What a 2025 Data Center Will Look Like

Leading data center infrastructure provider Emerson Network recently conducted a survey of 800 IT managers on their vision for the data center of the future. Here are some of the most interesting results of this survey.

• The Sun Will Shine Brighter: In a surprising revelation, the survey indicated that by 2025, solar power will be responsible for as much as 25% of the power utilized by data centers. This is in stark contrast to the negligible 1% of solar energy that is used in today’s data centers.

• The Clouds Will Grow Bigger:
  Another surprise was the forecast that nearly 60% of all computing is expected to be cloud based by the next decade.

• And Size Does Matter: The biggest surprise of it all was this magnificent vision of smaller data centers. As many as 10% of the respondents imagined an absolutely futuristic data center with one tenth of the current size. 18% were a little more realistic by hoping data centers would be one fifth their current size. 30% felt that it was possible to have data centers that would be half their current size by 2025.

To make this dream come true, most IT stalwarts imagine exceptional breakthroughs in the renewable energy space. They predict that solar, wind, tidal and geothermal energy sources will account for almost 50% of the data center power sources in the next ten years. Another interesting aspect under speculation was the rack density issue. While most managers estimated rack densities rising to 80 kWh in the next ten years, an ambitious 15% predicted that rack densities could be as high as 100% by the next decade.

The survey also predicts a hybrid data center ecosystem in the future where consumers will have a multitude of choices. There is no one size fits all option in the data center world and the future landscape will be built with a multitude of data centers with different capacities and capabilities to best meet the needs of various types of customers.

Increased computing demand is a reality that the future has to be prepared to deal with. As technology spreads its wings globally and the world becomes more and more data driven than before, a vision such as the one above can very much become a reality in 2025. For making the right data center decisions today, get it touch with the experts at Lifeline Data Centers today.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.