Data centers play a crucial role in allowing enterprises to process, access, and store mission-critical data for their daily operations. As the world sees technology evolve at an unprecedented pace, data centers are keeping up. The past year alone saw new data center technologies and concepts emerge, such as climate-conscious cooling.
Data centers are uniquely poised to operate responsibly and sustainably while helping their enterprise clients take advantage of technological advancements to help them achieve their strategic goals.
Here is our annual report on the top seven trends that will affect data centers in 2024.
1. Hyperscale Becomes the Norm
The ability of IT architecture to scale appropriately to the demand placed on the system is known as hyperscale. Worldwide, enterprises continue to undergo digital transformations. While that signals good news for business agility, it also creates a need for more digital resources such as cloud computing, big data, and IoT applications. Companies will need even more computing resources to process that data, as well as storage to keep it safe and highly available.
Hyperscale data centers, now primarily used by tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Google, may see a usage boost among smaller companies in 2024. Hyperscale data centers have the unique ability to support the expansion of data and facilitate robust digital applications and technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
2. Large-Scale Use of Artificial Intelligence
AI has gained widespread media attention, especially in the last few years, but many executives still struggle to know what to do with it or understand how it can help their businesses.
However, 2024 predictions indicate that AI will play a major role in many areas. Data centers seem particularly primed to take advantage of all that AI has to offer.
AI has the potential to do predictive analytics and dynamic workload management, which can improve resource management and service delivery to minimize downtime for enterprises. Additionally, it can proactively identify security vulnerabilities and deploy real-time protective measures against threats.
3. The Edge Data Center Trend Is Heating Up
Edge computing moves storage and compute resources from a centralized data center closer to the data source. Edge data centers are located closer to network edges, which allows faster data processing with less latency. The global market for edge data centers was $4 billion in 2017. In 2024, experts expect that number to more than triple to $13.5 billion.
Since edge data centers are located closer to the devices they power (and the people who use them), they should greatly improve the user experience, which is especially important as AI technology continues to evolve. This more seamless experience would ideally come with enhanced reliability and security, as well as a lower cost of ownership for business owners.
4. The Rise of Granular Security Measures
The digital revolution among enterprises has one unintended but serious side effect—the rise of cybercrime. The average cost of a data breach is already more than $4 million, so cybersecurity is more important than ever. In 2024, some experts predict that security measures will need to be as savvy as the hackers attempting to thwart them.
Collaborative projects, such as the open-source OpenTitan, aim to design and integrate a universal standard for silicon root of trust (RoT) chips created specifically for data centers. The developers intend to prevent unauthorized code execution and stop the installation of malware.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility Extends to Data Centers
Data centers use a lot of power. As hyperscale data centers and data-intensive technologies such as AI become the norm, energy usage will continue to rise. Increased data center usage may thwart sustainability and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) efforts.
Environmental stewardship is important. People expect greater efforts toward it from companies they spend money with. In 2024, data centers may continue implementing more sustainable power sources and cooling systems to reduce water usage and emissions while staying committed to energy efficiency.
6. Alternative Methods of Power Generation
Bigger, more tech-heavy data centers need more power, and many jurisdictions and grid operators are beginning to put constraints and limitations on enterprise power usage.
In response to—and to combat—these restrictions, data centers are turning to two solutions as 2024 begins: renewable energy sources og on-site power generation. The latter is used in a Microsoft data center in Ireland, which uses power from a 170-megawatt gas-fired power plant and 21 small diesel generators.
Many of the world’s largest tech companies have made significant commitments to invest billions into renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal.
These investments will pose challenges. They are expensive, and there may be temporary losses of power and functionality because some grids might be unable to support the demand for renewable energy. But big companies continue to move forward with their efforts, and many seem determined to find ways to make it work.
7. Focus on Safety
Data center workers and up-to-date IT equipment are indispensable for continual high levels of service. As rack densities increase and IT equipment becomes heavier (and more expensive), safety for both workers and the equipment is a priority.
Safety-certified lifts will enable data centers to demonstrate that they value human capital and are committed to protecting their IT equipment investment.
2024 Suggests a Balancing Act
Data centers play a big role in allowing enterprises across the globe to expand and thrive. Big leaps in technological capabilities and an unwavering commitment to corporate sustainability in 2024 can help data centers grow and accomplish more.
The most successful data centers will harness AI-powered technologies, implement on-site and renewable energy initiatives while balancing competing interests to meet customer expectations and focus on the safety of workers and IT equipment.
