NetApp & Aston Martin F1 Flag Up Data Waste on Amazon Prime
NetApp’s partnership with Aston Martin Formula One team is centre stage in an episode of a new series of The Futurist.
In The Sustainable Future, an episodic documentary series focusing on emerging technology, the focus is on the commonly overlooked environmental footprint of data.
It addresses the urgent need for a more sustainable approach to data storage and reveals how the Aston Martin F1 team is tackling it alongside NetApp.
Data: a very big problem
The documentary reveals that by next year we will generate an estimated 175 zettabytes (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data annually.
By 2030 we could create a Yottabyte (one, with 24 zeros) of data, which
is equivalent to each person on Earth carrying approximately 500 iPhones.
Today’s data centres are already consuming 2% of the world’s electricity, a figure that is expected to quadruple by 2030.
Growing demand for technologies like AI, virtualisation, IoT and cloud computing are fueling an explosion in the quantity and the types of data being generated.
In the corporate world, sectors like aviation illustrate this surge, with a single transatlantic flight generating hundreds of gigabytes of data.
Ian Khan, host of The Futurist, says: “It has been an educational experience to discover the sheer scale of the challenge when it comes to sustainable data storage and the urgency of a solution.”
Ian adds: “NetApp is empowering businesses to use data as the asset it is, while at the same time supporting the equally pressing need to reduce carbon footprints.”
The challenge is further compounded by the increasing volume of single-use data.
Today, 68% of stored data is never used again after being created, while it continues to consume energy.
Examples of single use data inside businesses include the Powerpoint presentation that was used once but never again, spreadsheets, word documents and recorded telephone conversations.
Companies urged to act
Matt Watts, Chief Technology Evangelist at NetApp, says businesses must take data storage more seriously.
“The environmental impact of data storage must be higher on any organisation’s sustainability agenda and I’m proud to have participated in the Sustainable Future to raise awareness about this critical issue.
“The role of intelligent data infrastructure cannot be overstated in the overall sustainability transition and NetApp is ready to support every business with this journey as we progress towards critical sustainability goals.”
NetApp and Aston Martin F1
Data can provide insights for an organisation that can help it become more energy efficient, or identify emission hotspots to prioritise.
In this way, the problem of data can be turned into a solution.
Providing an analysis of the type of data being stored can help businesses make informed decisions about which data is important to retain and how it can be managed efficiently.
With NetApp’s intelligent data infrastructure in place, Aston Martin F1 team has the capability to optimise the energy costs of data storage.
It can also leverage insights that improve performance on race day and keep it on course to reach its sustainability goals.
Aston Martin Formula One Team CIO Clare Lansley says: “The digital world is founded on data and lots of it.
“Analytics, machine learning and now, artificial intelligence, all require access to vast volumes of data.
“But at the same time, compute and storage consume a considerable amount of power.
“That’s why teaming up with world-class partners like NetApp is proving a key enabler to achieving our sustainability goals and giving us greater control over our data.”
The documentary is available for streaming from 9 September on various platforms, including Amazon Prime.
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