ATM : Atman rewarded by the European Commission for efforts to reduce energy consumption. First Polish data center adhering to the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centre

Atman, the leader of the data centre market in Poland, received an international award for implementing energy-saving solutions in its server rooms. The award was granted by the jury of the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centre - a program of the European Commission, whose goal is to ensure the most efficient use of power at data centers. At present, data centers operating on the European continent use already the same volume of power as Italy, a country with sixty million inhabitants. This is the first recognition of that type granted to an organization from Central and Eastern Europe.

IT companies are an increasingly important consumer of power, with prices of electricity systematically on the rise. For this reason the global corporations, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon or Microsoft opt to place their data centers in locations with cold climate - such as the Polar Circle - and increasingly frequently turn to renewable energy sources. They also participate in various initiatives targeted at reducing energy consumption. Atman joined this group as the first Polish organization. Last year Atman decided to participate in the European Commission program - the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centre.

On June 7, during the evening gala of the Datacloud Europe congress in Monaco, Mr. Sylwester Biernacki, the CEO of ATM, received the prize. Atman has been rewarded by the jury for the best implementation of solutions reducing consumption of energy from among all the organizations applying to participate in the Code of Conduct program in 2015.

Data centers 'gobble up' an increasing volume of energy

Energy consumption is on the rise, therefore actions meant to reduce it are one of the priorities of the European Union authorities. According to the 'Energy 2020' strategy, over the coming four years the Member States plan to improve their energy efficiency by 20%. The European Union is attempting to reduce energy consumption not only due to environment protection and carbon dioxide emissions, but also in order to improve energy safety.

'Energy consumed by data centers, that is, by computer and telecommunication equipment, cooling systems etc. has a growing share in the overall energy consumption of the Member States. Back in 2007, in the countries of Western Europe, data centers were using 56 TWh of power pen annum - this is almost the same volume by which we must increase production of energy over 20 years to avoid outages,' explains Mr. Marcin Banaś, Chief Specialist for Data Center Infrastructure at Atman. 'By the year 2020, data centers are expected to use as much as 104 TWh of electricity, and the growing demand for cloud computing and the Internet of Things may boost this demand even further,' adds Marcin Banaś.

The operator of the largest Polish data center has been implementing solutions reducing energy consumption already for years. These solutions include cooling systems based on the free cooling technology or the systems of hot/cold aisles. The company applies also such efficiency indicators as PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), which allow to benchmark its results against global standards. 'Participation in the program run by the European Commission offers us not only the opportunity to exchange experiences and enrich our specialist know-how on technologies reducing energy consumption, but also effective influence over the future solutions that would be used in data centers,' says Marcin Banaś from Atman.

The European Commission encourages 'eco' activities

The main goal of the program launched by the European Commission is to educate and stimulate enterprises to reduce their energy consumption in a cost-effective manner, without hampering the critical functions of data centers. In practical terms, this means the development of new methods to measure energy consumption; improvement of awareness among managers, investors and owners and clients of data centers of the efficient use of energy, as well as the promotion of best practices. The program supports also the development of tools to facilitate implementation and wider application of energy-saving technologies, and the monitoring of effectiveness of activities targeted at improving energy efficiency.

The Code of Conduct focuses on two core areas: improving the efficiency of IT equipment used at data centers, and the energy efficiency of infrastructures on the premises, in other words, systems which support the operation of IT equipment, such as cooling systems or emergency power systems. The program is managed by the Joint Research Centre operating within the structures of the European Commission. Since its launch in 2008, more than 100 participants joined the initiative. This number includes also non-European enterprises, such as the US-based auction service, eBay. The program is supported by a total of 240 organizations, the more notable among them being France Telecom, IBM, Microsoft or Dell.

The news on European Code of Conduct Award 2016 in Monaco, published on EU Joint Research Centre's website: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/five-companies-won-2016-eu-code-conduct-awards.

ATM S.A. is the WSE listed Polish data center market leader as well as an expert in security of data transmission and processing. Under the Atman brand the company provides colocation, hosting and cloud computing services in its data centers with 13,600 sq m (146,400 sq ft) of the total space. Using own international links and fiber-optic networks in the largest Polish cities, Atman offers broadband IP services including Internet access and data transmission. Major recipients of the services are telecommunications operators, traditional media, Internet portals, financial institutions, commercial and industrial companies. More information at www.atman.eu.