DATA CENTERS

Data centers – physical repositories of platforms – are facilities housing IT and telecommunication equipment (servers, storage, network equipment and access, cabling) as well as the infrastructure allowing the IT equipment to operate safely (cooling equipment, uninterrupted power supply, generators, environmental controls, restricted physical access, etc.). Data centers are either built for the sole use of a company or as colocation centers, where infrastructure, space and bandwidth are available for rent to customers who operate their own IT equipment.

The world’s largest datacenters, still in construction, consist of several grouped facilities occupying up to 700’000 m² with a capacity of 1’000 MW power and hosting several hundred thousand computers (see Williams 2017). In comparison all Swiss data centers cover a total of 235’000 m² with very few facilities having more than thousand servers (see Institut für Wirtschaftsstudien Basel AG, 2014).

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) data centers worldwide consumed around 1% of total electricity demand in 2014 and despite a forecasted tripling in data center workloads by 2020, their electricity use is projected to grow only marginally thanks to continued efficiency improvements (see International Energy Agency, 2017). These numbers include consumption of infrastructure for block-chain and cryptocurrencies, but their evolution and impact above 2020 is difficult to predict. In addition the data transmission networks also account for around 1% worldwide electricity demand with uncertain projections depending on efficiency improvement scenarios. A SFOE study estimated the consumption of Swiss data centers to around 3% of total electricity demand with potential savings of up to 50% if efficiency measures are implemented. An EnergieSchweiz information campaign in this area is currently ongoing (see Schweizerischer Verband der Telekommunikation und EnergieSchweiz, s.a.).

6.3 CLOUDS

Cloud computing means storing and accessing data and software over the Internet instead of one’s local computer(s), network and storage. Cloud service providers operate their own data centers and offer a shared pool of configurable computing resources such as computing power, storage, applications and other services, in a you-go (i.e. the customer pays for the amount of service he uses) or pay-as-you-grow (i.e. if the customer needs to use more of the service because his business is growing, he pays more) business model. With an online connection, cloud computing is available anytime from an-ywhere.

62/127 Figure 13: Cloud computing (Source Shutterstock)

Over the last few years, companies have increasingly been moving from self-managing their IT infra-structure (owning, configuring and operating) towards “outsourcing” it into the cloud (renting, configuring, using and sharing). From a business perspective that comes with advantages in terms of agility, i.e. the ability to move faster on projects and test out concepts without lengthy procurement processes associ-ated with purchasing hardware equipment and big upfront costs, the ability to scale-up fast in case of success and the possibility to shift costs from capital expenses CAPEX to operating expenses, OPEX.

Because users loose the physical control over their data and the knowledge of the technologies behind the servers, adoption of cloud computing strongly relies on trust and guaranteeing the security and privacy of the cloud data, applications and services. Furthermore the geographical location where the cloud data is hosted is a very important criteria. The ‘Data Center Risk Index Report 2016’ lists 10 factors that can influence the successful operation of a data center, among which the most important are: nat-ural disaster, political stability, ease of doing business and international internet bandwidth (see Cush-man & Wakefield, 2016). According to the 2016 report Switzerland ranks 3^rd worldwide, just behind Iceland and Norway, making it a very attractive location for data centers.

Companies willing to move to the cloud can choose from several deployment models (see National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2011) depending on their business area and strategy:

• Public cloud

Owned and operated by a provider and made available for use by the general public. The infra-structure exists on the premises of the cloud provider.

• Private cloud

The infrastructure is made available for exclusive use by a single organization. It may be owned and operated by the organization or a third party, on or off premises.

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• Hybrid cloud

The infrastructure is a composition of separate private and public entities, which are bound together by standardized technology that enables data and application portability.

When operating from a cloud, customers can choose from the following service models (see National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2011; fig. 14, below).

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

Internet access to third-party software on a subscription basis. The end user can access from various terminals the provider’s software running on a cloud infrastructure, either through a thin client interface, such as a web browser, or through a dedicated interface. SaaS eliminates the need to install and run software on individual computers, while the maintenance and support are handled by the vendor.

SaaS is the dominant cloud service model in the market. Typical business products are CRM software (Customer Relationship Management, e.g. “Salesforce”) or ERM (Enterprise Resource Management, e.g. “SAP”), but also web analytics platforms, marketing automation tools, and so on. For private users, SaaS are mainly web-based applications (e.g. “Microsoft Office 365”,

“Google Drive”) or cloud storage and file sharing tools (e.g. “Dropbox”, “Microsoft OneDrive”).

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS is the cloud service model for programmers or application developers which allows them to design, develop, test, deploy, manage and update applications without the need for managing the IT environment. Instead, the provider maintains and supports the infrastructure (storage, networking and computing resources) and the necessary software subsystems (e.g. operating systems, middleware, databases, programming languages or libraries). In addition, PaaS can offer sophisticated built-in software tools (pre-coded components) which developers can use on a pay-as-you-go basis. Examples include modules for IoT, big data and analytics, artificial intel-ligence, blockchain, e-commerce, business intelintel-ligence, data warehouse, digital marketing, mo-bile services etc. Thus allowing organizations to analyze and mine their data, find insights and patterns and predict outcomes to improve product design or business decisions. Microsoft Azure PaaS, Google App Engine and Red Hat OpenShift are examples of PaaS.

Figure 14: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS cloud services (source Microsoft, 2018).

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS gives system administrators pay-as-you-go access to storage, networking and computing resources avoiding the upfront expenses associated with setting up and managing an own data

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center. The customer is responsible for purchasing, installing, configuring, managing and up-dating all the software (including operating systems, middleware, and applications) while the cloud service provider manages the infrastructure equipment (servers, storage and network).

By using IaaS, the customer can scale up resources to accommodate spikes in demand for their applications then scale resources back down again when activity decreases to save money.

The main international IaaS providers are Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.