Architecture Engineering & ConstructionJuly 2, 2022

Next-gen data centers for a connected, sustainable world

Continued and rapid growth of connected devices, 5G adoption and acceleration of machine learning generates massive amounts of data that must be efficiently processed, shared, stored and managed, requiring massive compute power from traditional, cloud and edge computing.
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Avatar Akio Moriwaki

Digital technologies are transforming industries and all aspects of modern life, including the way consumers, employees and citizens operate in the world. The continued and rapid growth of connected devices, 5G adoption and acceleration of machine learning has generated massive amounts of data. The data must be efficiently processed, shared, stored and managed, requiring massive compute power from traditional, cloud and edge computing.

As a result, the global data center capacity is steadily expanding. Its growth is particularly accelerated by increasing cloud and edge capacity; approximately half the world’s data is set to reside on the cloud by 2025. By then, the hyperscale data center services market will be worth an estimated US$ 356 billion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14%.

Studies have shown that data centers can reduce up to 10 times more C02 than they would produce. But this comes at a price: Data centers’ massive and powerful compute systems and cooling infrastructure also consume a lot of electricity.

“In 2016 alone, the world’s data centers consumed 3% of all electricity available. The rate is expected to go up to 8% in 2030.”

Mahesh Deshpande
Senior Director & Global Business Consultant, High-Tech Industry,
Dassault Systèmes

The amount of water required to cool down the heat generated by compute centers poses another sustainability challenge. “A typical data center could use about 3 million gallons of water per day and that is the same amount of water used by a city of 30,000 people,” Deshpande added.

At the same time, new corporate responsibility, increasing global regulations and dynamic customer requirements are driving data centers owner-operators, contractors and builders to construct, operate and manage data centers more sustainably. These stakeholders are aware that they must come up with fundamentally new approaches to build high-performing next generation (gen) data centers with shortened stand-up time and sustainable operation.

This article is excerpted from BUILDING THE BLOCKS OF NEXT GEN DATA CENTERS: Leverage virtual twins on an integrated platform to construct configurable, efficient and sustainable data centers with shortened stand-up time. This e-book maps the path to building a next gen data center and defines how all the stakeholders and the entire value chain can leverage virtual twins on a collaboration platform, master the complexities of next gen data centers and optimizing their agility and speed to meet market demands.

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