Sammy Zoghlami on Reducing Data Centre Energy Use by 2030

The UK data centre industry faced plenty of change in 2024, leading to the government listing them as critical national infrastructure (CNI). With increasing need in digital services, companies are seeking more space and power for their infrastructure.

However, despite such innovation, the energy consumption of data centres could exceed 13TWh by 2030. As electricity prices in the UK continue to rise and the regulatory landscape intensifies, Sammy Zoghlami, Senior Vice President EMEA at Nutanix, suggests that UK data centres are at a crossroads, with indecision leading to higher costs for operators.

“To meet the increasing demands of AI, post-pandemic digitisation and public accountability, they need to put sustainability front and centre of all future data centre modernisation efforts,” he explains. “It is a balancing act for CIOs and digital leaders who need to scale digital infrastructure to accommodate fast-growing demands for compute power and storage capacity, whilst facing shrinking IT budgets due to rising operational costs.

“The reality: scale sustainably, or risk spiralling costs and missed climate commitments.”

HCI: Bolstering data centre infrastructure

Sammy says the next step is harnessing hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and hybrid cloud platforms. HCI refers to a software-defined IT framework that combines storage, networking, computing and virtualisation into a single system.

Analysis by Atlantic Ventures suggests transitioning from a traditional setup to HCI can lead to energy efficiency gains of more than 27%. 

Sammy explains the impact is greater when HCI is deployed in modern colocation sites, where efficiency improvements of an additional 13% can be achieved. For businesses leveraging public cloud environments, these gains rise even further, reaching up to 27.96%.

“Tech leaders must embrace new approaches to data infrastructure with a clear focus on energy efficiency,” he explains. “Unlike traditional three-tier setups, which separate servers, storage and networking, HCI consolidates these layers into a unified system. This not only reduces hardware requirements but also optimises power consumption and cooling efficiency.”

For UK organisations, adopting HCI could be a strong strategic move due to the country’s relatively high electricity prices. Switching to HCI-based architectures could save up to €3.3 billion (US$3.48bn) in energy costs between 2024 and 2030, according to Atlantic Ventures, which Sammy says is critical for long-term resilience in a volatile economic landscape.

“The report forecasts that a complete shift to HCI could cut the UK’s carbon emissions by around 2.3 million tonnes over the same period,” he explains. “This aligns perfectly with the UK’s broader push towards low-carbon energy sources, given that over 60% of the country’s energy mix already comes from renewable or nuclear power.”

Improving energy efficiency

Worldwide, global energy consumption is showing no signs of slowing down in 2025. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) last year, data centres are estimated to account for 3% of total electricity demand, with expectations of a continued rise in the coming years. However, the figure could be much higher, which is leaving room for new regulations for data centres.

“As these new standards are enforced, it’s likely that the true scale of energy consumption in data centres will become clearer,” Sammy notes. “For tech leaders, these figures underscore the importance of taking immediate action. It’s just not enough to view sustainability as a distant target or a box to tick for compliance, especially as the challenges of energy prices rising, ESG regulations tightening and public scrutiny increasing, are not going to go away.”

According to Sammy, evolving data centre architecture is necessary to support how digital infrastructure is changing. These changes are the ticket to improved efficiency, with Sammy arguing that three-tier data centre setups may have more control over their hardware and data, but face higher cooling inefficiencies. 

“Hybrid cloud solutions offer a balance between control and sustainability, particularly when combined with HCI,” he explains. “Three-tier architecture, though long a staple of data centres, consumes considerable energy due to its separate layers of servers, storage and networking equipment. By integrating these layers through HCI, power demands and cooling needs are drastically reduced. Additionally, software optimisation within HCI systems amplifies these benefits, further streamlining operations.”

He adds: “For UK tech leaders, there is a need for a proactive approach to data centre sustainability. As AI and other compute-heavy applications continue to proliferate, the pressure to maintain scalable, efficient infrastructure will only intensify. 

“The drive to create greener data centres will assist leaders in better controlling costs and meeting the rising expectations of regulators, customers and stakeholders.”

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