SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Sustainability is dead. Long live sustainability. With governments and some big businesses reigning back on sustainability, does this mean channel businesses should dispense with it as a key element of their service offerings? Certainly not, says Tim Whiteley, co-founder at Inevidesk.
Sustainability is increasingly becoming a choice rather than an obligation. The seeming global consensus, always fragile, is disintegrating amid sluggish economies and the need to prioritise growth above all else. Whether it be the ever-decreasing green commitment in the UK, withdrawal from the Paris Agreement by the US or the international race to harness AI and the increase in energy supply demands, there is a definite shift in political and business priorities that is shunting the priority of sustainability back down the tracks. One can argue that this has always been the case; that the adoption of more sustainable infrastructure, from an environmental perspective, could only ever be allied to sustainable growth. That this is what our economies demand. While environmental impact is of stated importance to customers, it is rarely, if ever, the overriding priority and is welcomed only if the offered solution also meets the more critical short-term criteria of performance, resiliency and budget. Does this mean that we should dispense with sustainability as a key element of our service offerings and development? After all, vendors and channel partners need to meet their customers’ demands and what use is a sustainable solution if it doesn’t cater to these in the fullest way possible? In the all-consuming current landscape of AI development can we put sustainability on the backburner because other benefits
are just too attractive to pass up? Are we going to put our trust in AI to, at some point in the indeterminate future, solve existential environmental issues for us?
The pragmatic case for sustainable infrastructure
CONTINUED Geopolitical tensions further compound the need for a pragmatic approach, as they threaten to disrupt usage also translates to lower costs. Maximising the value of data centre resources will help keep services more attractive to customers, particularly in economically challenging times. By optimising efficiency, organisations can maintain competitiveness while managing expenses effectively. This increasingly seems to be the world in which vendors and channel partners must operate. Given this reality, how should we act? Perhaps the most practical approach is to recognise that sustainable infrastructure remains the best way forward for clearly pragmatic business purposes. Several key considerations support this approach. First, data centre space is likely to become increasingly scarce if AI investment continues at its current pace. As a result, infrastructure must become more high- density to ensure continued availability and accommodation. Taking less space and less power may become a necessity so factoring that potential requirement in now will prevent future challenges. Additionally, reducing space and power
Tim Whiteley co-founder
inevidesk.com
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In the all- consuming current landscape of AI development can we put sustainability on the backburner because other benefits are just too attractive to pass up?
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