Report identifies four emerging data centre models

Disruptive trends such as cloud computing, sustainability, cybersecurity and the IoT are driving profound IT changes across all industries and creating opportunities and challenges in the process. As a result, new archetypes are emerging that will change the data centre landscape and improve productivity, drive down costs and increase agility. The four emerging archetypes of tomorrow’s data centres are:

The Data Fortress: Cyber attacks have disrupted some of the world’s leading companies as our increasingly connected world creates more and more openings for hackers. Organisations are beginning to take a security-first approach to data centre design, deploying out-of-network data pods for highly sensitive information—in some cases with separate, dedicated power and thermal management equipment.

The Cloud of Many Drops: Despite virtualisation-driven improvements, too many servers remain underutilised – some studies indicate servers use just 5-15% of their computing capacity and that 30% of all servers are “comatose.” We see a future where organisations explore shared service models, selling some of that excess capacity and in effect becoming part of the cloud.

Fog Computing: Distributed architectures are becoming commonplace as computing at the edge of the network becomes more critical. Introduced by Cisco, fog computing connects multiple small networks into a single large network, with application services distributed across smart devices and edge computing systems to improve efficiency and concentrate data processing closer to devices and networks. It’s a logical response to the massive amount of data being generated by the IoT.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Compliant Data Centre: Energy efficiency continues to be important for an industry with seemingly limitless consumption needs, but other drivers—most notably an increased focus on reducing carbon footprint among some organisations—are pushing the focus toward sustainability and corporate responsibility. The industry is responding with increased use of alternative energy in an effort to move toward carbon neutrality.

“Our work with many of the leading businesses and IT organisations around the world demands innovative thinking and unique perspectives on the changing data centre landscape,” said Steve Hassell, President of Data Centre Solutions, Emerson Network Power. “We value the sharing of ideas that happens in these relationships and rely on it to ensure our organisation and our customers remain ahead of developing trends. These new data centre archetypes reflect some themes consistently emerging from those conversations.”