Connectria: Minimizing environmental impact in the cloud management software industry

Sector: Managed IT hosting and services

Head office: St. Louis, MO, USA

Strategy: Bregal Sagemount

Founded in 1996, Connectria is a global leader in cloud hosting, cloud managed services and cloud security, as well as cloud management software.

Connectria was the first HIPAA-compliant managed hosting company and is the largest IBM i (AS/400) cloud provider in the world. Connectria operates out of five data centres and serves more than 1,000 customers worldwide.

Material issues

Renewable energy

Emissions and waste

Energy efficiency

"Data centres account for about 3% of all energy consumption worldwide and growing, and we want to be good stewards of our planet. By creating carbon neutral IBM i and VMware clouds, Connectria is doing its part to take care of our planet, and not be jerks."

Rich Waidmann

Founder, President and CEO - Connectria

Minimizing environmental impacts

As a market leader in cloud solution services, it is Connectria’s priority to help minimize the industry’s increasing environmental impact whilst providing customers with the highest-quality service.

Energy is a central component for data centres across the globe and the industry already consumes 3% of all electricity production and is predicted to account for 14% of total worldwide carbon emissions by 2040, around the same proportion as the US does today.

Connectria landscape image man working at server

In 2019, enabled by a Bregal Sustainable Development Fund loan, Connectria created the first ever carbonneutral IBM Power Systems ‘green cloud’, which allows companies in North America and the EU who are running IBM i and VMware systems to significantly reduce their energy consumption.

For any residual energy consumption, Connectria purchases high-quality carbon offsets or renewable energy credits, which makes the cloud completely carbon neutral.

Creating a carbon neutral footprint

The energy savings are made possible by a unique systems architecture developed and implemented by Connectria.

Investment in each new IBM flash storage has helped replace 40 older and larger devices, resulting in energy reduction of 95%.

95%

ENERGY REDUCTION

100%

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Consumption at newest Amsterdam data centre

Connectria’s advanced data centres also contribute to a carbon neutral footprint across its IBM i and VMware clouds. For instance, its newest data centre in Amsterdam is one of the most energy efficient in the world. The facility is LEED Gold, ISO 14001 and 50001 certified and uses a mix of biomass and hydropower to achieve 100% renewable energy consumption.

Connectria’s ‘green cloud’ has already received significant traction with new and existing customers who are looking for high-quality, yet environmentally friendly solutions. To date, over 87,000 kWh of energy savings have been achieved by customers in North America and over 8,000 kWh in the EU. Based on customer demand and commitment, a further 245,000 kWh of savings are expected in 2020.

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Connectria: Minimizing environmental impact in the cloud management software industry