Data Centre Essentials

11Around the Corner, What Could Happen Next

Data centres enable people, communities, and businesses to function and thrive. They underpin our digital society and, increasingly, the way we live. Demand for data processing is expected to continue to grow and despite the trend of increasing server energy efficiency, the result has still been a net increase in energy consumption. Increasing smartphone users, IP‐connected devices per household, use of IoT (Internet of Things) devices and artificial intelligence processing of datasets all increase demand.¹ Technological developments and economic drivers will continue to shape the data centre landscape.

Availability of IT services remains a key requirement – perhaps more so as our dependence on data processing continues to grow. Threats to availability are continuous; operators must stay alert to new ways in which they may be targeted. Increasingly, breaches of cyber security such as DNS attacks have caused high‐profile outages.

It seems likely that the hyperscalers will continue to grow their market share with increased convergence into the cloud. This is in part due to their ability to achieve economies of scale and technology‐focus (it is their core business) which delivers price competitiveness compared with self‐delivery.

At the other end of the scale, demand for edge computing close to end users may grow decentralised computing where small facilities proliferate in urban environments. The shift towards home working has reduced ...