Data Centre and Technology Predictions 2024

Predicting the future is hard. Predicting the future of technology and the future of data center technology is even harder. Technology – by design – evolves so rapidly, often in response to our ever-changing needs as a species. Take the global health pandemic, for example. Under normal circumstances, producing a vaccine can take anything from ten to 15 years. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine took under a year, highlighting the power of technology and innovation.

Green Data Centres & Energy Sustainability

Renewable energy in data centres is something that the data center industry has been moving towards for many years now. However, concern over energy security – an issue that really came to the fore this year because of the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe – has sharply prompted the industry to closely examine its partial reliance on unrenewable energy sources, like diesel or gas.

There are lots of thriving data centre hubs around the world, like London, Singapore, and Virginia, that still have so much growing to do but are constrained by energy, both in terms of access and supply. That’s not to say that we don’t plan how much capacity we need in advance. When we look to expand, there are several factors we take into consideration. Planning for future capacity needs is one of them, but we also look at, for example, aligning with the grid’s capacity and whether we can get long-term supply agreements in place. However, for these hubs to reach their full potential and keep up with the demand for digital services globally, the industry needs to start looking at alternative ways to power its facilities, which ultimately means adopting a hybrid model and having the ability to go off-grid and become ‘decentralised’.

It sounds unrealistic now, but if you examine history, it’s not. For instance, it wouldn’t have been uncommon for a factory in the 1920s to have been powered by a single steam engine located right outside, essentially acting as a ‘microgrid’ for the factory. Just imagine that but on a much broader scale, and instead of steam engines, think about renewable power, such as solar, wind, nuclear, and hydropower. We already do this to some extent now, with more than 900 megawatts of solar and wind energy under contracts in the US alone. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference announced the Global Cooling Pledge. This pledge is to decrease emission rates by 68% by 2050. Some strategies in place include improving cooling system efficiencies and increasing the use of natural coolants such as air and water.

It won’t be long until fossil fuels take a back seat permanently, and data centres become self-sustaining in terms of power, able to switch on and off the grid at the flick of a switch.

AI and The Emergence of Innovative Cooling Methods

The use of data-heavy technologies like AI and IoT continues to ramp up across the globe. In fact, since 2021, 86% of CEOs reported that AI is considered a ‘mainstream technology’, and 91.5% of leading businesses invest in AI on an ongoing basis. Whether its live sentiment analysis tracking in the advertising industry or the use of complex algorithms by social media companies, businesses are seeing tangible value from the use of AI. And if businesses keep seeing value, usage will only increase, meaning more intensity and geographical distribution.

The thing is, AI doesn’t run on thin air. It’s a demanding technology, requiring a lot of power to run, and incredibly high-power density racks to function optimally. And, if high-power density racks are needed, so is high-power effective cooling. Our data centres are modular, which means components can be swapped out for other parts which might be better suited to a specific scenario, allowing us to evolve with increasing power densities.

Now, historically, the most effective way of cooling a data centre has been through hot and cold isle containment. Or, if you’re lucky, you might be able to make use of a local water source, like a river or dock, to cool your data centre naturally, like we do in Marseille and London.

However, with AI we need something even more innovative. I see methods like liquid cooling starting to become the ‘go-to’ choice. Beyond that, we’ll also start to see the emergence of phase-change cooling into the mainstream, a cooling method that harnesses a cooling fluid's natural latent heat of vaporization, or the point at which it transitions from a liquid phase into a gaseous phase. Beyond that, you’re looking at building data centers on the top of mountains, but I think it’s safe to say we’re a little way away from that.

More data means more multi-cloud deployments

Our final technology prediction relating to the future of data centers is regarding the increasing need for multi-cloud deployments. Data continues to grow in both value and volume. What used to be created in very centralized locations, such as cities, is now created everywhere. In our homes, walking down the street, you name it. This proliferation is making it harder for businesses to access, aggregate, and ultimately, make sense of their data. We call this the ‘Data Gravity’ effect, and it’s a trend that is only going to become more apparent as our dependency on data and digital services increases.

Businesses need customizability. They need to be able to access the apps and services needed to unlock value from their data all in one place, kind of like Apple’s app store. The data center of the future is supporting this need with highly connected, geographically diverse platforms that enable businesses to reach the most strategic global markets with infrastructure that’s flexible and deployable in minutes. The importance of this approach is only going to become more apparent next year as enterprises recognise that multi-cloud deployments and the adoption of hybrid IT are the only ways to navigate a world driven by data.

If there’s one takeaway from this year, it's that infrastructure is still rapidly evolving. Whether it’s finding new ways to power it through things like multi-factor power, upgrading it to support the technologies defining our future, or addressing the data-related challenges of tomorrow by overhauling it completely, fit-for-purpose digital infrastructure is needed now more than ever before.

Stay focused on the bytes and atoms.

Edge Computing

The rising popularity of edge computing is due to it having faster data speed responses, a reduction in latency and it costs less for companies compared to cloud computing. This is due to edge computing not having to connect to a cloud server.

Edge computing is increasingly being adopted across various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and retail, to support a wide range of applications, such as real-time analytics, video surveillance, remote monitoring, and augmented reality.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Trends in Data Centre Design:

1. Modular and Scalable Design: Data centres are starting to adopt modular designs that allow for easy scalability and flexibility to keep up with changing IT requirements. Modular components such as prefabricated data halls, power modules, and cooling units enable rapid deployment and expansion of data centre capacity.
2. Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: Data centre operators are prioritising energy-efficient initiatives to reduce operational costs and environmental impact. This includes implementing advanced cooling technologies, optimising server utilization, and utilizing renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
3. Edge Computing Infrastructure: With the proliferation of IoT devices and the increasing demand for real-time data processing, edge computing infrastructure is becoming a key trend in data centre design. Edge data centres are deployed closer to end-users to minimise latency and improve application performance for latency-sensitive applications.
4. Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Deployments: Organisations are adopting hybrid and multi-cloud strategies, leveraging a combination of on-premises data centres, public cloud services, and private cloud environments. Data centre designs are evolving to support the seamless integration and interoperability between different cloud platforms and data centre environments.
5. Security and Compliance: Data centre security remains a top priority, with an increased focus on implementing robust physical security measures, access controls, and cybersecurity protocols to protect sensitive data and infrastructure from cyber threats and unauthorized access.

Why Data Centres Are Growing:

Several factors contribute to the growth of data centres:

1. Digital Transformation: The ongoing digital transformation across industries, driven by trends such as cloud computing, IoT, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence, has resulted in exponential growth in data generation and storage requirements, driving the demand for data centre infrastructure.
2. Increasing Internet Usage: The increase in internet-connected devices, and the growing popularity of online services, social media, streaming media, e-commerce, and mobile applications are fuelling the demand for data centre capacity to support these digital services.
3. Data Privacy and Compliance: Regulatory requirements related to data privacy, security, and compliance increase the need for robust data centre infrastructure to ensure the secure storage, processing, and transmission of sensitive data, driving investment in data centre facilities.
4. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Organisations rely on data centres to provide resilient and redundant infrastructure to support critical business operations and ensure continuity in the event of disruptions such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or system failures.
5. Emergence of Edge Computing: The rise of edge computing, driven by the demand for low-latency applications and real-time data processing, is leading to the deployment of edge data centres closer to end-users, resulting in additional growth opportunities in the data centre industry.