In this article, we look at what’s in store for the data centre industry in 2021 and the coming years. We predict that the following five trends will shape the sector and dictate its progress. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
1. The Challenge of Data Tonnage
Data is exploding at all levels and advanced technologies will transform the storage, management, and movement of information. Data centres will power this disruption, and in turn will be shaped too. Data tonnage produces challenges in the concentration and distribution of data. Larger datasets are testing computing requirements for AI, analytics, and other intensive data applications.
Experts predict that by 2022, a good 70% of data will be generated outside the cloud or data centre, increasing from the current 40%. Therefore, faster and bigger networks are needed as well as distributed computing capacity to execute ‘data thinning’ before delivering vital sets of data across the network.
2. The Impact of AI
AI (Artificial intelligence) plays a major role in the growing data wave. This computing technology can analyze far and near data, including interference engines operating on smartphones and algorithm coaching at cloud centers. AI is sought by businesses because it can make services and products smarter.
Enterprising companies are utilizing advanced machine learning systems to improve and personalize their products. This is driving an arm race in hardware with increasing demand for power-efficient and faster computing systems. Apart from established giants like AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, startups like Cerebra Systems are joining the ride. They are creating hardware with demanding specs which means data centres have to provide better liquid cooling and greater rack densities.
For example, Cerebras’ CS-1 system is cooled by liquid. Thus, we’ll likely see the use of more immersion and liquid-to-the-chip solutions to cool the new AI systems.
3. Infrastructure Funds Look to Utilize Green Power
Wind and solar power at scale, carbon capture, wave power. These technologies may play a big role in the powering of data centres because infrastructure funds are utilizing new resources in the deployment of IT capacity. This capability as well as the desire of enterprises to use greener energy is changing the methods of data centre power.
Some data centre firms have plans to build data centres close to renewable energy facilities. Green energy has become a big opportunity and infrastructure funds possess the relationships and deep pockets to handle the challenging task of implementing renewable energy for data centres at scale.
4. The Need for On-Site Power Production
Climate change is producing new challenges in the availability and cost of power. Data centres are already feeling the impact. In California, power companies imposed blackouts to de-energize their electricity transmission lines in areas with fire risk. This makes it mandatory for the data centres to consider on-site power production.
Climate risk and the challenges of worldwide energy delivery are likely to make data centre firms invest in on-site production and consider other methods beyond conventional utility power. The important issues are time-to-market, availability, and cost. In some European countries there is a waiting time of a few years for power delivery. Data centre operations in these nations cannot afford to delay their project for that much time and need to consider on-site power creation.
5. Unmanned Data Centres and Remote Management
The number of servers is much more than the number of people who can manage them. Automation helps to tackle this challenge and one sysadmin can handle even thousands of computer servers. But staff availability is inadequate to meet accelerating server growth. Retirements are rising along with demand for edge computing. This means data centres are required in more places.
Thus the need is to create and handle unmanned data centres. Advanced software is leading the effort, including solutions from DCM experts, edge specialists such as Vapor IO and EdgeConneX, and equipment vendors like Vertiv and Schneider Electric.
Challenges in the Data Centre Industry in India
Experts state that the Indian data centre industry should learn the difference between being cheap and being cost-competitive. The sector should ideally strive to offer quality services at a cost-competitive rate that has enough margins for good profits.
The time to market is another issue. Today, it takes about 24 months to launch a new data centre. You need to spend six to eight months getting approvals, 12 months for construction, and another six months for technical fittings. This time needs to be reduced for faster growth.
It’s also important to get regulatory frameworks right. There should be trustworthy processes to manage contracts and resolve disputes quickly. The government can also give incentives to data centre companies for fresh investments and new facilities.
The regulatory standards for data security of overseas data should be higher to attract foreign clients. Finally, besides power, fiber use availability and use needs to be improved in India for faster growth of the data centre industry.
STT GDC India is a prominent colocation service provider in India with facilities in eight cities. In these state-of-the-art data centres your business can avail the carrier-neutral services of global telecom providers.
