Today’s CIO faces a host of challenges and new trends. Budgets are tight and in many cases decreasing. At the same time, IT is becoming more strategic as the amount of data created is exploding and the value of accessing that data in real time is continuously increasing. Much of this data must be mined and acted upon instantaneously while it is still of value, requiring the application of bigger and more powerful data centers. Many companies cannot meet this challenge cost-effectively in-house, and are therefore increasingly resorting to outsourcing operations to larger and centralized data centers around the world. However, while they support the virtual world and the amorphous cloud, data centers exist in the real world. One of the main challenges they face is sourcing clean, reliable, and affordable electricity. This is critical, as the power grid has become the central nervous system of the data-driven economy.
For the CIO considering outsourcing to a data center, adequacy of electricity resources must become part of the decision-making process. The questions then become about the power source, reliability, and cost of operations. Where can CIOs find data centers that provide them with clean and low-cost power, the right climate, and stable and secure grids to meet their needs? As you find out in this whitepaper from Verne Global, there are only a small number of markets that meet this combination of requirements.
The conversation starts with this very simply, yet important point: Data is critical.
Analytics are emerging as an increasingly vital part of many industries, whether this involves the mining and assessment of customer data, monitoring and optimization of machine-to-machine activities, or predicting future outcomes. The value is becoming increasingly obvious, so that close to 50 percent of CIOs interviewed in 2014 indicated that they are adopting analytics. However, while there is tremendous upside to optimizing data and information flows, there is also enormous potential for loss if the information stops flowing.
Download this whitepaper today to learn about emerging power technologies
Remember, at the heart of this IT enterprise lies the data center, the information factory that stores and processes data and creates value in countless ways. Businesses cannot function without quick access to critical information. As the paper points out, there has been an explosion of data which require storage and the need for real-time processing. Furthermore, this boom in data will also require next-generation power considerations.
As data quantities grow, so too will the requirement for electricity to store and process the data. While increasing data center efficiencies are helpful, they are unlikely to keep pace with the surging demand for data storage, analytics, and information. As a result, overall energy use – in terms of megawatthours (MWh) – can be expected to grow. In fact, data centers represent one of the fastest growing users of electricity in the world. Globally, it is estimated that nearly 3 percent of all electricity use is dedicated to some kind of data center, an increase of 100 percent over the past five years.
As the paper points out, data center managers will have to look at new ways to deliver and control power. This means understanding and examining the following:
- The power consumption profiles of emerging supercomputers and other technologies
- Understanding that 100 percent renewables are not exactly the same as carbon free
- How hydropower and geothermal systems are ideal power resources for a low carbon computing environment
- Hydropower and cooler climates
The world is becoming ever more data-centric. We produce and store more data every day, a trend that continues to accelerate. We create increasingly more economic value as we more rapidly process and analyze information. IT will become ever more important. At the same time, CIOs are under a growing burden to create value, avoid risk, and focus on environmental costs, while having access to limited, or even shrinking, resources. Download this whitepaper today to learn about emerging power technologies, where data is making an impact, and how various geographic regions are dealing with outages and controlling new demands around power.
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.