心能耗的最终办法？ 留言区写下您对今日话题的见解，截止下周五从留言区评论中精选最相关话题的同学将会获得由山特（SANTAK）独家赞助，价值168元的【SP-BOX系列防雷防浪涌插线板】一个。（中奖名单将在下周五留言区置顶公示）快来留言区发表自己的观点吧！
翻译： 陈路 Global Switch 项目开发 DKV（DeepKnowledge Volunteer）计划成员 校对： 王谋锐 城地香江(上海)云计算有限公司 电气架构师 DKV（DeepKnowledge Volunteer）计划精英成员 公众号声明： |
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