Data centers shift to a digital future
Discover the digital trends that continue to drive data center growth and the potential for these centers to analyse data at the source.
Our societal and business reliance on data is growing exponentially as we move towards a digitalized world.
In recent years, data center demand has primarily been driven by the cloud giants – enterprise companies, financial institutions, and government agencies have all been moving to the cloud. Hyperscalers are leading the way in a market that was expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.25% over the forecast period of 2019-2024.
So, what are the trends that continue to drive this growth of data centers into the ‘20s?
Today, greater numbers of enterprises are migrating their data centers to the cloud, and hybrid systems have started coming more into effect where enterprises mix in-house computing with the movement of larger systems to the cloud.
Growth in power demand continues to outweigh the many gains in energy efficiency that we are seeing in data centers – a shift to sustainable power and recognition of the UN SDGs has started. We will see more of a shift to renewable energy as data center operators move to a carbon-neutral footprint.
COVID-19, it seems, has caused seismic shifts to both usage patterns and scale of activity. Businesses moving operations to the cloud, a work-from-home workforce, remote learning through education providers, etc., all mean that data centers are continuing to expand, seemingly at an even faster pace than before.
Digital trends will continue to drive data center growth – artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and IoT. And with AI growth, Edge data centers will play a critical role in the ability to store and analyze data closer to the source.
In a world where we want everything faster, cheaper, and bigger, it makes sense that we move to a digital way of working, where everything is automated, from the designs we carry out to the products we build, manage, and operate.
Digital services and automation will be the way forward.
One thing that COVID-19 has thrown up is the difficulty in accessing our data center sites...Remote monitoring and controlling will become essential to business as usual.
One thing that COVID-19 has brought up is the difficulty in accessing our data center sites. Access varies depending on the impact of COVID in different parts of the world, but it has been an issue regardless.
Data centers are inherently highly operational and maintenance-focused. They require constant monitoring – to manage assets, equipment, maintenance, capacity, etc. And monitoring to ensure that efficiencies can be measured and systems optimized on an ongoing basis, particularly as capacity demands change.
From using GIS mapping to help clients with site selection, through automation of design and on to support and operations, the digital future is here.
Automation of our designs is something we’ve been working on for some time – it both enhances our ways of working with our clients and helps realize efficiencies in both cost and speed of delivery.
Remote monitoring and controlling will become essential to business as usual. We work with our clients to enable this remote tracking, to determine and understand asset condition, monitor temperature or degradation of systems, etc.
Virtual and augmented reality allows us to take a virtual tour through a data center. It allows opportunity to superimpose systems, spaces and fit outs. By implementing augmented reality with digital twinning, we could go as far as operating and testing systems without the need to be on site at all.
By implementing augmented reality with digital twinning, we could go as far as operating and testing systems without the need to be on site at all.
Digital twinning allows for Revit and BIM models to be linked to support asset management and operations. When followed through, in the data center, it will allow for more efficient facility management and operations, monitoring and analysing, fault finding and fault mitigation.
Although still at early stages of development, I believe that it’s these initiatives coupled with the remote working environment that we have been forced into that will be the injection that’s needed to drive digital ways of working forward.
1 ResearchAndMarkets.com (Hyperscale Datacenter Market - Growth, Trends, Forecast (2020 - 2025)
