A report commissioned by Nutanix highlights the impact of hyperconverged infrastructure, hybrid cloud and leveraging on-demand computing capacity.
Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multi-cloud computing, has announced the findings of a new report focused on improving sustainability in data centres.
Atlantic Ventures’ report, Improving Sustainability in Data Centers 2024, reveals how next-generation data centre architectures, including hybrid cloud and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), can significantly reduce energy consumption, lower carbon emissions and drive cost savings across the EMEA region.
In just six years, the report finds that modernising data centres with HCI-based solutions could save up to 19 million tCO2e in the EMEA region, equivalent to the emissions of almost 4.1 million cars. It could also save €25 billion by 2030 from improved energy and operational efficiencies.
As businesses face up to post-COVID digitisation and the demands for data-hungry technologies, such as AI and IoT, the report identifies an increasing urgency for action. The dual challenges of rising energy costs and increased regulatory pressure to reduce their environmental impact are making this more difficult for IT leaders. As a result, energy efficiency has become a top priority for CIOs and data centre managers.
“Data centres are critical to the global digital economy but also rank among the largest consumers of energy,” said Sammy Zoghlami, SVP EMEA at Nutanix. “In EMEA alone, data centres demand over 98TWh of energy annually, equivalent to the consumption of an entire country like Belgium. The findings of this report show that by leveraging HCI-based solutions, companies can make a powerful contribution to climate action while significantly cutting operational costs.”
Carlo Velten from Atlantic Ventures, said: “CIOs and digital executives are facing challenges to provide the digital infrastructure to cope with the fast-growing demand for compute power and storage capacity, especially with the emergence of AI applications. As IT budgets are under pressure and electricity prices are soaring, energy-efficient data centre and cloud operations are key levers for profitability and sustainability. Hyperconverged infrastructure is at the forefront of transforming data centres into more energy-efficient and climate-friendly operations, as this report confirms.”
Key findings from the report including Middle East & North Africa (MENA) specific data:
- 27% energy savings: Switching from traditional 3-Tier architectures to an HCI-based platform can reduce energy consumption by more than 27% annually, helping companies cut both operational costs and emissions
- Massive regional impact: Across the EMEA region, a full-scale transition could save up to 92TWh of electricity and eliminate 19 million tons of CO₂e between 2024 and 2030 – comparable to the emissions of 4.1 million cars. In the MENA region alone, this amount would equate to savings of 6.1TWh of electricity
- €25 billion in savings: The financial windfall from reduced electricity consumption could reach €25 billion by 2030, offering businesses a rare opportunity to align sustainability with profitability. The potential electricity cost savings for companies and service providers in the MENA region could be as much as €562 million between 2024-2030 when switching on-premise from 3-Tier to HCI
- HCI in the cloud: Migrating HCI platforms to colocation or public cloud environments magnifies these benefits, with potential energy savings reaching as high as 54% compared to traditional on-premise data centres. This is due to the low PUE of public cloud providers as well as the flexibility in providing on-demand computing capacity
- Disaster Recovery efficiency: HCI-based architecture also enables lean, energy-efficient Disaster Recovery systems in the cloud, reducing the infrastructure footprint while maintaining scalability and responsiveness
- The MENA region is already quite advanced in terms of cloud transformation. In 2024, 47% of computing activity is estimated to be in traditional data centres, by 2030 this share is expected to decrease to 29%
- Due to the high share of fossil fuels in the MENA region, the energy mix is loaded with a high share of carbon emissions. With almost 493 grams of CO₂e per kWh of electricity in 2023, it is the highest in the regions considered. Accordingly, the efficiency potential of switching to an HCI-based platform is substantial. A total of 2.56 million tons of carbon emissions could be saved here by 2030. Over 103 million trees would be necessary to capture the carbon emitted in the forecasted period
