The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has led to many changes in the data center industry. According to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, technology “prevented a complete societal economic meltdown” by allowing the world to work, learn and play from home during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
By Amanda Brooks
If this year has taught us anything, it was that we must always be prepared for the unexpected. This “new” way of life consisting of zoom calls, social distancing, and mask mandates continues to test our ability of adapting and using tools to enable efficiency, collaboration, and innovation. The digital transformation as seen in the tech and data center industry alters the way we view networks and connections. Data centers have played an important role in stopping the world’s economy from a possible collapse. Let’s explore 5 important trends in the data center industry this year.
- Data Center spending will increase:
- The global data center systems market will reach $237 billion in 2021, representing an increase of more than 7% over year, according to IT research firm Gartner’s most recent IT spending forecast. With an increase demand for colocation and hybrid cloud opportunities, the data center market is projected to increase significantly over the next several years.
- Growth of edge data centers:
- The next Data Center frontier is at the Edge. The shift to the Edge is due to remote working and education, as well as technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and the emergence of 5G. Edge-specific data center providers like EdgeConneX are appearing in the market. Companies like Dell, HPE, Vertiv and AWS are investing in new edge services.
- Targeting public clouds:
- There is a shift towards a new way of buying and maintaining data center solutions which is a consumption-based, pay-per-use manner. Market leaders are shifting their sales approach and are buying data center products in a new way in an effort to win back market share from public cloud providers. Many have moved to public clouds during COVID-19.
- An increased shift toward autonomous IT operations:
- The global pandemic accelerated the need to make Data Center operations less reliant on human intervention with the use of software automation and artificial intelligence. Many organizations are investing in automation and robotics in the data center so employees are able to move around in the business.
- An emphasis on sustainability:
- Data Center sustainability is now front and center! The industry is accelerating the adoption of sustainable practices like renewable energy, lithium-ion batteries and liquid cooling products to reduce climate change at a global level. Many customers, stakeholders and investors are increasingly demanding accountability on climate impact. Data center operators will invest in buying and creating more sustainable products such as liquid cooling.
These top 5 data center trends reveal the changes in the data center industry. Its increased emphasis on sustainability leads to the future of immersion cooling. Furthermore, GRC (Green Revolution Cooling) has been in the forefront of the effort to increase the use of liquid cooling in the data center industry. GRC has launched a new cooling designed for really extreme density called ICEraQ Series 10 immersion cooling module. This serves as one of the many examples of the changing data center industry.
