December, 20218 BY MATT GURR, INDUSTRY LEADER ­ DATA CENTRES, AURECONAsk yourself a simple question, how many times in the last day have you used a data service? It might have been watching an episode of your favourite show on Netflix, glancing up at the digital bus timetable display on your way to work, listening to music, checking your e-mail, or even a good "old fashioned" web search. For myself, I would struggle to count the number of times that I have used any of the network enabled devices that I carry with me, or that populate my home and workplace. It's unarguable that for most of us the use of data driven services has become ubiquitous and almost invisible. The benefits of this are undeniable in terms of efficiency in our daily lives, and in our ability to stay interconnected and linked to the people and services that are important to us. Covid-19 has only increased the reliance that we have on our data services with video calls experiencing a massive boost as we struggle to stay connected with friends and colleagues. Indeed, these services have become the digital glue that is binding our society together. While we are currently enjoying this data-party guilt-free, there is a hangover waiting for us just around the corner. Very few people are aware of the huge infrastructure that underpins the internet and all the data services that we enjoy, and that in many cases are crucial to the functioning of our modern society. As this industrial scale infrastructure grows, through the development of ever larger and more power hungry data centres, CARBON NEUTRAL DATA CENTRESMatt GurrIN MYV EW
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