Driven by demand, filling its existing datacenters twice as fast as expected, key technology executives from Internode are examining environmentally-friendly initiatives elsewhere in Australia and in the US to identify ways in which it can reduce its carbon footprint.
As well as its corporate commitment to environmental responsibility, Internode's "green team" is driven by the company's recent achievement of "CO2-neutral" status after a carbon audit for 2006-07.
Internode launched its second state-of-the-art datacenter in central Adelaide in April last year. Internode group general manager Patrick Tapper said "Green datacenter technologies were an important element in Internode's planning. It becomes a competitive advantage because green initiatives can help reduce our operating costs even if they cost a bit more to set up.
"At our existing datacenters, we have introduced 'virtualisation' technology that has reduced power use while improving performance. Along with last year's carbon audit, that initiative provided an important first step towards eliminating our carbon footprint.
"However, with the new datacenter, we plan to take those initiatives to a new level. We are examining a range of options, from purchasing 'green power' to innovations such as using winter air to cool the datacenter. Our people are looking at green datacenter developments from around Australia and internationally to identify the best-practice approaches."
Internode selected a CBD site and started planning for its third dedicated datacenter after the second facility began approaching full capacity in just over 12 months - much faster than the three years originally planned. Powered by a one-megawatt power feed, this 1000-square-metre datacenter holds 150 racks of computer equipment, used for co-location, hosting and disaster recovery services. Internode's next datacenter, to open by year-end, will have 160 racks of capacity, in 620 square metres of space, fed by 1.3 megawatts of power with redundant generation capacity. Due to increasing demands for co-location services, Internode expects this new facility to be at capacity within 18 months.
Tapper said the strong demand for Internode's datacenter service was due to the increased complexity of computing. "Companies are recognising that it is cheaper to use our services than it is to build their own computer room with full power backup and gas fire suppression," he said.
"Also, as computing becomes more complicated, companies find it increasingly difficult to obtain, let alone afford, the expertise to run a dedicated computer room. Its critical nature means they are also looking for redundancy and disaster recovery facilities to guarantee their business continuity."
Internode has established its "green" credentials though a number of ground-breaking environmental initiatives that include:
Covering its "environment footprint" by undertaking a major greenhouse gas emission audit and purchasing carbon credits to achieve CO2-
free status;
Deploying solar-powered towers (right) in the Coorong District to deliver wireless broadband services throughout the remote regional area of South Australia;
Reducing the power consumption and increasing the performance of its web servers by introducing 'virtualisation' technology at its two major datacenters.