Hi Everyone,
I'm interested understanding the copper requirements of data centres (storage, CPUS, GPUS, RAM etc) to cater for all forms of computing (high performance computing, cloud services, gaming, etc). This looks like it will increase dramatically over the coming years. A recent estimate (Cisco) placed total data stored at ~6 ZBs in 2020, with 18% of this data being stored in data centres.
I want to start making estimates and building a basic forecast on the amount of copper required to support the growth in future computing and storage. However I've had challenges locating estimates showing the amount of Copper used in data centres generally.
Has anyone seen this information? Or know of any research that could help? Ideally I'm looking for Copper amounts per unit of datacentre size (e.g tons per petabyte). I understand that this is quite a broad question, however even a basic estimate to start would be greatly appreciated :-)
Cheers,
Paul
I don't see any obvious source for this data.
IMO, you need to view the data center as an elaborate space heater with computing as a side effect. As such more power means more copper on a cross sectional basis, thereby increasing copper usage linearly with power consumption. This is a lie, howeer it may be a convenient starting point. So overall I would expect to see copper consumption track electrical consumption fairly tightly, bot in and out of the data center. Given how rapidly the cost performance of computing and storage change, I would not see pounds of Cu / 1000 TB a useful measure.
Obvious indicators: trends in power consumption by data centers, and by new vs old data centers, e.g. efficiency trends. Sales and capacity of backup generators, UPSes, and HVAC equipment used in data centers - the capacity info being the input to your models.
Hi Paul,
just a quick idea: Maybe you can figure out how much copper is used in a single "standard" server. Then, you can determine the average number of servers in a "standard" data center. Also, you have to determine the "standard" wiring between the servers. With this information you could calculate the copper used for the wiring (if they still use copper cables instead of fiber cables). After you have the copper amount of the "standard" data center, you can approximatae the copper in all data centers.
Best,
André
Thanks for the answers Robert and Andre, much appreciated. I've managed to find some work to help make a 'top down' estimate.
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