The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry. Here’s a look at the insights from Chris Sharp of Digital Realty.
CHRIS SHARP, Digital Realty
Chris Sharp is the Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer of Digital Realty. Chris has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with an extensive background in developing technology strategies in global markets. He has a deep knowledge of the data center sector and is well positioned to expand technical innovation at Digital Realty. Most recently, he was responsible for cloud innovation at Equinix, where he led the development of innovative cloud services solutions and developed new capabilities enabling next-generation, high-performance exchange and interconnection solutions, facilitating broad commercial adoption of cloud computing on a global basis. Previously, Mr. Sharp held leadership positions at top network and colocation providers, including Qwest Communications, MCI/Verizon Business and Reliance Globalcom.
Here’s the full text of Chris Sharp’s insights from our Executive Roundtable:
Data Center Frontier: How is the increasingly data-centric nature of business impacting enterprise demand for data center services? What trends are you seeing in enterprise data center and colocation requirements?
Chris Sharp: The rapid increase of data creation and consumption are shifting how enterprises think about data center services. Enterprises are demanding more flexible and agile data exchange to power their businesses. They seek the best ways to use both edge and core to scale in cost-effective ways.
With cloud migration on the rapid rise, on-premise data center solutions are continuing to evolve. It’s no longer a question of if you’re including cloud in your strategy, but how. We are seeing an increase in hybrid and multi-cloud solutions with businesses crafting a blend of secure, private, and proximate connections and at the same time wanting the flexibility of provisioning cloud and network services on the fly. A critical element to ensuring the success of these hybrid multi-cloud strategies is removing complexity, which is core to all our interconnect solutions.
Data Center Frontier: We’ve all been hearing a lot lately about 5G wireless technology. What might 5G mean for the data center industry, and when will its impact be felt?
Chris Sharp: Beyond the sheer increase in the volume of data created, the sophistication and significance of the advanced applications are increasing at a breakneck pace. Beyond just faster streaming and data transfers, autonomous cars, smart cities, and remote robotics will become possible with rollout of 5G wireless networks.
5G networks aren’t just about speed, they also greatly improve latency and reliability and they eliminate jitter. For some 5G applications like robotic surgeries, the improved network signal is literally a life and death criticality. With far less room for error incorporating precise movements in real-time, the medical industry is on the front-line of those who will benefit from 5G.
This shift will impact how technologies are designed, balancing the advantages and disadvantages of micro-processing at the edge and focusing on flexible, agile network architecture. With developed technology around voice and gesture commands, we may seamlessly become less attached to our devices, as the dependence on a device is to assist us in navigating out into the world instead of away from the world. This means that 5G will assist in moving even more applications into the cloud (and therefore into data centers).
“The biggest question that 5G hasn’t yet answered is where these 5G-enabled applications will ultimately live.” Chris Sharp, Digital Realty
The biggest question that 5G hasn’t yet answered is where these 5G-enabled applications will ultimately live. For instance, much of the processing of virtual reality applications could happen in a core data center, at a micro-edge facility, or at the user, depending on how the applications are developed. This application development will be based on how CSP’s roll out their edge applications and on how 5G networks are ultimately architected, and both will have a huge impact across the data center industry. A global platform that enables this entire supply chain is critical to the success of any new spectrum coming to market.
Data center providers need to be ready for growing hyperscale demands and greater colocation scalability with interconnection that’s seamless and reliable across the globe.
The evening sun sets behind Building L, the massive new Digital Realty data center in Ashburn, Virginia. (Photo: Rich Miller)
Data Center Frontier: There’s a growing focus on automating data center operations, a trend driven by staffing challenges and the need for remote management of “lights out” edge data centers. Do you expect to see more automation? What are the most promising approaches in this area?
Chris Sharp: Absolutely we expect to see more automation. However, for us it’s less about achieving the “lights out” data center and more about allowing our operators time to concentrate on the high impact and high frequency tasks that inevitably require human intervention. There are two main areas of focus that we see the industry trying to address through automation.
The first is energy efficiency. AI and machine learning algorithms enable supervised control over mechanical cooling, gradually making changes to allow for the most effective usage of power. This automation has matured over the past decade to a point where the market has plenty of options to choose from. We’ve already seen Google roll out this type of solution to great effect, albeit in a more controlled, single-tenant environment. Effectiveness of this type of solution is largely determined by the availability of a tunable infrastructure, but even a 5 percent gain in efficiency can have a huge impact to the profitability of a data center.
The second area is predictive maintenance. This is where we see the largest room for improvement. Most companies offering this type of solution (in the data center industry) are actually offering heavily supervised machine learning algorithms, and are often only available for a product they manufacture. Real benefits in this space will come when a firm obtains a critical mass of data that aligns equipment types, power usage, performance, incident and maintenance data. This is where we will see the ability to take more of a hands-off approach, only replacing or repairing components when they actually need it.
As for achieving a “lights out” data center, we don’t see this as an ultimate goal for us. Not only do our customers require a level of data center management by on-site personnel, but you will never be able to predict when every component will need maintenance or fail. The key will be finding the right mix in allowing these new applications to assist humans in creating a better product. Our data center designs are engineered to meet current customer demand, and optimized for the efficiencies and logical touch points to meet the future requirements.
Data Center Frontier: The business community is increasingly focused on climate trends and severe weather events, and how they may impact real estate and IT operations. What considerations does climate change present for the data center sector, and what steps should data center companies be considering to address them?
Chris Sharp: As we’ve experienced in recent years with major storms like Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Harvey, Mother Nature can be a wild card and come at us with amazing voracity. Severe weather events and climate trends pose a threat to IT infrastructure and the success of businesses. That’s why it’s critical for data center providers to ensure that they have advanced planning in place for when – not if – Mother Nature strikes again.
Business continuity plans can ensure appropriate responses to power outages and identifying various fuel source availability. Additionally, duplicating core operational components – such as UPS, generators, fuel storage, etc. – in a redundant design will help maintain industry-standard uptime levels. If these redundant components fail, it’s important to have a regional disaster recovery plan in place with a “boots on the ground” approach. Equipping local support teams to feel empowered to take action will ensure there is immediate on-site support and ultimately fix any problems sooner. It’s also necessary to have 24x7x365 support through a centralized operations command center that can constantly monitor all data center equipment and activity and be alerted in real-time if there is an issue.
While climate change can certainly have negative effects on data centers, it’s important to recognize that data centers also impact the climate. In the U.S. alone, data centers make up approximately 2 percent of all U.S. electricity use. Data center providers have a responsibility of procuring renewable energy – like the use of solar or wind electricity generators for example – in order to minimize the negative effects on the environment and climate change.
For example, Digital Realty sources approximately 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources globally. The company has signed contracts for utility-scale off-site renewable energy totaling 288 MW. These contracts have the capability to supply the electricity needs of more than 120,000 homes in a typical year and avoid 695,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.