Intelligent Data Centres Issue 36 | Page 40

EXPERT OPINION

Data centre industry won ’ t return to normal , according to Eaton expert

Ciaran Forde , Data Centre Segment Leader ( EMEA ),
Eaton , discusses the role of data centres in a world of power transformation and the market opportunity for alignment of data and power in 2022 . Forde believes that sector coupling could become one of this year ’ s major areas of focus for the industry . or data and the data centre industry , the pandemic

F disruption was also a major catalyst for accelerated digitalisation . Thankfully , most of the technology needed during the crisis was already in existence , supported by data centre and telecoms infrastructure .

The crisis drove the rapid adoption of these technologies and sped developments which were already underway . But what is most significant is that this change is likely to be irreversible . When you remove a catalyst , the reactions it caused do not reverse themselves . The increased reliance on data centres ( and by extension , the telecoms infrastructure which connects us to them ) is here to stay .
However , there are serious associated issues with this . A decades-long efficiency drive , which held data centres to steady demand levels while processing much more , has run out of headroom . Our economy and society have gone full throttle on data , exactly at the time when we need to put the brakes on energy consumption if we ’ re to combat climate change .
There are no megabits without megawatts , and as we demand and produce more and more data , energy consumption levels will rise .
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