Energy efficient data centres could save up to €25 billion by 2030

Nutanix has published the findings of a new report focused on improving sustainability in data centres.

Atlantic Ventures' report, Improving Sustainability in Data Centers 2024, reveals how next-generation data centre architectures, including hybrid cloud and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), can significantly reduce energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, and drive cost savings across the EMEA region.

In just six years, the report finds that modernising data centres with HCI-based solutions could save up to 19 million tCO2e in the EMEA region, equivalent to the emissions of almost 4.1 million cars. It could also save €25 billion by 2030 from improved energy and operational efficiencies.

As businesses face-up to post-Covid digitisation and the demands for data-hungry technologies, such as AI and IoT, the report identifies an increasing urgency for action. The dual challenges of rising energy costs and increased regulatory pressure to reduce their environmental impact are making this more difficult for IT leaders. As a result, energy efficiency has become a top priority for CIOs and data centre managers.

"Data centres are critical to the global digital economy but also rank among the largest consumers of energy," says Sammy Zoghlami, SVP EMEA at Nutanix. "In EMEA alone, data centres demand over 98 TWh of energy annually, equivalent to the consumption of an entire country like Belgium. The findings of this report show that by leveraging HCI-based solutions, companies can make a powerful contribution to climate action while significantly cutting operational costs.”

“CIOs and digital executives are facing challenges to provide the digital infrastructure to cope with the fast-growing demand for compute power and storage capacity, especially with the emergence of AI applications,” says Carlo Velten from Atlantic Ventures. “As IT budgets are under pressure and electricity prices are soaring, energy efficient data centre and cloud operations are key levers for profitability and sustainability. Hyperconverged infrastructure is at the forefront of transforming data centres into more energy-efficient and climate-friendly operations, as this report confirms.”

Key findings from the report including UK specific data:

27% Energy Savings - Switching from traditional 3-Tier architectures to an HCI-based platform can reduce energy consumption by more than 27% annually, helping companies cut both operational costs and emissions.

Massive Regional Impact - Across the EMEA region, a full-scale transition could save up to 92 TWh of electricity and eliminate 19 million tons of CO₂e between 2024 and 2030 - comparable to the emissions of 4.1 million cars. In the UK alone, this amount would equate to savings of 13.4 TWh of electricity.

€25 Billion in Savings - The financial windfall from reduced electricity consumption could reach €25 billion by 2030, offering businesses a rare opportunity to align sustainability with profitability. Due to relatively high price levels for electricity the potential electricity cost savings for companies and service providers in the UK could be as much as 3,3 billion euros between 2024 - 2030 when switching on premise from 3-Tier to HCI.

HCI in the Cloud - Migrating HCI platforms to co-location or public cloud environments magnifies these benefits, with potential energy savings reaching as high as 54% compared to traditional on-premise data centres. This is due to the low PUE of Public Cloud Providers as well as the flexibility in providing on-demand computing capacity.

Disaster Recovery Efficiency - HCI-based architecture also enables lean, energy-efficient disaster recovery systems in the Cloud, reducing the infrastructure footprint while maintaining scalability and responsiveness.

The UK‘s strategic position and tech infrastructure continue to attract investments - This is making it a significant player in the worldwide data centre landscape. The energy consumption of traditional Infrastructure is estimated to decrease from 7,7 TWh in 2024 to 6,1 TWh in 2030, with cloud solutions having the major share of roughly 68% in 2030.