Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 61 | Page 55

EXPERT SPEAK having the best price and product to reach them . This is all data-driven .
Inside those same companies , many employees who carry out those tasks continue to do their jobs within remote locations . They rely on the cloud to communicate with their colleagues via video calls , virtual meetings , instant messages and file sharing . Those functions – the foundation of hybrid work all run through data centres .
Businesses and entire economies are increasingly driven by the benefits of Artificial Intelligence , Machine Learning and Big Data – the pillars of the Fourth Industrial Revolution .
Sustainable operations
The Microsoft Cloud can be between 22 % and 93 % more energy efficient than traditional data centres , depending on the specific comparison being made . Data centres provide energy efficiency because they centralise the long list of devices and technologies needed to generate computing power – from the network to the switches to all that data storage .
Companies don ’ t need to have their own hardware facilities , their own data centre heating or cooling , their own network , their own backup , or their own technology infrastructure .
Companies don ’ t need to have their own hardware facilities , their own data centre heating or cooling , their own network , their own backup , or their own technology infrastructure . Microsoft is helping to add clean capacity to the grid by signing recent purchase agreements for more than five gigawatts of renewable energy worldwide . Those agreements include more than 15 individual deals in Europe , spanning Ireland , Denmark , Sweden and Spain .
South Africa is one of many countries dealing with an energy crisis . Even in Europe , there is a constant threat of brownouts and blackouts . Does that mean the data centre providers will have to turn the lights off and all run-on diesel generators ? Hopefully not , because they have got energy-efficient systems in place .
The reality is that the data centre touches on virtually everything we do in our professional and personal capacities . •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS 55