How Audi, Mondi And Electrolux Optimized Their Data And Storage Infrastructure To Improve Sustainability

As the volumes of data used by the typical business grow, inevitably so does the environmental impact of collecting, storing, and analyzing that data. Today, improving the sustainability of our business models and practices is no longer a lofty ideal or a “nice-to-have” – it’s increasingly becoming an essential driver of enterprise success. This imperative extends to matters of data and IT infrastructure – with more than 50 million metric tonnes of electrical waste generated by industry every year.

Shockingly, it’s predicted that this will double by 2030 – driven by the growing number of electrical devices we are buying, and the falling lifespan of those devices, as we increasingly choose to replace rather than upgrade or repair. Currently, only around 17% of this accumulated e-waste is collected and recycled – with Europe recycling the highest proportion of its waste (42.5%) and Africa the least (0.9%) – with the US managing to recycle just 9.4%.

With sustainability forecast to become a key driver of business success as we move towards a net-zero future, many organizations will be looking to improve their track record in this area. One way they can do this is by making smarter choices when it comes to the infrastructure they invest in for data and analytics.

Datacenter design is one area where we can see steps being taken to address these challenges. In Google’s data centers, DeepMind’s machine learning algorithms are used to reduce the amount of energy required to keep the servers cool by 40%, and over the last five years, the amount of compute power generated from the equivalent amount of energy has increased by 350%. Meanwhile, Citibank's data center in Frankfurt features a 55 by 12 meters "green wall" to regulate environmental temperature, resulting in a 30% increase in energy efficiency.

The drive for increased sustainability was also a key factor behind the decision by carmaker Audi to migrate its analytics architecture to IBM Power Systems. As part of its own move towards net-zero carbon emissions, which includes an increased focus on the production of electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as a reduction of emissions across its manufacturing and distribution operations, Audi managed to reduce the number of servers they require to be in operation by 66% while increasing the speed at which they load and analyze data by 100%.

Likewise, packaging manufacturer Mondi relies heavily on its data and analytics infrastructure to meet its own sustainability commitments, including making all of its products reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Their manufacturing sites, which span 30 countries, are kitted out with IoT sensors feeding data into their SAP S/4HANA system, which also runs on IBM Power Systems. This infrastructure was specifically chosen as it helps them work towards their sustainability objectives.

Another IBM application that has the potential to reduce the creation of e-waste by organizations is the Spectrum Virtualise “software-defined storage” system, which enables the new and more dynamic approaches to data architecture – such as hybrid cloud environments – to be deployed on existing legacy storage types. This extends the lifetime of storage hardware before it needs to be replaced, cutting down on both the amount of material going into landfills and the number of replacement products that need to be manufactured to replace them. At the same time, it means the storage infrastructure benefits from all of the features and functionality of up-to-date, secure storage management systems. In fact, IBM likes to refer to this as "upcycling" – in the same way, that old and worn-out furniture can be given a new lease of life with a fresh lick of paint, to become something that’s perfectly suitable to have on display in a modern home!

Software-defined storage works by implementing a layer of abstraction, or virtualization, defined by rules in software, between the data and the storage medium. This means usage of space across the medium can be maximized, and data can be stored according to rules based on how important or frequently accessed it is.

All of these examples demonstrate that choices around the implementation of data architecture can have a real impact on sustainability via the reduction of emissions and waste. In turn, these innovations can drive real business efficiency.

A key factor in building sustainable data architecture is creating systems that are capable of managing existing requirements and are able to cope with the changing data needs of the business going forward. This is another way to help ensure that waste is kept to a minimum, and you won't constantly be tearing down and rebuilding data systems as new requirements come along! Of course, as we don’t always know what tomorrow will bring, this can be tricky. But solutions like IBM’s FlashSystem platforms are built to allow containerization of systems and data so they can be easily ported across to new on-premise or hybrid cloud environments as situations change.  

One FlashSystem customer is electronics manufacturer Electrolux. Like Audi, it moved its mission-critical analytics tools (built on SAP Hana) to IBM Power Systems, running on FlashSystem storage hardware. By doing this, they were able to increase the lifespan of their hardware infrastructure from two years to five years, with all the sustainability benefits that entailed.

Increasingly, sustainability goals are becoming business goals, and this is particularly true when it comes to building data and analytics architecture. By focusing on portability, flexibility, and product lifespan, we can make decisions that allow our businesses to run more efficiently while also minimizing the damage we are doing to the environment and planet.

To learn more about IBM’s Flash data storage system, have a look here.

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About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the field of business and technology. He is the author of 20 best-selling books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has over 2 million social media followers, over 1 million newsletter subscribers and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world and the No 1 influencer in the UK.