The year 2020 changed a lot of things; one aspect of our lives that was tremendously affected was the way we interacted with each other. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy’s reliance on IT became stronger, making the need for digital infrastructures like data centers more critical than ever before.
For 2021 and beyond, here are the 5 top Data center trends we expect to see:
- Accountability and Transparency in data management
Cloud-based data centers have thrived in recent years because they provide a medium for businesses and organizations to outsource the requirement to own, maintain and operate data servers and other digital infrastructure. However, one aspect that cannot be outsourced in this form of arrangement is responsibility and accountability for malware incidents, data security breaches, and in the long run, carbon emissions as a result of storing data. In 2021, these businesses and organizations would have to do more to be accountable to users who entrust them with data.
- Fully automated data centers
According to a report by Uptime Institute, 90% of IT and data center managers say they will increase the use of remote monitoring and management of data centers as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, instead of hiring more staff to manage a data center, we should expect to see the development of Data Center Infrastructure Monitoring (DCIM) software to handle these tasks instead. Although the initial cost could be substantial, the long-term benefits of this software greatly outweigh its cost.
- Effects of Climate Change
A research paper published by Science Mag noted that data centers currently account for 1% of global energy use and are predicted to contribute to 3.2% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. To prevent this, the IT sector needs to cut carbon emissions by over 50% within the next 10 years. IT administrators and Data center managers would need to carefully evaluate their systems to find ways for less energy to be consumed without adversely affecting system efficiency.
- Growth of Edge Technology in Data centers:
According to a survey by Uptime Institute, 58% of organizations believe that 5G and other advanced technology would increase the demand for edge computing in various organizations across the world. Hence in 2021 and beyond, we should expect to see the full implementation of 5G networks in the growth of edge technology at data centers.
- Improvement in Data center Technology
There is a need for data centers to keep up with the global economy’s growing demand for digital services and the desire to operate data center facilities remotely without staff during an extreme weather event. Consequently, we expect to experience an increase in innovation especially around storage-class memory, software-defined power and low-powered compute engines.
No doubt, 2021 promises to be a dynamic and exciting year for data centers and the digital world.