2017 DATA CENTRE TRENDS As the Internet of Things continues to dominate discussion, today’s data centres need to keep up with the change. Here’s a look at what 2017 holds in this space.
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ertiv (formerly Emerson Network Power) has identified six data centre infrastructure trends to watch in 2017. Following are the infrastructure trends the company says will shape the data centre ecosystem in the upcoming year.
Infrastructure races to keep up with connectivity at the edge Distributed IT and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are pushing IT resources closer to users and industrial processes. While the data centre remains core to delivering applications and services, such as point of sale and inventory management, network closets and micro data centres are growing in number and importance as internet-connected sensors and devices proliferate and remote users demand faster access to information. Responding to these changes, organisations will turn to preconfigured micro data centre solutions that support fast deployment, greater standardisation and remote management across distributed IT locations. Standardisation and modularity are becoming as important in distributed IT locations as they are in large data centres. Existing network closets and remote IT locations will also be reevaluated to ensure the power and cooling provisions are adequate
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to meet the increased criticality of these locations as they begin to provide localised collection and analysis of real-time data from connected sensors and devices.
Thermal management expands to sustainability Data centre cooling has changed more in the last five years than any other data centre system. Fuelled by the desire to drive down energy costs, traditional approaches that focused on delivering ‘maximum cooling’ have been displaced by more sophisticated approaches focused on removing heat as efficiently as possible. Increased use of advanced economiser technologies and the continued evolution of intelligent thermal controls have enabled highly resilient thermal management strategies that support PUEs below 1.2. Now, while energy efficiency remains a core concern, water consumption and refrigerant use have emerged as important considerations in select geographies. Thanks to the expanded range of thermal management strategies available today, data centre operators are tailoring thermal management based on data centre location and resource availability. Global market trends show an increase in the use of new technologies leveraging evaporative and adiabatic cooling that use water to cool the surrounding air. These
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