ST2401

FEATURE:
FEATURE: 2024 PREDICTIONS
"A growing number of data centres are full, and don't
have the space or power available to deploy new
platforms. To optimise the sustainability of existing data
centre footprints, we'll see operators looking to switch to
new, more power efficient technology, with smaller
space and cooling requirements. This is in essence
extending the life of the data centre - an essential factor
when considering the need for new technologies in the
wake of the rise of AI."- Fred Lherault, Pure Storage
capacity for those 10 watts - which recent
advances have helped deliver. Also, data
centre engineers are thinking about how to
use the HDD in a more power-optimised way,
possibly through idle or power-down modes."
More sustainable hardware such as highcapacity
HDDs can help organisations design
and operate a data centre with a lower
environmental impact, argues Uwe Kemmer
of WD. "The new generation of highest
capacity drives that utilise shingled magnetic
recording (SMR) are a significant step forward
in meeting data centre customers'
sustainability targets. Another benefit of using
higher capacity drives is that data centre
customers can install a smaller quantity of low
power, higher-capacity HDDs rather than a
higher quantity of smaller-capacity HDDs to
store the same amount of data, which helps
them reduce power and cooling costs."
"AI and its downstream impact on data
centre densities and power demands have
become the dominant storylines in our
industry," adds Vertiv's Giordano Albertazzi.
"Finding ways to help customers both
support the demand for AI and reduce
energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions is a significant challenge requiring
new collaborations between data centres,
chip and server manufacturers, and
infrastructure providers."
This idea is expanded on by Eric Herzog of
Infinidat, who brings us back to AI: "The
blossoming of green storage will be
demonstrated in 2024 by reduced energy
consumed to power storage systems, while
still protecting data. We'll see bigger capacity
systems being installed that take up less
space than traditional arrays… Enterprises
will increasingly turn to AI for the capabilities
to optimise storage capacity and streamline
management, resulting in more efficiency.
Gartner predicts that by 2025 half of all data
centres will deploy AI/ML to increase
efficiency by up to 30%. AI will also be used
to optimise cooling."
Fred Lherault of Pure Storage says: "A
growing number of data centres are full, and
don't have the space or power available to
deploy new platforms. To optimise the
sustainability of existing data centre footprints,
we'll see operators looking to switch to new,
more power efficient technology, with smaller
space and cooling requirements. This is in
essence extending the life of the data centre -
an essential factor when considering the need
for new technologies in the wake of the rise
of AI."
Mark Molyneux of Cohesity goes further still,
arguing that most if not all organisations need
to go on a 'data diet' in 2024: "We know that
we live in a time of climate emergency, and
yet there are no concerted efforts amongst
enterprises or the IT industry to drive down
those volumes of Data. Efficiency and
management alone do not solve the issues
that we are just storing too much of
everything, for too long."
He says firms should consolidate data on a
common platform instead of operating dozens
or even hundreds of separate silos. There, this
data can be further reduced using standard
techniques such as deduplication and
compression, with reduction rates of 96%
possible as a result. Then, he says: "Use AI to
index and classify data according to its
content and value for the company. Everything
that is without value can be deleted. 2024
should be the year when we don't end up with
more, but take responsibility to reach the end
of the year with less." ST
14 STORAGE Jan/Feb 2024
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