The dilemma of more data
In the years ahead, data centers will be bigger, better and more powerful to handling the IT traffic that is still growing exponentially. But, the understanding of the infrastructure that provides this service—the data center industry with its power and cooling requirement, infrastructure management, buildings, security, etc.—is probably the least understood of all industries. Can this be changed?
The dilemma of more data
So we have entered the New Year 2013. Welcome to the data center blog. Data centers will be bigger and better, more powerful, handling the IT traffic that is still growing exponentially. From the smart phones to movies over internet to never-ending memory requirements for the new programs, data bases and systems, we will need more data … and more data centers.
But… here is the dilemma. We all, i.e. society at large, clearly understand the appetite for data, IT, internet, or whatever you call the bits and bytes. But, the understanding of the infrastructure that provides this service—the data center industry with its power and cooling requirement, infrastructure management, buildings, security, etc.—is probably the least understood of all industries. Granted it is a new industry, only here for the last 20 or so years, give or take, but so also are cell phones and the internet. And even if we compare the data center industry with the wind energy industry, nearly every school child understands wind energy, its renewable nature and its “green” effect on society. Yet the data center industry is still “something that is perhaps out there but I don’t see it and don’t know it”. Do we need to educate ourselves?
A clash of generations
There is another aspect of the data center industry. Contrast the IT part of it, the internet’s “the young and the restless” T-shirt loving executives of Apples, Amazons, Facebooks, Googles, and other “dot-coms” ,with the “old, greasy” shirt-and-tie executives from the often underappreciated and underplayed power and cooling industry who we often seem to take for granted. Is this a generation clash or maybe just a transient state in which these two have to find a better way of talking to each other? Maybe learning from each other? Even the older (read “middle age”) generation uses smart phones, and even younger people are becoming more aware of the power and energy industry.
Stay tuned (while you’re not tweeting!)
This is the first out of many blogs that my colleagues and I will be posting here on data center topics. There are many of them: trends in the industry, societal impact of data centers, awareness of what we get and how much it costs, etc. Why are Facebook, Twitter and Google free? Or aren’t they? Stay tuned. In the meantime, I welcome your comments.
Related articles:
Facebook at 9: the social networking phenomenon drives data center growth
Related links: