Sydney, Australia [November 23, 2023] – Intense, urgent demand for artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities – and the dueling pressure
to reduce energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas emissions – loom large over the data center industry heading into
2024. The proliferation of AI (as Vertiv predicted two years ago) along with the infrastructure and sustainability challenges inherent in AI-capable computing can be felt across the
industry and throughout the 2024 data center trends forecast from Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical
digital infrastructure and continuity solutions.
“AI and its downstream impact on data centre densities and power demands have become the dominant storylines in our
industry,” said Vertiv CEO Giordano (Gio) 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.”
These are the trends Vertiv’s experts expect to dominate the data centre ecosystem in 2024:AI sets the terms for new builds and retrofits: Surging demand for artificial intelligence across applications is pressuring organisations to make significant changes
to their operations. Legacy facilities are ill-equipped to support widespread implementation of the high-density
computing required for AI, with many lacking the required infrastructure for liquid cooling. In the coming year, more
and more organisations are going to realize half-measures are insufficient and opt instead for new construction – increasingly featuring prefabricated modular solutions that shorten deployment timelines – or large-scale retrofits
that fundamentally alter their power and cooling infrastructure. Such significant changes present opportunities to
implement more eco-friendly technologies and practices, including liquid cooling for AI servers, applied in concert with
air cooled thermal management to support the entire data centre space.Expanding the search for energy storage alternatives: New energy storage technologies and approaches have shown the ability to intelligently integrate with the grid and
deliver on a pressing objective – reducing generator starts. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) support extended
runtime demands by shifting the load as necessary and for longer durations and can integrate seamlessly with alternative
energy sources, such as solar or fuel cells. This minimises generator use and reduces their environmental impact. BESS
installations will be more common in 2024, eventually evolving to fit “bring your own power” (BYOP) models and
delivering the capacity, reliability and cost-effectiveness needed to support AI-driven demand.Enterprises prioritize flexibility: While cloud and colocation providers aggressively pursue new deployments to meet demand, organisations with enterprise
data centres are likely to diversify investments and deployment strategies. AI is a factor here as organisations wrestle
with how best to enable and apply the technology while still meeting sustainability objectives. Businesses may start to
look to on-premises capacity to support proprietary AI, and edge application deployments may be impacted by AI
tailwinds. Many organisations can be expected to prioritise incremental investment – leaning heavily on prefabricated
modular solutions – and service and maintenance to extend the life of legacy equipment. Such services can provide
ancillary benefits, optimising operation to free up capacity in maxed-out computing environments and increasing energy
efficiency in the process. Likewise, organisations can reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions by extending the life of existing servers rather than replacing and scrapping them.The race to the cloud faces security hurdles: Gartner projects global spending on public cloud services to increase by 20.4% in 2024, and the mass migration to the cloud shows no signs of abating. This puts pressure on cloud providers to increase
capacity quickly to support demand for AI and high performance compute, and they will continue to turn to colocation
partners around the world to enable that expansion. For cloud customers moving more and more data offsite, security is
paramount, and according to Gartner, 80% of CIOs plan to increase spending on cyber/information security in 2024. Disparate national and regional data security
regulations may create complex security challenges as efforts to standardise continue.
“Across Asia, we’re seeing organizations ramp up their investments, realigning their strategies towards harnessing and
integrating AI technology,” said Paul Churchill, vice president and general manager at Vertiv Asia. “In fact, according
to IDC, by 2026, tech providers will allocate significant investments towards AI/automation. With this, Vertiv is focused on
helping our customers manage the challenges of AI integration, supporting them with our breadth of solutions from
modular solutions to predictive maintenance services, recognizing the value AI brings towards achieving more efficient
and sustainable IT systems.”
“AI is dominating board level discussions across Australia and New Zealand, and it's often coming up as a means to
generate new revenue streams,” said LuLu Shiraz, Director Australia and New Zealand at Vertiv. “But to achieve the
promised outcome and return on investment (ROI) of AI, organisations need to map out what goes into running this
increasingly dense technology, both economically and sustainably. We’re now collectively embarking on a power and
cooling modernisation project. Greenfields will be dedicated to the cause, but we are also seeing existing facilities
being re-designed to accommodate for the expected increase in demand.”
For more information on these and other trends impacting the data centre industry, visit Vertiv.com.
# # #About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital
applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important
challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio
of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network.
Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries. For more information, and for
the latest news and content from Vertiv, visit Vertiv.c