Top 10: Data Centre Innovations

Across the data centre industry, businesses continue to achieve significant breakthroughs in data centre technology and sustainability.

Major technology giants and data centre infrastructure providers are working to reshape the future of the industry via their cutting-edge solutions. Often, these businesses will partner with each other in order to boost innovation success and pioneer new solutions for the future of the industry. 

Notably as well, these companies are having to prioritise sustainability in connection with AI or wider technology use, in order to minimise environmental impact.

As 2024 comes to a close, Data Centre Magazine looks at some of the top data centre innovations helping operators power future-proof data centres.

10. Software-Defined Data Centres

Software-defined data centres are data centres that extend virtualisation concepts such as abstraction, pooling and automation to all data centre resources and services. This is done to achieve IT as a service (ITaaS). 

In a software-defined data centre, all elements of the infrastructure are virtualised and delivered as a service. This includes data centre networking, storage, central processing units (CPUs) and security.

9. Hyperscale Architecture

A hyperscale data centre typically houses thousands of servers and other hardware components, including switches, routers and storage devices. In addition, they also house infrastructure components such as power and cooling systems, air distribution systems and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

Hyperscale architecture boomed in 2024, with the market expected to reach US$299.57bn in 2024, growing to reach US$916.5bn by 2029. According to Synergy Research, hyperscale data centre capacity will keep doubling every four years, with tech giants such as IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expected to keep dominating the market. 

8. Immersion cooling

Immersion cooling refers to data centre server and computing components that are submerged in dielectric liquid. It enables a more sophisticated temperature control for data centre infrastructure and replaces the more energy intensive air conditioning.

This innovation has quickly been touted as an effective solution to keep components like CPUs performing optimally within a data centre. Leading global data centre and networking optimisation firm, Park Place Technologies, is a key example of an operator who is offering new immersion liquid cooling and direct-to-chip cooling within its portfolio of services. 

You can read about Park Place Technologies HERE.

7. Heat Reuse

Heat reuse, also known as heat recovery, is a process that captures and reuses excess heat from data centre IT equipment and cooling systems. The heat can then be used to warm nearby buildings, including houses, schools and swimming pools.

Heat reuse technology is continually suggested by industry leaders as a way to make data centres more sustainable and committed to decarbonisation. As data centres are looking for new ways to be more sustainable, heat reuse could continue to contribute to organisations being more energy efficient, reducing global energy consumption and streamlining services.

6. Green Building Design

Designing data centre buildings with sustainability in mind is very much becoming the standard worldwide. Particularly in leading markets, operators are eager to lead by example and run their data centres on more renewable energy in order to keep emissions low.

Green data centres are designed to minimise their overall environmental impact and use energy efficiently. They use advanced technologies and sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint, including renewable energy like solar and wind power and extensive cooling systems.

5. Modular Design

Modular data centres have become immensely popular in 2024, given their scope to be future-proof and more sustainable than the more traditional data centre buildings. They use advanced cooling and power management technologies to maximise energy efficiency, whilst enabling more rapid deployment and greater computing density. 

This type of data centre has been used in recent years to help organisations upgrade existing data centre infrastructure with IT, electrical and mechanical units. As a result, modular facilities can offer greater energy efficiency than traditional data centres, with the market anticipated to reach US$81.2bn by 2030.

4. Advanced cooling technologies

It is no secret that liquid cooling has transformed data centre cooling systems. Quickly becoming one of the most popular data centre innovations, the technique is offered within the sector in many different variations - with more alternatives being developed currently to enhance the relatively new technology even more.

According to Digital Realty, the average modern data centre uses around 40% of its power for cooling. As a result, the company says that the future of data centre cooling techniques must offer methods that remove excess heat in a more environmentally friendly way to ensure sustainable operations.

3. Edge computing

Edge computing distributed computing resources closer to the data sources, or "edges" of the network which then offers several advantages, including reduced latency, improved bandwidth utilisation and enhanced privacy and security. 

In particular, edge data centres are smaller facilities located closer to the source of data generation than a traditional centralised data centre. This means that they can process and analyse data more quickly and efficiently, which can be crucial for industry applications that require low latency or high bandwidth.

2. Renewable Energy Usage

The data centre industry is continuing to drive the renewable energy transition. By harnessing renewables like solar, wind and hydroelectric power, data centres can reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable energy landscape moving forward. 

Investing in renewable energy aligns with corporate social responsibility and can improve public perception and brand loyalty. It can also help data centres to better support the local communities in which they operate. 

Jonathan Anstey, Head of Sustainability at True, previously told Data Centre Magazine: “We would likely be further behind in the evolution of renewable technology without data centres. Such innovation within the industry includes heat reuse initiatives, liquid immersion cooling, and the rise of Li-ion batteries. 

“Now, it is vital that we strengthen the market for renewable energy generation.”

1. AI-driven optimisation

AI is vastly changing data centre design, as facilities are evolving to accommodate the processing power from increasing AI workloads.

Significantly, AI can monitor, analyse, and optimise energy usage in real-time. This allows for more precise identification of energy inefficiencies, reducing wasted power.

AI supports data processing and storage for data centres in many ways. The technology can continuously monitor system parameters and adjust them to optimise processing performance, which ensures that processing tasks are executed efficiently.

Many big hyperscalers are exploring new technologies, such as AI, to further improve their data centre efficiency. Earlier in 2024, Meta explored how AI and machine learning can help it to optimise its data centre operations, especially surrounding the construction of a new data centre campus in Singapore.

To read the full article in the magazine click HERE

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