Edge Sustainability Tech Can Reduce Telcos' Energy Usage and Emissions, Says Report

STL Partners released a report that finds that some "advanced edge sustainability strategies" can reduce telco providers' energy usage by 3-5% and one million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) of emissions for a typical large group operator. These strategies, including Precision Liquid Cooling, could save a typical large group telco operator up to $40 million a year in energy costs, according to a press release from Iceotope, a cooling technology company that sponsored the report.

 

While traditional data center sustainability has improved, edge sustainability remains a concern amid anticipated growth in edge computing. More so than in centralized cloud computing, sustainability at the edge poses its own unique challenges due to varied environments. 

 

In the report, STL Partners looked at five subcategories of specialized cooling technologies – Precision Liquid Cooling - Liquid to Air, Precision Liquid Cooling - Liquid to Liquid, Tank Immersion (Single and Two Phase), Direct to Chip Water Cooling, and Specialized Hardware - Ruggedised Servers. Precision Liquid Cooling, Liquid to Air technology adopted by Iceotope for its KUL RAN solution, ranked highest amongst the cooling technologies, according to the company.

 

“With edge computing projected to grow to over $450 billion in 2030, it is critical this growth is developed in as sustainable manner as possible – arguably more so than traditional centralized cloud,” said Philip Laidler, director of consulting for STL Partners. “This report examines the multitude of factors that need be considered when defining your edge sustainability strategy. There is no one-size-fits-all answer and edge operators must select the optimal advanced sustainability strategy based on their unique context.”

 

“As more data moves to the edge, new challenges for telco providers emerge. Greater sustainability, energy efficiency and serviceability across distributed workloads is needed more than ever before,” said Nathan Blom, Chief Commercial Officer for Iceotope. “We designed KUL RAN specifically to reduce power consumption and maintenance costs for telco providers as they bring data-center class compute to the extreme Far Edge. This report from STL Partners validates that advanced sustainability strategies can be a game changer for the Telco Edge.”

 

According to Iceotope, Precision Liquid Cooling captures "nearly 100% of the heat generated by servers, cutting energy use by up to 40% and any water consumption by 96% across the entire telco data center estate from the cloud to the edge." The company touted the technology as allowing for "greater flexibility of IT solutions by eliminating hotspots, minimizing wasted space, and reducing water consumption. The tecnology is also compatible with the same rack-based architecture as air-cooled systems."