Data center operators have been called the masters of the Internet, AI, and the global digital network economy. But not all landowners are the same.
Avner Papouchado, CEO of Serverfarm, a rapidly growing commercial colocation data center company, always has a unique perspective on the company’s role and its responsibilities to its customers.
“We listen to our customers, and I think they trust us to change with them. We often address customer needs before they have a problem. ,” emphasizes Papochado.
Serverfarm has integrated advanced engineering, creativity, sustainability, and digital transformation into its mission and culture. Starting in the real estate business in the late 1990s, the company has the foundation to evolve from a U.S.-based single-tenant landlord to a multi-tenant data center operator and now a global data center owner, developer, and operator. was built.
Serverfarm didn’t invent sale and leaseback. But what set the company apart was (and still is) the combined expertise of its real estate, engineering, and operations teams. The company’s real estate experts create value for both parties. In parallel, the company’s engineering and operations teams are focused on capacity expansion opportunities through infrastructure modernization. For companies partnering with Serverfarm to transition from data center owner/operator to tenant, this opens up untapped ROI and ensures headroom for growth capacity. As Serverfarm transforms its data center and brings additional capacity to market, new colony clients will have access to ultra-modern equipment. This is unique on the market.
Serverfarm discovered early on that single-tenant data centers were inefficient and underutilized, with only 30% of available capacity being used at any given time.
By converting an existing single-tenant building into a multi-tenant environment, Serverfarm has more than tripled its 11.4MW London colocation data center, along with other facilities such as an 18MW Amsterdam data center and a 17.3MW Los Angeles data center. We were able to achieve capacity utilization and provide additional data centers. Customer-facing features.
Serverfarm stays on top of trends across the data center industry with a strategic focus on efficiency, maximizing asset utilization, minimizing environmental impact, and long-term economic and environmental sustainability. We will continue to be on the front lines. Everything is based on intelligent, data-driven use of its assets.
Over time, the Serverfarm team noticed other inefficiencies. Companies and service provider teams were building more capacity than they needed, putting pressure on their balance sheets and the environment. As a result, server farms decided to help businesses adapt by assisting with capacity planning, asset and change management.
In 2015, Serverfarm developed InCommand, an award-winning data center management as a service (DMaaS) platform. This brought together his three key elements of the data center: real estate, facility environment, and IT environment. This portal-based solution combines people, processes, and platforms to create a cloud-like experience for data center management.
Without smart operations, running an entire building at high occupancy rates only yields short-term benefits. With the development of InCommand, Serverfarm can reduce costs, extend the lifespan, and increase the We realized that waste is eliminated in the process.
This cutting-edge solution has won multiple awards, including winning the SDC Awards for Best Cloud Platform and being named a finalist for Data Center Intelligent Automation/Management Innovation of the Year at the DCS Awards. Demonstrates the solution’s capabilities in optimization and rationalization. .
Serverfarm CEO Avner Papouchado says the company’s business has expanded dramatically from a family business with limited resources to a company that now plays a key role in the data center industry.
“We understand the agility our customers need and continually strive to make their lives as easy as possible,” he says.
This mission is reflected in the way Serverfarm acts as a true partner to its customers. Rather than being satisfied with building a data center based on a set design, our solutions match our customers’ needs and strategic goals.
“We understand that users want computing and not buildings themselves. Ultimately, we strive to make the whole experience easy for our customers, so we is never a problem.”
Smart investments are central to Serverfarm’s long-term strategy
In the early days of the data center industry, some believed that abundant land and energy resources would always be available and would be planned, built, and operated accordingly. Serverfarm recognized early on that wise investment, use, and management of finite resources was the only sustainable long-term strategy.
Demand for data centers continues to grow. A customer says he wants to increase power in 1-3MW chunks, but now it is common for him to ask for 8-10MW of additional power. AI and high-performance computing workloads require more power and are delivered more quickly. The data center industry needs to think in new and innovative ways. Serverfarm is leading this change.
Sustainability is central to the mission of server farms, especially as they continue to expand globally. The company’s data center development strategy is based on building new facilities as needed and modernizing, remodeling and expanding existing facilities where possible.
This approach helps Serverfarm provide its clients with the most sustainable and efficient data center capacity available. Buildings and construction directly account for around 42% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions, and reducing the carbon produced by new building development is an essential part of mitigating the global climate crisis.
Reusing and modernizing existing buildings has proven carbon benefits. Analysis of the Chicago data center, a server farm the company acquired in 2010, demonstrated that sustainable expansion through renovations could deliver his modeled 88% tangible carbon emissions reduction. .
“Right now, half of our trade is adaptation and reuse,” explains Papochado. “We are still finding a lot of properties that can be reused economically and efficiently, and as a result there are a lot of buildings that are not going to landfill.”
Sam Brown is the Chief Development Officer at Serverfarm. He said: “Customers need capacity quickly. When we look at real estate, we look at how much capacity we can provide through our existing power infrastructure and how we can extend that infrastructure to provide additional capacity. We are evaluating whether we can upgrade, host more IT, and importantly, how quickly we can modernize and expand. This is not just for newly acquired properties. We constantly strive to expand our facilities through additions, efficiencies and increased utilization in response to customer demand for more capacity.”
As Papouchado explains, agility is key to meeting customer demands, and the entire data center industry must embrace and evolve the challenge of sustainability.
Our forward-thinking approach to sustainability is further evidenced by our server farm’s water usage. Data center cooling operations have used water for decades. With traditional evaporative cooling and other water-intensive systems, a 40MW data center can use 500 million gallons of water per year. As climate change-related droughts lead to water usage restrictions around the world, data center operators must look to alternative solutions.
“Cooling is becoming more efficient, and this efficiency will continue to increase as we move from air cooling to direct-to-chip cooling and various types of water cooling,” says Papachad.
Papouchado explains that Serverfarm is acutely aware of water use within its data centers, so the business minimizes water use. Server farm engineers are constantly working to reduce water usage wherever possible, including by utilizing efficient closed-loop systems.
“All of our data centers now support liquid cooling. Just as we moved from 1kW racks to 60kW, we are moving from air cooling to technologies such as direct water cooling and direct server cooling. ”
“We’re proud that Phoenix doesn’t have a data center. In Phoenix, many carriers use evaporative cooling in places where you could die of thirst.”
Serverfarm COO Jim Shanahan is responsible for data center operations. He said: “Today, AI, cloud, and web scale mean that clients are thinking about tens of megawatts to hundreds of megawatts of power for their data center buildings and campuses, which is now approaching 40kW per rack and soon Combined with a step change in rack power density that will reach 80kW and beyond, we see a new era in design and management. But this also presents an opportunity: For example, GPU server operating temperatures could rise by 10 degrees. With the introduction of liquid cooling technology, the excess high-quality heat generated can be utilized beyond the data center. Inside the facility, PUE counts can be reduced by 10-15%. At the scale we operate, this means significant savings. At Serverfarm, we specialize in doing more with less. This typically means using the same amount of electricity. That means you can perform 20% more calculations in the space you use.”
Serverfarm is also innovating in its relationships with power companies. This ranges from the exploration of on-site power generation, the integration of renewable energy resources, to the use of new energy storage and supply through fuel cells.
Papochado explains that through widespread adoption of these technologies, the broader data center industry can support the world’s transition from fossil fuel-based electricity to renewable energy.
“We are very focused on powering the data centers, giving the power grid time to expand to the data centers, and being good consumers of power,” he added.
“If you buy gold one day, it’s still gold 100 years from now. But if you buy a data center today, it’s running on fossil fuels, it has diesel generators, it has air cooling. In 20 years, it’s still gold. Data centers will be completely different. They will probably have gas generators and will run on a variety of power sources, including wind, solar, and nuclear.”
This highlights the changing pace and trends and the need for data center operators to remain agile. This is exemplified by the approach to increasing server farm capacity.
Customer journey requirements can change rapidly. A customer may start by retiring some of his 1MW or 3MW data center capacity, but this could soon increase to his demand for 5MW, 8MW, or even more. In the age of AI, this evolution is expected to accelerate even further.
“Three years ago, everyone wanted data center lamps,” explains Papouchado. “Currently, very few providers are flexible in providing ramps.”
“Our focus on our customers means we continue to deliver lamps in a smart way,” he added. “We are trying to be as agile as possible to meet customer demands when it comes to both availability and sustainability. In my opinion, these go hand in hand.”
