Certifying the Energy efficiency of Data Centres
The Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association (SDEA) has chosen the CERTUS® solution developed by the Swiss company SICPA, whose identification, authentication and traceability solutions are used by authorities and governments worldwide, to label the energy consumption of data centres. CERTUS has the dual advantage of being at the forefront of securing sensitive documents and processes, while being based on an architecture that is itself energy efficient. The SDEA label has been available since 2021.
The development of data centres: an energy challenge
The digital transformation of our societies is leading to an exponential increase in Internet traffic and an ever-growing appetite for data and the IT services that make use of it. According to a study by the European Commission, the electricity consumption of data centres represented 2.7% of demand in the EU in 2018 and could reach 3.2% by 2030. The subject of energy efficiency is therefore a major issue and is fortunately becoming a priority for many entities. Many data centres have already made progress that the label developed by SDEA will make it possible to measure with new transparency in terms of efficiency and emissions. The assessments put in place value the relevance of their technological choices, a guarantee of sustainability, making this new label a determining prerequisite for their digital services.
The integrity of the SDEA label is guaranteed by SICPA's CERTUS solution.
"Data centres have become one of the pillars of the digital economy and our mission is to bring sustainability to IT services," said Babak Falsafi, SDEA president. "Currently, companies and institutions are expressing a real desire to improve digital pollution management. We are providing a process to measure the efficiency of their data centres, secure at every stage, leading to the issuance of an unfalsifiable label thanks to the tools provided by SICPA. The fact that SICPA's solution uses the energy-efficient KSI blockchain was crucial to our mission. "
"Digital technology is becoming an increasingly important part of our daily lives, whether as individuals, companies or institutions, and it is important to increase trust in certification. This fits perfectly with the raison d'être of SICPA and its solutions, which is to contribute to the emergence of an Economy of Trust," explains Philippe Thévoz, vice-president e-government solutions at SICPA. " CERTUS is a secure solution because it is based on a universally verifiable blockchain that is in essence unalterable."
Securing and guaranteeing the authenticity of processes, documents and labels
The SDEA Label takes into account a wide range of criteria, not only the common metrics for data centre infrastructure (including cooling and electricity) that have been widely adopted in the industry for decades, but also innovative metrics for energy efficiency of IT infrastructure (including servers, network equipment and storage) and heat recycling.
The integrity of the entire evaluation process therefore had to be guaranteed. Each of its steps is therefore secure. Once this sequence of assessments is completed, a label is awarded, the authenticity of which is guaranteed by CERTUS technology.
CERTUS is an innovative solution for securing sensitive paper and digital documents. A seemingly innocuous QR code is used to verify the authenticity of documents. It contains the data to be certified in clear text and a cryptographic signature, which serves as an indisputable and unforgeable mathematical proof of the link between these data and their digital security seal. Another advantage of the CERTUS solution in the context of the SDEA is that the QR code associated with the label can be revoked and invalidated after a certain period if necessary.
An energy-efficient blockchain
The CERTUS solution and the security of the labelling steps are based on the KSI blockchain. Unlike many blockchain technologies that are notoriously energy-inefficient, the KSI blockchain is highly energy-efficient: an essential element when it comes to valuing the low energy consumption of data centres through the SDEA.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
SDEA
Ms Melissa Matteucci
+41 78 715 9180
SICPA
Mr. Remi Oudinot
Senior Communications Manager
+41 21 627 58 44
SDEA is an alliance of industry and academic organisations founded in 2020 that have come together to create a single, integrated approach to data centre energy efficiency and emissions labelling. The alliance was initiated by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and includes EPFL's EcoCloud, Green IT Switzerland, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), the Swiss Data Centre Association (SDCA) and the Swiss Telecommunications Association (asut). SDEA is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy through the SuisseEnergie programme.
Market leader in security inks and leading provider of secured authentication, identification, traceability and supply chain solutions, SICPA is a long-trusted partner to governments, central banks, high security printers and the industry. Every day, governments, companies and millions of citizens rely on its expertise, which combines material-based covert features and digital technologies, to protect the integrity and value of their currency, personal identity, value documents, e-government services, as well as products and brands. True to its purpose of Enabling Trust through constant innovation, SICPA aims to further an Economy of Trust worldwide, where transactions, interactions and products across the physical and digital worlds are based on protected, unforgeable and verifiable data.
Founded in Lausanne in 1927, headquartered in Switzerland and operating on five continents, SICPA employs about 3000 people.