Data Centres: Your old photos can also drink lakhs of litres of water, you will be shocked to know the truth..

To save water in summer, people open the tap less and wash their vehicles less, but this year, the government in Britain has given a different suggestion. The government has advised deleting old digital photos to save water. This may sound like a joke, but there is a serious reason behind it, which is related to our digital lifestyle.

Our photos, videos, and emails are all stored in some data center or another. These data centers are full of large servers, which are constantly heated, and water or electricity-powered cooling technology is used to cool them.

Thirst for data center

According to a study by researchers associated with Oxford University, even a small data center of just 1 megawatt can use millions of liters of water every year just for cooling. However, this figure can change according to the place and technology.

Data centers rely on cooling technology.

Some data centers have now started using non-potable or recycled water, so that there is no pressure on drinking water. At the same time, some companies are adopting air-cooling or evaporative cooling technology, which depends on the weather and local rules.

New experiments of tech companies

Big tech companies are making many innovations to reduce their water footprint. Google experimented with cooling the data center with recycled wastewater in Douglas County, Georgia, USA. Microsoft even tested an underwater data center to save water, in which cold seawater helps cool the servers. Many cloud service providers have now started publishing metrics like "water usage effectiveness" to know how successful they are in reducing water consumption.

Electricity and water consumption will increase.

With the increasing demand for AI and machine learning, the need for data processing is also increasing rapidly. This means that if design changes are not made, the consumption of both electricity and water may increase in the future.

Will deleting photos save water?
If an average user deletes a few old photos or emails, it will not have an immediate effect on water savings. But if billions of gigabytes of data are reduced on a large scale, then in the long run, the need for increasing data center capacity and new cooling setups may be reduced. Still, there are more effective ways to save water, such as fixing leaking taps at home, taking shorter showers, avoiding car washes, and using water judiciously.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.