Digital infrastructures are the basis for more CO2 savings and more sustainability – thanks to digitalisation. However, to fully exploit these potentials, more interdisciplinary cooperation is needed.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, warns against unrealistic obligations for data centre operators under the planned German Energy Efficiency Act. As part of the recently released draft act of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, waste heat levies of up to 40 per cent are included.

An electricity shortage in the energy crisis could have a negative impact on the operation of data centres and become a risk factor for user companies. Companies fear serious consequences for their business and call on the German federal government to include data centres in emergency plans.

Opencast lignite mining for power generation shaped the Rhenish region in the west of Germany for many decades. With the energy transition, the region is facing an economic structural change. But how can the former coal-mining region be transformed into an “Innovation Valley Rhineland”? Around 70 experts from the digital industry discussed this in Bedburg in October.

eco, bitkom and the German Datacenter Association (GDA) have published a joint position paper for a sustainable German data centre industry by 2030. In the course of an impending energy crisis, the three associations call for data centres to be recognised as system-relevant IT infrastructures, regardless of their size, and to be prioritised accordingly in the event of supply shortages.

eco has just launched a campaign website under the motto of “JOINTHESOLUTION: We are part of the solution – the Internet industry”. The campaign focuses on digital technologies and services that provide solutions to burning societal issues.

Dallas 560.17 Gbps, Frankfurt 12.43 Tbps, Hamburg 280.2 Gbps, Marseille 170.16 Gbps... and that's just this week. It might be the core season for holidays in northern hemisphere, but the data throughput at DE-CIX Internet Exchanges keeps on growing.

The roll-out of digital infrastructures and renewable energies are fundamental prerequisites for reducing CO2 in the future with the help of digitalisation. This is illustrated not only by the hybrid event of the eco Alliance in Berlin but also by a survey by the DE-CIX Internet Exchange.

How should SMEs prepare for IT emergencies and crises? How important is a careful risk assessment and a well-prepared emergency plan? And how can the damage be minimised after an emergency occurs so that companies can continue with their core business as quickly as possible? An interview with Sebastian Lacour, Manager SI & Cloud Germany, Veeam Software on Business Continuity Management.

Waste heat from data centres ensures more sustainability: eco Alliance in an exchange with Patrick Burghardt, State Secretary for Digital Strategy and Development and CIO of the German Federal State of Hesse, at the Data Center Expert Summit.

Dr. Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson for the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, is a new member of the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, a European self-regulatory initiative under whose umbrella leading data centre operators and associations joined forces last year.

What disruptive potential do digital ecosystems offer? This is a topic covered in this short eco interview with the gridscale CEO Henrik Hasenkamp. At the Data Center Expert Summit in Darmstadt on 9 June, he will talk in detail through the role that cloud-based IT infrastructures play on this path.

The digital transformation has an impact on various aspects of sustainability, meaning that the new German traffic light coalition is closely interlinking the topics of digitalisation and sustainability. The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany warmly welcomes this development and emphasises just how important the rapid roll-out of renewable energies in Germany is.

The Omicron wave is set to peak: In Germany, the incidence nationwide is higher than ever before. This makes the reliance of society and the economy on high-performance digital infrastructures even more important in the here and now. Such a reliance is the precise factor that the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association, is campaigning for in the political and public spheres.

This year, it’s not just the Covid-19 pandemic, but also the threatening climate change which will continue to drive forward digital transformation in the economy and society. “Digitalisation is part of the solution to many challenges,” says eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme.

For the first time in Germany, we have a coalition agreement which features a close link between the topics of digitalisation and sustainability, with this agreement presented by the SPD, Bündnis 90/The Greens and the FDP on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

Alliance Co-Spokesman Volker Ludwig: “Importance of digital infrastructures for growth and sustainability should be on the table in coalition negotiations.”

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association, welcomes the fact that the EU Commission wants to implement the planned CO2 reduction of 55 percent by the year 2030 on the basis of the planned “Fit for 55” package.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, urges the new Frankfurt city government to tackle the climate and energy policy regulatory projects mentioned in the current coalition agreement which focus on data centres, and to do this in close cooperation with the digital infrastructure operators based in Frankfurt.

Summa one of 24 new Gaia-X AISBL Board Members DE-CIX as a blueprint for other Internet Exchange operators Harald A. Summa, CEO of DE-CIX, the operator of the world’s leading Internet Exchange in Frankfurt am Main, was one of 24 people elected to the Gaia-X AISBL Board during the organisation’s first general assembly...

Corona has certainly given further impetus to the topic of "digital transformation". An interview with Stefan Mink, Head of TechOps Infrastructure at 1&1 IONOS

In general, it has to be said that not even that many new concepts are needed. For our planet and for us, using proven technologies is already a huge step in the right direction. An interview with Sascha Oehl, Director Presales Cloud & AI, at Huawei Technologies

In the future, we will see a strong networking of machines, sensors and plant components in the industry. An interview with Uwe Laudenklos, Lead Business Area Manager Northern & Central Europe at ABB.

An interview with Michel Arres, Vice President Secure Power DACH, from Schneider Electric about market developments and the sustainability potential of data centres. The new environment will be hybrid: There will be cloud data centres, regional data centres, but also edge data centres.

Since its foundation in 2019, MEN@NET GmbH has specialised in network and performance analyses of the data networks of data centres. In a short interview, Thilo Hospe, Head of Sales and Business Development Manager at MEN@NET GmbH, reveals more about the company, how it is dealing with current challenges, and his expectations of eco.

With advancing digitalisation, the global demand for computing power is increasing, and with it the energy requirements for data centres. But the strong data centre infrastructure also means an opportunity for future energy concepts, especially in conurbations like Frankfurt am Main.

Sustainability experts from all over the world will present ideas and solutions for a more climate-friendly digitalisation with reduced energy consumption on the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) virtual “clean-IT Forum”.

Users of cloud services and digital ecosystems such as GAIA-X expect maximum data availability. The data centre business is a matter of trust, and that starts in Europe's data centres. Standards and certificates such as EN50600 and the Data Center Star Audit stand for security and availability of data, says eco data center expert Gerd Simon in interview.

One year after the adoption of the EU Green Deal, leading cloud infrastructure providers and data centre operators in Europe have signed up to a joint Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact – with this including the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association.

Conclusions for sustainable digitalisation were adopted at last week’s meeting of the EU Environment Council. Among other things, these stipulate that data centres should become climate-neutral by 2030.