Demand for digital services continues to grow, both in volume and computing power
NEW YORK, July 30, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Uptime Institute today announced the release of its 14th annual Global Data Center Survey. Rising demand for digital services, both in terms of volume and compute, is challenging power and cooling capacity for much of the existing infrastructure. To meet growing demand, data center operators and their IT customers are further investing in and innovating their IT services and facilities, as well as leveraging external services. The effectiveness and impact of these investments will determine the direction of the industry for the next few years.
“Our data shows that operators will face significant change on multiple levels in the coming years,” said Andy Lawrence, executive director of research at Uptime Intelligence. “In 2024, we will see challenges as growing demand impacts the power and cooling capacity of existing facilities, requiring further investment to keep up with demand. At the same time, the industry will need to focus on the ongoing staffing challenges to accommodate capacity growth. And regulatory requirements are here and cannot be ignored.”
Now in its 14th year, Uptime Institute’s annual survey is the most comprehensive and longest-running study of its kind. The report’s findings focus on the practices and experiences of data center owners and operators in the areas of resiliency, sustainability, efficiency, staffing, cloud and artificial intelligence. The report provides detailed insights into the state of digital infrastructure and outlook for its future trajectory. Key findings from the 2024 report include:
Fewer than half of data center owners and operators are tracking the metrics needed to assess sustainability or meet pending regulatory requirements.
Most operators recognize the benefits and potential of AI, but confidence in using AI in data center operations has declined for the third consecutive year, even as many operators have plans to deploy the technology.
Data center outage frequency and severity will remain roughly the same or improve slightly from 2023. Operators address increasing complexity, density and extreme weather events with investments and proper management techniques.
Average server rack density is increasing but remains below 8 kilowatts (kW), with most facilities having no racks over 30kW and those that do have only a few, but this is expected to change in the next few years.
Businesses continue to meet their IT needs with hybrid architectures, with more than half (45%) of workloads now off-premises, continuing a slow trend of recent years, and many businesses continuing to maintain their own data centers.
Staffing challenges have not improved or worsened since 2023. More effort is needed to expand the workforce and skillsets to match the pace of capacity expansion.
Average PUE levels have remained roughly flat for the fifth consecutive year, but this masks progress at newer and larger facilities.
The story continues
About the survey:
Uptime conducted this year’s annual Global Data Center Survey online and by email in the first half of 2024. Survey participants represented a wide range of industry verticals across multiple countries. Responses were collected from a total of 879 end users who registered for the survey and answered at least one question. More than half of the respondents were located in North America and Europe. Approximately one-third of respondents work for professional IT/data center service providers (staff responsible for operating or managing third-party data centers) offering colocation, wholesale, software and cloud computing services.
learn more:
Download the executive summary report here and register here for a webinar discussing the key trends and takeaways from the survey on July 31 at 9am PDT (9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm BST). To join the Uptime Institute Bright Talk channel, visit https://www.brighttalk.com/join/.
About Uptime Labs
Uptime Institute is the authority on global digital infrastructure. With over 3,500 awards in over 118 countries worldwide and over 1,000 projects currently underway in over 80 countries, Uptime has helped tens of thousands of businesses optimize their critical IT assets while managing costs, resources and efficiency.
For over 30 years, the company has established industry-leading benchmarks for data center performance, resiliency, sustainability, and efficiency, enabling customers to ensure their digital infrastructure performs at levels consistent with their individual business needs across a range of operating conditions. Uptime’s Tier Standard is the IT industry’s most trusted and adopted global standard for designing, building, and operating data centers. Services offered include organizational Tier Standards and certifications, SCIRA-FSI financial sector risk assessments, sustainability assessments, and a wide range of other risk management, performance, availability, and related services, as well as management and operational reviews and assessments. Uptime Education’s training programs, which expanded with the acquisition of CNet Training, Ltd., have been completed by more than 90,000 data center professionals.
Uptime Institute is headquartered in New York with major offices in London, Sao Paulo, Dubai, Riyadh, Singapore and Taipei, and full-time Uptime professionals based in over 34 countries worldwide. For more information, visit uptimeinstitute.com.
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