A new report argues the UK’s data centres are between them achieving ‘poor’ levels of cooling utilisation, with two thirds of cooling equipment installed on average not delivering any benefits.

The figures come from EkkoSense, a Nottingham-based provider of data centre risk management software. Naturally, it’s worth noting at this juncture that these figures are manna from heaven for such a company and the services it provides – more of which shortly – but the figures are interesting in themselves.

EkkoSense analysed 128 UK data centre halls, and more than 16,500 racks, and found that on average, the data cooling utilisation level is at 34%. Less than 5% of UK data centre monitoring and evaluation teams say they actively monitor and report temperature on an individual rack by rack basis.

The company adds that it’s not the lack of cooling capacity which is causing the issue – indeed, weather patterns in the UK are more often than not a positive contributor – but a ‘continued poor management of airflow and a failure to actively monitor and report rack temperatures’.

“Our ongoing survey into UK data centre cooling clearly shows that, despite their continued reliance on new and more expensive cooling equipment, data centres aren’t doing enough to reduce the risk to the business that unplanned outages inevitably bring,” said James Kirkwood, EkkoSense head of operations.

One company which focuses particularly on the environmental message with its data centres is Rackspace. The open cloud provider opened a data centre in Crawley in 2015 – an event which this reporter attended – with the green theme in evidence. The data centre has a targeted power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15 – its current level is 1.3, with the industry average being 1.7 – while other environmentally-conscious features include a sloped roof to harvest rainwater and cooling using natural air.

Gary Boyd, senior director DC project engineer at Rackspace, told CloudTech about the process behind the data centre in Crawley. “Businesses can make significant power savings by carefully considering airflow when planning a data centre,” he said. “Our Rackspace data centre in Crawley was the first in the UK to make use of innovative ‘indirect outside air’ cooling technology on a large scale, without mechanical cooling.

“This meant the overhead energy required to operate the data centre was cut by almost 80%,” added Boyd. “The cooling design requires operational discipline, and device management best practice, to ensure the hot and cold aisles are separated through containment, thereby enabling the data centre to operate within the higher temperature range of Ashrae standards [for the design and maintenance of indoor environments].

“It led not only to financial savings, but a positive reputation in the industry, making us attractive to both customers and talent. Hopefully we will see more companies utilising airflow to their advantage in this manner.”

EkkoSense, in a similar vein, offers a data centre optimisation (DCOP) service which uses a three-stage approach to getting the most out of sites. The firm measures, 3D maps and analyses airflow performance across each room, then re-balances the floor to reduce hot and cold spots, alongside utilising EkkoAir, a product which tracks data centre cooling loads in real time.

Microsoft has announced a slew of new customers using its Azure cloud services at its Digital Difference event in New York, including financial services provider UBS and confectioner Hershey.

The customer announcements came alongside the release of a new study, sponsored by Microsoft and put together by Harvard Business Review (HBR), which found less than half of business leaders have a coherent digital strategy despite 80% saying their industry will be positively impacted by digital transformation within three years.

The message from Microsoft was clear: one, digital disruption is happening, through cloud computing, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and much more besides; two, your organisation needs to keep pace; and three, here’s how we’re helping organisations keep pace. As a result, the primary interest here is not the fact Hershey, Maersk, UBS and others are using Azure, but how they are using them.

Hershey, for example, is using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors which feed data into the cloud, which is then analysed via Machine Learning in Azure, in order to gain greater insights and trends. UBS is using Azure to power its risk management platform, which can ultimately save 40% in infrastructure costs, while Maersk – who readers of this publication may also recognise through their blockchain initiatives with IBM – is doing various things, from its supply chain business Damco building solutions on Azure, to building an app store on Microsoft’s cloud.

Other companies announced as being Microsoft shops at Digital Difference were clothing provider Fruit of the Loom, with the company developing predictive models for consumer behaviour through Azure, and automotive insurer GEICO, who is opting for more of a hybrid cloud strategy.

“Companies are choosing Microsoft to empower their digital difference,” said Judson Althoff, EVP of Microsoft’s worldwide commercial business in a statement. “Microsoft has the edge in development in the cloud, IoT, advanced analytics, mixed reality and artificial intelligence. We understand companies’ needs for innovation, speed to market, and the importance of continually transforming and re-evaluating how business is done.”

Elsewhere, the HBR paper argues the models and strategies for digital disruption are still evolving, but once companies go all-in with a ‘major commitment’ to digital as a primary revenue driver, they are more likely to elevate and centralise digital efforts. “Most respondents recognise the opportunities the digital revolution is bringing, with the two biggest prizes being enhanced customer relationships and greater value chain integration,” the report notes. “The highest digital priority, by far, is creating an exceptional, highly relevant customer experience.”

You can read the full report here (pdf).

NHK, Japan Broadcasting, will feature the upcoming @ThingsExpo Silicon Valley in a special ‘Internet of Things’ and smart technology documentary that will be filmed on the expo floor between November 3 to 5, 2015, in Santa Clara. NHK is the sole public TV network in Japan equivalent to the BBC in the UK and the largest in Asia with many award-winning science and technology programs. Japanese TV is producing a documentary about IoT and Smart technology and will be covering @ThingsExpo Silicon Valley. The program, to be aired during the peak viewership season of the year, will have a major impact on the industry in Japan. The film’s director is writing a scenario to fit in the story in the next few days will be turned in to the network.

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