Intelligent Data Centres Issue 38 | Page 20

WHAT ’ S SLOWING GROWTH IS COMPLIANCE – DATA SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE RESTRICTIONS .
DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS
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

WHAT ’ S SLOWING GROWTH IS COMPLIANCE – DATA SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE RESTRICTIONS .

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 .
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 .
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 . �
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