Originally posted on the Independent Data Center Alliance
The data center industry has seen major shifts in the nature of work in the last couple of years. With Work From Home increasing, we are also observing the shift to artificial intelligence, automation, and other developments (think 5G) that are constantly sculpting the data center ecosystem.
Hyperscalers and cloud providers are integrating artificial intelligence services into data center deployment and the day-to-day operations of their facilities. Solutions such as Digital Twins are replacing physical data center replicas to ensure site optimization with every add, move or change to the infrastructure environment. Other solutions leverage AI to autonomously handle many operational tasks within the data center while optimizing on the many functions necessary to run efficiently with little downtime. AI has the power of a multitude of technologies to work together to enable data center assets to comprehend and act upon actions needed to properly operate the data center at a human level of intelligence. Artificial intelligence within the data centers prove to drive efficiency and accuracy of the functions in the data center environment. For example, these automated systems can be used to predict faults in the cooling operations and other predictive maintenance processes to ensure customer loads in the data center are tended to in the most efficient way possible. The data center industry will see an increase in artificial intelligence to maximize uptime, quickly detect potential risks and optimize on the amount of energy usage in the data center resulting in lower costs and savings.
Hand in hand with artificial intelligence, data center operators are turning towards a major shift in automation. Streamlining workflows and processes of the data center through automation increases the operational efficiency and accuracy that is crucial for data centers to acquire. Reducing IT time to perform daily tasks or maintenance on data center equipment is valuable to not only the data center owners and operators, but the customers who reside within the data center. Minimizing the potential risk of human error is a key element. Automation within the data center delivers quick insight on the equipment, automates routine procedures, monitors tasks, and limits the need for human touch. The data center industry will see a sizable conversion to automation, resulting in an decrease in IT and data center professionals. However, data centers will need the human touch to successfully manage these automation systems, communicate face-to-face to customers and overlook the whole data center operation.
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