CARBON FOOTPRINT IN DATA CENTER: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

In today's world, which is becoming more digital everyday, it is crucial to address the sustainable environmental awareness during the increasing production, consumption and disposal of IT technologies. These technologies, which consist of software and hardware components, are known to have created a carbon footprint in their lifecycle due to their energy use. New generation technologies such as computer-server virtualization technology and cloud technology are being developed in order to minimize this trail in data centers. In recent years, in order to reduce the carbon footprint, the Hitit University data center has aimed to reduce the carbon footprint by adopting environmentally sensitive technologies. In this study, electrical energy usage data of servers and storage systems were collected from data center of Hitit University. From these data, a comparative carbon footprint has tried to be calculated using a value of 0.443 kg, which is the carbon emission value per kWh of the European Union energy mix. As a result, it is determined that the carbon footprint value is 4.82 kg of the information systems created in traditional architecture until 2012, while the carbon footprint value of the information systems transformed with new generation environmental technologies after 2012 is reduced to 2.20 kg.