#15 - Espen Bjarnes - Data Centers & Sustainability (Nor)

MetaDAMA - Data Management in the Nordics

What has been the hot topic in Norway this winter? Energy prices. The prices for energy skyrocketed. But how does this relate to data? Can we save energy with Data Management? The answer might be on the infrastructure side.
And since "the color of Data centers is Green!", I took this question to Espen Bjarnes, who works as VP Sales for Green Mountain, one of the most sustainable data centers in the world according to Data Center Magazine.

Green Mountain was founded in 2009 and opened their first Data Center in Rennesøy (Stavanger) in 2013 in an old NATO facility.

Norway has an unique standing compared to other countries, because

1. we use close to 100% renewable energy sources.
2. We have cold climate, which reduces cooling expenses
3. We have relatively low energy costs

With that, there is a chance to reduce CO2 emissions by storing data in Norway.

An on top of that there are political incentives in place to support the data center industry in Norway, such as reduced taxes. So, for Norway, "Data Center is the new oil" - because this might become the driving force for Norwegian industry going forward.

The amount of data in the world doubles every second year, streaming of live data grows exponentially. All this needs data center to support. That translates to a natural growth of the data center industry. At the same time there is a potential for the Nordic data center industry to take the lead, due to sustainability advantages in the Nordics. Espen calls it the "sustainable edge".