OPINION
Data centres
At the heart of vast volumes of data processing, is the data
centre. Data centres process the transmission of all data that
enables critical connectivity within everyday technologies
in today’s modern digital economy. Therefore, the data
centre ecosystem itself is a major economic enabler. They
must connect vast amounts of equipment and technologies
by protecting data and keeping track of its movement and
storage. Doing so requires carefully planned and constructed
data centres, which provide seamless data connectivity with
security, low latency, redundancy and most importantly,
availability to deliver connectivity.
Preparing for a data-dependent economy
The next evolution of technology innovation is already
underway and with Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud-based
services, 5G and Machine Learning (ML) already infiltrating
the global digital economy, data centres are becoming
increasingly complex. To provide reliable data connectivity
to power all these new applications and services, data
centres must be prepared to provide the level of capacity
required to match the scale of this demand. In order to do
this, data centres are facing the challenge of providing the
scale, speed and capacity to provide increased bandwidth to
meet critical digital economy connectivity demands.
With demand so high, data centres have enhanced the
creation of jobs and innovation in the modern economy.
Technological innovations such as AI and ML are creating
new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike, and
are expected to grow the global economy by more than
$15.8 trillion in the next decade. If data centres are going
to keep up with increasing data demands influenced by new
technologies, they too must be upgraded with the best high-
class technologies to facilitate a resilient, future-proof data
centre to meet increasing bandwidth and capacity demands.
Technology has also completely overhauled the financial
sector. As a result, the degree of automation and speed
of trading has dramatically increased in the past decade.
Now having access to advanced data analytics, financial
institutions have been able to tailor services to custom fit
the needs of their customers, meeting the rising expectation
for personalised services.
On another scale, digitalisation has completely
facilitated e-commerce, changing the ways commodities
and services are traded and accelerating the volume
of trade between consumers and businesses. Without
the digital economy, high volumes of trade wouldn’t be
possible and the modern economy would simply not be as
advanced as it is today.
As a result of these industries – and many more – relying
on data to operate, 25 million terabytes of data are
created every day, with that volume constantly increasing.
Data connections have therefore become the backbone
of the modern economy, driving everyday functionalities
in critical operations such as business, healthcare and
transport. The reliability of this data connection is pivotal
in order to process and transmit information in an instant
to provide real-time data connections.
Adaptability is key
To be future-proof, data centres must be able to change
according to their environment, now and years into the
future. They must adapt to meet increasing connectivity
demands by using high-quality, high-capacity and flexible
fibre management systems. Using the latest technology,
fibre cabling structures can be customised with modules and
structures to increase density in a simple and efficient way
to directly meet soaring connectivity demands.
With high volumes of fibre cabling required to match
bandwidth demands, cabling is complex to manage in a
data centre. For maximum ease and efficiency in organising
and storing cables, a fibre optic distribution system must be
used to create a highly secure environment that can reduce
the likelihood of human errors. For example, using high-
density cross-connect technology, cables can be structured
in a clear and concise way to reduce the risk of damage and
downtime in the connection.
Integral to the successful service of the data centre is also
the power, monitoring, cooling, communications, cabling,
monitoring and metering to facilitate a high-capacity
and reliable data centre. There’s also a need to train and
employ people in the highly technical field of designing,
manufacturing, operations and maintenance of the whole
data centre ecosystem – which has become the spine of a
modern digital economy. n
www.networkseuropemagazine.com
31