Vertiv announces expected data centre trends for 2022, highlighting importance of climate-related moves, AI and efforts towards integration.
Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, today released its annual list of the key data centre trends to watch in 2022, headlined by a dramatic acceleration in actions to address sustainability and navigate the climate crisis.
Efficency a must
Vertiv experts see long-held conversations around efficiency and utilisation in the data centre evolving to reflect a more comprehensive and aggressive focus on sustainability. This movement recognises the urgency of the climate crisis, the relationship between resource availability and rising costs, and shifting political winds around the world.
“As we move into 2022, data centre operators and suppliers will actively pursue strategies that can make a real difference in addressing the climate crisis,” said Vertiv CEO Rob Johnson. “For our part, we continue to focus on energy efficiency across our portfolio, as well as alternative and renewable energy technologies and zero-carbon energy sources, to prioritise water-free cooling technologies, and to partner with research leaders and our customers to focus on impactful sustainability efforts.”
Expected data centre trends
The actions data centre decision-makers take on these fronts will have a profound impact on the digital economy in 2022 and beyond. The urgency of these challenges is reflected in the 2022 trends identified by Vertiv’s experts. Those data centre trends are:
- Sustainability and the Climate Crisis: The data centre industry has taken steps toward more climate-friendly practices in recent years, but operators will join the climate effort more purposefully in 2022. Vertiv experts predict some organisations will embrace sustainable energy strategies that utilise a digital solution that matches energy use with 100% renewable energy and ultimately operates on 24/7 sustainable energy.
- Artificial Intelligence: As today’s networks get more complex and more distributed and the augmented and virtual reality demands of the metaverse become more prominent, the need for real-time computing and decision-making becomes more critical. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be critical to optimising the performance of these networks.
- Post-Pandemic Data Centres: Some 2.9 gigawatts worth of new data centre construction is under way globally – up from 1.6 gigawatts in 2020. These data centres will be the first built specifically to meet the needs of a post-COVID world. More activity will be focused at the edge, where VMware projects a dramatic shift in workload distribution – from 5% currently to 30% over the next five years.
- Integration: Data centre equipment providers have been embracing integrated systems that allow for modular capacity additions for years, with integrated racks and rows among today’s most popular data centre offerings. 2022 will see the next step in integration as data centres work with providers to better integrate larger systems and deliver seamless interoperability.
To see the full report, click here.
