An Overview of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres

 
     
  Information technology usage which includes personal computers, servers, telephony, data centres, office equipment, and network infrastructure and so on is estimated to count for around 2 per cent of the global carbon emissions as mentioned by GARTNER. A Stanford University report published in 2011, entitled ‘Growth in Data Centre Electricity Use 2005 to 2010”, estimated that the amount of electricity consumed by data centres worldwide grew by 56% between 2005 and 2010. GARTNER has stated that data centre power, cooling and energy supply and cost problems are likely to worsen during the next few years as organisations continue to grow their technology infrastructure. Data centres have been identified as high users of energy and with that goes carbon emissions. The European Union has developed the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres which is considered as an initial response to the accelerated rising power consumption of Data Centres across the EU. The Code is designed to raise awareness of the opportunities for energy and cost efficiency within the industry and gives guidance on initiatives and changes that can be made to improve the efficiency of the data centre infrastructure, as well as the IT equipment.

The recommended best practice associated with the EU Code of Conduct is split into 7 distinct areas:

  • Data Centre Utilisation, Management and Planning
  • IT Equipment and Services
  • Cooling
  • Data Centre Power Equipment
  • Other Data Centre Equipment
  • Data Centre Building
  • Monitoring


    • Organisations can sign the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres as a Participant and/or as an Endorser.

      A Participant operates one or more data centres or equipment within data centres and commits to energy reporting and implementation of certain practices from the Best Practice guide.

      An Endorser is a vendor or consulting organisation, government department or agency, NGO, industry association, Professional and Standard body or Educational institution who has agreed to promote the strategic objectives of the Code within its products and services.