• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Machine Learning / Futurist: New Tech Will Drive Enormous Demand for Data Centers

Futurist: New Tech Will Drive Enormous Demand for Data Centers

By Rich Miller - March 23, 2017 1 Comment

Futurist: New Tech Will Drive Enormous Demand for Data Centers

A blue-lit row of servers in a Google data center, (Photo: Google)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

SANTA CLARA. Calif. – Everywhere Steve Brown looks, he sees new technologies transforming our world. Brown envisions a future in which artificial intelligence, virtual reality, voice assistants, autonomous vehicles and robots will disrupt nearly every aspect of our economy. A growing universe of connected things will send huge amounts of data across ultra-fast wireless connections, all converging on the data center.

“A lot of the fabric of modern life is fully reliant on data centers,” said Brown, the former Chief Evangelist and Futurist at Intel. “There are going to be huge new workloads and huge new demands on the data center.”

Brown, who is now the CEO at Bald Futurist, addressed the critical role the data center industry will play in the coming technology revolution in a keynote at the recent Open Compute Summit. Speaking to a room full of technologists building hyperscale infrastructure, Brown reinforced the need for data centers to scale to scale for the coming data deluge.

“You’re going to see a lot more smart devices and smart spaces,” said Brown. “We’re going to be seeing a lot more endpoints” sending information into data centers.

In nearly two decades at Intel, Brown saw first-hand how new technologies can evolve and have global impact. He’s one of the creators of the ATX motherboard form factor, which became the global standard for the PC industry. Not surprisingly, his projections align with Intel’s vision for a data-driven world with the data center at its center.

“You can see that the capabilities of the cloud and the data center will expand over time,” he said. “You can expect to see new and expanding workloads in the data center.”

In his talk at Open Compute, Brown outlined the multiple ways in which emerging technologies will drive growth for the data center industry.

Artificial Intelligence and Robots:

The hyperscale sector’s massive investment in machine learning will create services that will enable advances in applications for both industries and consumers.

Steve Brown, the former Chief Evangelist and Futurist at Intel, describes the transformative impact of new technology during a keynote at the Open Compute Summit in Santa Clara. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Steve Brown, the former Chief Evangelist and Futurist at Intel, describes the transformative impact of new technology during a keynote at the Open Compute Summit in Santa Clara. (Photo: Rich Miller)

“With AI and machine vision, we are making leaps forward, and you’re starting to see more advanced robots and autonomous machines,” said Brown. “It’s no longer ‘robots one day.’ It’s ‘robots next week.’ These robots will be sensing the world, and talking to each other. Their data has to go somewhere. This will place a load on the data center. Massive amounts of data will be spurting out of these autonomous machines so we can learn about them and train them.”

Brown is among those who see voice interfaces as an ascendant trend, predicting that Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are the first wave in a broader trend of virtual assistants that can hold conversations. “We’re moving toward a voice first world,” said Brown. “This is clear.”

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

Cloud-Based Gaming Company Case Study
A new white paper from Aligned presents a case study of their multi-year colocation partnership with a global cloud-based gaming company. The report outlines the challenges presented by the client, the solutions provided by Aligned, and three of the key business results achieved by the partnership.
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

He noted a Gartner projection that 20 percent of smartphone interactions will be voice driven by 2019. Many businesses will embrace “conversation as a service” – voice-enabled interfaces field requests for new services.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

As we’ve previously noted, the emergence of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as mass-market technologies would place enormous demand on wireless and data center infrastructure. Although current adoption of VR and AR remains limited, Brown believes the technologiy and product offerings will improve rapidly to create a compelling, immersive experience.

“VR and AR are currently in their infancy,” he said. “You will see virtual reality and augmented reality become the primary digital interface. This will change the demands on the data center.”

Brown is particularly keen on the disruptive potential for volumetric 3D video, which employs multiple cameras and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, a sensing method that uses a pulsed laser to measure distance) to create an experience akin to the Star Trek Holodeck. Here’s a look:

The challenge is that volumetric 3D video requires 3GB of data per frame. Yes, per frame.

“Think about the demand as you try to stream volumetric VR from the data center,” said Brown. “It’s going to be quite a lot of demand.”

Wireless and 5G

As endpoints multiply and become distributed, ultra-fast wireless will super-size the capacity of data moving across the network to data centers for analysis and storage. The coming 5G wireless standard, which is currently under development, will dramatically accelerate wireless connections. When 5G arrives, Brown predicts it will lead to a proliferation of “dumb end points” – devices that are low-tech but use connections to cloud platforms to deliver high-value services.

“Why put the intelligence in the device if you can access it at high speed over a wireless connection?” said Brown. “You’ll see a lot more dumb end points, because latency to the cloud is simple.”

As an example, Brown pointed to educational products from Cognitoys, which leverage speech recognition capabilities of the IBM Watson cloud to allow plastic dinosaur toys to conduct educational conversations with children. Here’s a look:

“When 5G comes, we’ll see more endpoints like this,” said Brown. “With the reduced latency, the cloud moves closer to the edge, and you’re much more likely to use the cloud” to bring intelligence to products and services.

The Road Ahead

At Data Center Frontier, we track how these technologies will impact the data center. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. Brown’s presentation at Open Compute builds upon many of our expectations about the future, and he emphasizes that the transformation will impact businesses as well as consumers.[clickToTweet tweet=”Steve Brown. You have a big challenge, but it’s an exciting one. The world economy is standing on your shoulders.” quote=”Steve Brown. You have a big challenge, but it’s an exciting one. The world economy is standing on your shoulders.”]

“I would contend that every business in the world is becoming mission critical,” said Brown. “Every company will be a data company, because if they don’t, they aren’t going to be competitive. You will see a lot of industries gathering more information and analyzing more data about their customer.

“The types of computing are changing,” he added. “Being able to embrace new architectures and bring them into the data center will be critical. The workload growth the data center community is facing is enormous.”

This future will challenge the data center community’s ability to scale and keep pace with demand for compute and storage capacity. But Brown believes that this contains a great opportunity as well.

“You have a big challenge, but it’s an exciting one,” said Brown. “The world economy is standing on your shoulders. You’ll have many new businesses that need to come and use your type of businesses. The world is going to look to you for help and to interact with technology in whole new ways.”

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence, Open Compute

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

Comments

  1. cbarone@gotostrategic.com'Chelsea Barone says

    March 23, 2017 at 3:35 pm

    Great take on how today’s tech is driving demand for sophisticated data centers. Here’s a similar take on how IoT specifically is pushing and shaping expectations for data center providers: https://goo.gl/jCXWRp

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Water Scarcity: How Data Centers Can Help

Water Scarcity: How Data Centers Can Help Water scarcity is a looming global crisis. Kris Holla, Group Vice President, Channel Sales, Nortek Air Solutions, and Michael Lesniak, AVP Global Corporate Accounts, Global Data Center Solutions at Nalco Water, discuss how data centers can conserve the planet’s diminishing fresh water supply and practice water stewardship.   

DCF Spotlight

The COVID-19 Crisis and the Data Center Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic presents strategic challenges for the data center and cloud computing sectors. Data Center Frontier provides a one-stop resource for the latest news and analysis for decision-makers navigating this complex new landscape.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

White Papers

data center provider

How to Choose a Data Center Provider

Asking the right questions is a big part of the equation. Here are eight considerations in a new white paper from Iron Mountain with targeted questions to ask that will help you choose the right colocation partner for your business. 

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Peter Kazella and Associates, Inc

  • Generator Technician - East Rutherford, NJ
  • Data Center QA / QC Manager - Huntsville, AL
  • Data Center QA / QC Technician - Omaha, NE
  • Data Center QA / QC Manager - Phoenix, AZ
  • Data Center QA / QC Manager - Bend, OR

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2021

X - Close Ad