Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - Vertiv drives edge and sustainability for the data centre

COVID changed everything. That is the consensus from Faraz Ali, IT channel market business manager for Vertiv in Australia and New Zealand, who joined Ten Minute IT Jams to discuss the ever-evolving landscape of edge infrastructure, its practical application in industry, and Vertiv's increasing role in supporting sustainability and the booming gaming sector.

"COVID saw IT move from the back room to the boardroom," Ali began. Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are continuing to build upon their digital capabilities, but the question now is how technology leaders can get the most out of their growing investments.

Ali described a tech sector in flux. "A lot of organisations are actually moving to cloud computing or relocating the data centres off-site... They are removing the need for having an on-premise data centre, obviously cleaning up footprint and no longer having to manage assets." He said this shift carried hidden costs, noting, "If you start moving or relocating your data centres into the cloud, you are actually effectively putting your data much further away. As you increase the distance from your data, it's obviously going to take a lot longer to get to it."

That's precisely the issue driving interest in "edge" infrastructure, a concept that creates a "middle stone" between users and distant data. "The edge being that ability or that middle stone to go, 'Hey, my data is really, really far away, but what if I had a middle gateway that could jump in and access that data for me much faster?'" explained Ali. He noted that "about a third of people have already started to plan or move to an edge-like deployment," with some already making the leap and others in the process. "We're hearing the words edge and cloud all the time - this is how it's coexisting for businesses here today."

Asked for real-world examples, Ali highlighted a Tasmanian customer leading the way in agriculture. "Tasmanian Salmon - Tassal - started putting some IoT sensors in... working out how hot or cold the water is, how much sunlight, how salty is the water, what's the wind doing that day." By integrating these analytics, Tassal found that "a happier fish tends to want to eat more. The more a fish eats and the more efficiently we do it, not only does the fish grow faster but we are also saving on the materials to grow them." The project involved automating salmon pens and using high-definition video, all run from an on-site micro data centre. The benefits were palpable: "Their workstation engineers are literally there watching the fish, using the metrics, feeding at the optimal level and then harvesting at the optimal level," Ali said. "The idea of using sensors, video, audio - all these metrics - to make these businesses a lot more efficient, that's been one of those big things we've seen here in Australia."

This approach is equally valid in the fiercely competitive sphere of gaming and esports, whose rapid commercial growth has made technical reliability critical. "Esports or the gaming world has just exploded on two fronts," Ali explained. "Think of it as gaming Olympics or the gaming version of the Olympics. People are rocking into these stadiums and watching favourite gamers and teams go head-to-head." With so much riding on performance, downtime is not an option. "Imagine how frustrated you'd get if you're watching your favourite gamer and for whatever reason they started having network issues or the site just started having power issues. You can't stress enough the importance of keeping that up," he said.

Ali also spoke of the associated rise of streamers, who rely on stable, robust infrastructure for both their income and professional identity: "You can imagine - this is their income, they are pushing the gaming, they're getting viewership, sponsorship, and you can't afford for your PC or your network to ever go down, or you're effectively going to lose your audience." That explains the increasing prevalence of uninterrupted power supplies and backup systems. "We're seeing a lot more people deploying backup power to make sure that they never lose their servers or their computers in this case," Ali said.

But as data usage grows and new data centres are built, concerns about sustainability are mounting, particularly given the enormous power requirements. "Here in Australia, we've estimated that the data centre depicts about three and a half per cent of the total energy consumption," Ali said. As demand for data rises, energy use grows in tandem, reinforcing the need for more sustainable solutions.

Some positive steps are underway. "Wind and solar, looking for alternate ways to provide power," are being adopted, Ali said, as well as "looking at other battery energy storage systems such as lithium ion as opposed to your normal lead-acid batteries." Another focus is on cooling. "Starting to use refrigerants that don't have such a high global warming impact... using these refrigerants in those cooling cycles and going, how do we minimise the impact in this space?"

Closer to home, Vertiv is rolling out an 'energy optimisation programme' aimed at helping clients use only the energy they truly need. "Looking for cool and efficient ways to go, 'Hey Mr Customer, do you really need this to always be on?' Or what if we go and rejig some of the assets you have, and find a more effective way such that you don't always have everything running," he said. Simple steps, such as keeping unnecessary cooling or networking equipment switched off when possible, have led to tangible results. "We've seen about, you know, approximately a 30 per cent increase in efficiency just by turning things off. People are saving power because they're no longer using things they don't need all the time," Ali added.

As the interview wrapped up, Ali reaffirmed his optimism about innovation in the technology sector - and its capacity to respond to escalating challenges in digital infrastructure, performance, and environmental impact. "It's a very fun time. Thanks for having me," he said.