TRENDING
Ehab Kanary ,
CommScope Infrastructure EMEA , Emerging Markets Sales VP the tiny data points involved in something as simple as a door sensor ( when is it open , when is it closed , is it locked or unlocked , who unlocked or locked it ) and you multiply that by the number of sensor applications ( temperature , occupancy , lighting , water usage , etc .) it ’ s all data that needs to be stored someplace and accessed by an application or user . The infrastructure that makes that work is all in the data centre .
In addition , we ’ re seeing that more and more data is time-sensitive and it needs to be processed at the Edge , so the IoT is also fuelling the growth in Edge data centres . Today , most of the Edge buildouts are being done by public cloud companies , and some providers are building Edge data centres for latency-sensitive applications like video . ( Consider the explosion in streaming video services as a core driver of this trend ). In fact , the biggest impact from IoT in the data centre will be video applications – entertainment , security monitoring , data mining and safety , for example . Companies need to store that data and act on it in real time , rather than analysing static data or photos .
Cloud migration will continue
The rise of the metaverse will also drive increased use of AR . We can see a point in the very near future where users can duplicate a physical interaction with a virtual one . We ’ ve grown used to seeing each other on video and we ’ ll get used to seeing each other in AR worlds .
We need AI because as you collect more data , you need AI to process that data – you can ’ t do it manually anymore ( think of facial recognition or contact tracing ). Anywhere you have lots of complex data , Machine Learning will apply . This could help with the supply chain crisis by automatically calculating shipping routes and helping with logistics , for example .
The biggest risk with AI is trusting it too much . We might put too much emphasis on the algorithms rather than ensuring that we ’ re supplying high-quality data . With data , it ’ s garbage in , garbage out , and if you ’ re solely relying on AI , you can get some poor decision-making or false assumptions if the data is bad .
Single-mode fibre use will grow with the move to 400 / 800-gigabit networks
Scalability and cost are driving people to the cloud . Analysts claimed that greater than 85 % of organisations will adopt a cloud-first principle and that over 95 % of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms by 2025 . When you can rent something and scale it within days versus planning and building something in years , that ’ s a compelling argument for the cloud . Both public and private cloud infrastructure will grow , with spending on public cloud services in the MENA region reaching up to US $ 5.7 billion in 2022 ( up by 19.2 %). Large enterprises will use a hybrid model , while smaller companies will use public cloud alone .
What ’ s slowing growth is compliance – data security and compliance restrictions . For example , companies and governments have compliance regulations about keeping some data within a country or on-premises or protecting healthcare information .
We will increasingly rely on AI and AR
AI and Machine Learning ( ML ) use cases combined with Augmented Reality ( AR ) will grow rapidly in 2022 . Facebook announced a name change and is now orienting the whole company towards the AR-driven metaverse . AR will also be used in interfaces , for B-to-C marketing , for sales , training and service applications . For example , AR for data centre technicians can be linked to a job order application so that they can use a smartphone to show them which cable to replace in a switch .
Single-mode fibre adoption has accelerated . While multi-mode fibre remains popular , single-mode fibre deployments are growing faster than multi-mode deployments . As we drive to 400 or 800 Gbps in the data centre , we ’ re seeing more single-mode fibre deployed , particularly in cloud and hyperscale data centres .
You may think that being at 10Gb or 100Gb today means the transition to 400Gb is a long way off . But if you add up the number of 10Gb ( or faster ) ports you ’ re responsible for supporting , you ’ ll see that the need to move to 400Gb and beyond is really not that far away .
Remote workstyles go mainstream
Remote work will become a standard work style and IT managers are thinking about how best to gear up for that . All the videoconferencing use for work , education and entertainment in 2021 had a big impact on the data centre , and we see this trend expanding in 2022 . There ’ s a lot of video storage required as people record live video calls and users expect easy , jitter-free access to that video . This also puts a burden on data centres .
So , as 5G , the IoT , remote work and cloud migration place new burdens on data centres , IT managers will compensate by adding storage , leveraging AI and ML to process data more efficiently , building Edge data centres and deploying single-mode fibre to increase speeds . Despite ongoing COVID and supply chain issues , we anticipate a lot of data centre activity as IT managers retool for the new normal . p
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