Q&
EDITOR’S
HOW FAR DO YOU
AGREE THAT EDGE
COMPUTING WILL BE
THE BIGGEST DRIVER OF
NEW DATA CENTRES?
F
ive years ago, Vertiv led a global,
industry-wide examination of the data
centre of the future. Data Center 2025:
Exploring the Possibilities, stretched the
imaginations of more than 800 industry
professionals and introduced a collaborative
vision for the next-generation data centre.
Vertiv has now released a mid-point
update – Data Center 2025: Closer to the
Edge – and it reveals fundamental shifts in
the industry that barely registered in the
forecasts from five short years ago.
The migration to the edge is changing the
way today’s industry leaders think about the
data centre. They are grappling with a broad
data centre ecosystem comprised of many
types of facilities and relying increasingly on
the edge of the network.
Of participants who have edge sites
today or expect to have edge sites in 2025,
more than half (53%) expect the number of
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
INTELLIGENT
TECH CHANNELS
Issue 25
edge sites they support to grow by at least
100%, with 20% expecting a 400% or more
increase. Collectively, survey participants
expect their total number of edge
computing sites will grow 226% between
now and 2025.
During the original 2014 research, the
edge was acknowledged as a growing
trend but merited just four mentions in the is challenging, but this research aligns with
the vision of an ever-changing and incredibly
dynamic market which is unfolding in front
of our eyes.
“Specifically, the estimates for future
growth in edge computing are consistent
with the predicted growth in AI, IoT and
other latency and bandwidth dependent
applications. The challenge – especially given
19-page report. The industry’s attention
at that point was focused firmly on hybrid
architectures leveraging enterprise, cloud
and colocation resources. Even in an industry
that routinely moves and changes at light
speed, the growth of the edge and the
dramatic impact it will have on the data
centre is staggering.
“In just five short years, we have seen the
emergence of an entirely new segment of
the ecosystem, driven by the need to locate
computing closer to the user,” said Rob
Johnson, Vertiv CEO.
“This new distributed network is
reliant on a mission-critical edge that has
fundamentally changed the way we think
about the data centre.”
Giordano Albertazzi, President for Vertiv
in Europe, Middle East and Africa, added:
“Making predictions about technology
shifts more than two or three years ahead the shortage in data centre personnel – will
be managing all of that new infrastructure
effectively and efficiently. Remote
management and approaches such as lights-
out data centres will play an increasingly
important role.”
More than 800 data centre professionals
participated in the survey.
Among the other notable results:
Participants aren’t as bullish on the
prospects for solar and wind power in
the data centre as they were in 2014.
Then, they projected about 34% of data
centre power would come from those
sources by 2025. Now, the expectation is
21% – still optimistic, but mindful of the
ambitious timeline
Globally, 16% of participants expect to be
retired by 2025, exacerbating an already
problematic talent shortage. In the US,
that number is an alarming 33%
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