Archival data will be the largest growing storage class in 2022
Hybrid working is here to stay: 52% of UK workers are expected to be remote in 2022. This has brought up a new challenge for enterprises: with employees operating from multiple different locations, critical and confidential data can no longer be stored on-premises in one site. For data to be accessed and protected at these various locations, enterprises must deploy local, external and cloud back-ups, and archival solutions.
Archival data (also known as ‘cold’ storage) is stored in lower cost, infrequently accessed tiers that archive information until it is needed, for example in the event of a failure or cyber-attack. As the world generates and stores more archival data than ever before, with use cases such as genomics or video footage, cold storage will become the go to for data which must be protected but doesn’t need to be accessed within milliseconds. As enterprises start to run back-ups two or three times in various locations, the amount of storage in data centres will further build up and require a serious look at the way organisations archive their data.
The prominence of archival data also tackles the ever-present issue of ransomware attacks and prevents them from becoming far less impactful if you can access backups of stolen or corrupted information. The same principle applies in the cases of floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather incidents that are occurring with higher frequency worldwide. This data, which isn’t needed actively, can be stored in pools of cooler storage at a lower cost.
Most cold storage has been contained on either tape or hard disk drives (HDDs). While tape storage is less expensive than HDDs, it also has a higher data access latency, making it an option for very cold storage. HDDs are evolving to next-gen disk technologies and platforms to improve both the total cost of ownership and accessibility of active archive solutions. These include zoning, higher areal densities, mechanical innovations, and new material innovations.
The rise of the green data centre
As we conclude 2021, COP26 has highlighted increased opportunity for enterprises to commit to sustainability goals and achieve carbon neutrality. Data centres can be the largest consumer of a country’s electricity, contributing to increased carbon dioxide  output: for example, data centres are reportedly predicted to consume 70% of Ireland’s power by 2030.
In 2022, we will see a surge in organisations working to make their data centres more sustainable. With energy-reduction goals, businesses will invest time and money into utilising existing centres in the most efficient way rather than building new data centres.
There will be increasing appetite to transition to higher capacity drives as fewer high-capacity drives is more energy efficient than multiple low-capacity drives. Additionally, it increases storage density per rack and can reduce the number of racks needed to achieve the required capacity, further lowering overall power consumption and TCO. JBOD solutions can be used to reduce power consumption by intelligently spinning each drive at its maximum performance, thanks to the ability to isolate them from vibration and channelling the airflow to maintain optimal operating temperatures, which would otherwise impact performance and require additional expensive cooling. Businesses will also increasingly prioritise data centres and operations which run with air cooling or on renewable energy: as of mid-2021, Western Digital’s facilities in Northern California run on 100% renewable energy.
New data sovereignty concerns
The acceleration of digital transformation across all spheres, prompted by the pandemic, has nudged data sovereignty back into the forefront of businesses’ minds. According to McKinsey, the pandemic sped up the adoption of digital technologies by several years, for enterprises and public bodies alike, from educational institutions to healthcare. Keeping regional control of the data generated by these digital technologies will be a critical priority for organisations. As digital transformation matures, IT leaders will be tasked with ensuring data is stored and protected compliantly. For EU-based companies, this means keeping data within the union’s boundaries.
In 2022, we will see organisations undergoing a storage revolution to meet data protection demands. For example, in the UK, the NHS must store medical records for one hundred years. With medical information undergoing a major shift to online locations, bolstered by the government’s recent commitment of £5.9bn towards digital technology in the NHS, there will be dramatic investment in high capacity, low-latency storage solutions. Medical data is critical and often large meaning that in the coming year, healthcare institutions will be forced to invest in reliable storage architectures or risk compromising data protection standards.
The future of gaming could be in the cloud
In 2021, we have seen the burgeoning shift of gaming from device locations to the cloud. TV and film streaming services have set new expectations for gaming as well. Netflix has even entered the cloud gaming market, launching Netflix Games in late 2021 across all mobile devices. The data centre plays a key role, both in terms of enabling online gaming and storing the live-streaming game-play content. The shift to cloud gaming looks only to accelerate, and companies such as Xbox and Netflix, will be forced to virtualise data centres to remain profitable in this new gaming climate.
Within the gaming field, the coming year will start to see the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). EA has even publicly stated that NFTs are part of the future of the games industry. These tokens are unique data units stored on blockchains, which prove that products are genuine and allow gamers to commercialise personalised downloadable content, from weapons to cheat codes to packs. NFTs are based on a distributed storage architecture, allowing ownership to be validated and exchanged. As enterprises and individuals investigate the potential of NFTs, storage requirements are going to have to equally be considered.
Autonomous vehicles: a 10-year goal
The initial emergence of partially autonomous vehicles sparked a premature onslaught of confident predictions for an imminent mass rollout. However, the reality is that the practical rollout of autonomous driving, where a driver can fully hand over the navigation, known as Level 5 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), will occur within the next ten to 15 years, a slower timeline than expected a few years ago.
Whilst the pandemic didn’t prompt a complete regression in autonomous vehicle development, it did stall and slow down innovation. In 2022, we will see the re-emergence of key collaboration and consortiums amongst technology and automotive governing bodies, and continued preparation and building of crucial infrastructure, including 5G.
For connected cars to operate in a fully optimised way, there needs to be a comprehensive rollout of 5G. This technology provides the rapid speed and low latency that is needed to transfer data quickly enough from the vehicle to the nearest data centre as well as to nearby vehicles and external infrastructure. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) enables cars to communicate with different parts of the traffic system (such as roadside units, other cars), which is crucial for safe driving and vehicle reaction time.
Clustered storage for autonomous vehicles
Whereas today’s autonomous vehicles utilise a distributed storage architecture, the vehicles of tomorrow will rely on clustered storage as the standard. These clusters or zones will communicate with a central ‘brain’, that will house critical data, allowing for easier testability and maintenance. Connected, autonomous cars will act as small data centres.
The future of autonomous driving will rely on data processing, which happens inside the central hub, which in turn communicates with each zone, e.g., the application software takes data from internal maps along with the newest information about events like accidents or the road environment, such as poor conditions or potential hazards. The vehicle’s internal IoT sensor devices like cameras, radar and Lidar contribute as well to get a full picture of the overall traffic situation. This type of  storage architecture will rely on a central compute and storage solutions rather than distributed solution having numerous of ECU and small storage devices, thus lowering the weight of the car and therefore the costs associated. This architecture will also be fuelled by sustainability concerns: the decreased weight of the car means reduced CO2 emissions, as does the local storage locations in comparison to a distributed system.
Zonal architecture for autonomous vehicles
Whereas today’s autonomous vehicles utilise a distributed storage architecture, the vehicles of tomorrow will rely on zonal storage architecture as the standard. These zoned clusters will communicate with a central ‘brain’, that will house critical data, allowing for easier testability and maintenance. The clusters will also lower the weight of the vehicle. The reason for this is that zonal clusters have less cabling in the actual car. Connected, autonomous cars will act as small data centres.
The future of autonomous driving will rely on data processing, which happens inside the central hub, which in turn communicates with each zone, e.g., the application software takes data from internal maps along with the newest information about events like accidents or the road environment, such as poor conditions or potential hazards. The vehicle’s internal IoT sensor devices like cameras, radar and Lidar contribute as well to get a full picture of the overall traffic situation. This zone-based storage will rely on central compute and storage solutions rather than distributed solutions, In addition along with less cabling, and having numerous ECUs and small storage devices, this architecture also lowers the weight of the car and therefore the costs associated. New architectures will also be fuelled by sustainability concerns: the decreased weight of the car means reduced CO2 emissions.
