During 2024, the most significant impact on the data centre sector was the boom in development and investment to satisfy the perceived demand for high density Artificial Intelligence (AI) deployments.
However, the availability of power for these developments became an increasingly challenging problem, which will persist in the coming year. This has sparked serious interest in private wire supplies with nuclear power seen as an increasingly viable option. Small Modular Reactors (#SMR) and even re-commissioned #nuclear power stations now hitting the headlines.
Of course, none of this power consumption can come about without an associated focus on cooling methods. The jury is still out on full immersion, but direct to chip liquid cooling does appear to be in the ascendency for high density deployments.
The reporting requirements anticipated by the reporting deadlines for the European Commission CSRD and EED requirements documents created rather more of a whimper than a bang, but nevertheless will continue to influence the sector throughout 2025 and beyond.
Additionally, the focus on #ESG and sustainability generally continued to grow throughout 2024 and will continue to do so within the next year, with sustainability frameworks relating to digital infrastructure becoming increasingly developed and adopted as standard.
In this blogpost, Future-tech’s Head of Technical Due Diligence Mark Acton, shares his insights and collates his top 10 data centre predictions for 2025.
1. Data centre power density growth
2024 saw a huge increase in predicted data centre power requirements and cabinet densities driven by #AI platforms and high power #GPU requirements. While the forecasts for these increasing power requirement grew throughout 2024, there was little deployment of these increased densities at scale. This will change in 2025, with deployment of very high power density sites at scale in many regions.
Sovereign #Cloud and #AI being one of the drivers for regional deployment at scale, with some claiming this as a re-invigoration of #Edge.
2. Data centre power shortages in traditional markets
Lack of power availability in traditional Tier 1 (FLAP-D) markets will continue to drive the discussions around alternative power provisioning, as well as providing impetus for the continued growth and development of Tier 2 and 3 markets throughout 2025. This will include a growing interest in alternative stable energy sources deployed locally, such as nuclear using Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
In order to stem the flow of site development to other regions and prevent market challenges, it’s likely that government policies in many markets will also start to change in relation to both power provisioning and acceptance of data centre plans as has happened recently in the UK.
3. The emergence of hybrid cooling – The pragmatic solution!
To accommodate higher cabinet power densities, cooling methods capable of removing heat from extremely dense power installations will need to be deployed. However, not all installations will be high power density, and the requirement to more traditional CPU based equipment will not go away, with lower power density deployments continuing even in new sites.
Legacy sites will have areas of higher density sacrificing space for power throughout the new year but will continue to support low density deployments. This will lead to the need for hybrid cooling solutions, which require far more understanding of the data centre environment, and which will support both direct liquid cooling and air cooled solutions. This will be for both for traditional lower density deployments and to make up for the fact that direct liquid cooling solutions are never 100% efficient.
4. Use of #AI & #ML for operational management and cooling control
There will be a continuing increase in the use of #AI & #ML in data centre operations and for energy efficiency improvements throughout the year. The hybrid cooling solutions previously mentioned will inevitably require more intelligent monitoring, management and reporting systems than those currently installed in most legacy sites. The newer innovative tools are likely to be acquired by the more traditional legacy brands solook-out for consolidation in this space.
This will not be about replacing people though, but rather to help better predict and manage the systems supporting data centre services and supply the accurate information that is increasingly being required for #ESG related compliance.
5. IT energy stack efficiency & focus on #AI power consumption
During 2025, the increasing focus on the energy efficiency of the IT stack (including software), not just the building with the associated uptake of tools to both report on, and manage in this area, will become more prevalent with greater demand for transparency, openness and public reporting on IT stack energy consumption, particularly by the public Cloud providers and other large scale enterprises.
In particular, during 2025 there will be increasing public awareness and concern of the amount of power required by #AI platforms, with pressure groups becoming more vocal.
6. Predictive maintenance starting to mature
2024 saw increasing interest in the potential use of Predictive Maintenance, rather than simple traditional Preventative Maintenance. Predictive Maintenance has long been cited as the Nirvana for critical maintenance activities, but until recently the tools and data required to reliably predict failure have not been available.
Tools based on #AI and #ML technologies in the marketplace are now available and capable of providing sufficient and reliable anticipation of failure for mission critical infrastructure. While there will be a cost to gain access to this capability, the medium to long term ROI and reduction in operational risk will be significant.
To become fully effective, this will likely require a greater degree of data openness and interoperability than is currently available. Proprietary data formats and closed systems prevent the effective use of much of the data currently available from data centre facilities infrastructure. In 2025, we may see the emergence of wider collaboration in this area with the development of common data sharing formats, such as those already in use within the pharmaceutical sector (e.g. CDISC).
#EED & #CSRD reporting requirements
New #EED & #CSRD reporting requirements came into force during 2024, which promoted significant discussions within the European Union and beyond, with sustainability frameworks and compliance now widely being discussed and implemented by many organisations within the data centre sector and beyond.
While the impact in 2024 was limited, other than causing a concern for operators and the resource burden associated with reporting requirements, it is expected to increase in the longer term and will grow over the next 12 to 24 months, as the Commission starts to tighten the screws based on the data they are beginning to generate.
8. Complying with #ESG reporting
Interest in #DCIM & #BMS systems capable of complying with #ESG reporting requirements will rise significantly in 2025, becoming increasingly valued and important as the human resource burden associated with demanding sustainability and energy efficiency reporting rises dramatically.
Uncertainty over the reporting requirements and late availability of the national databases within Europe has inhibited the initial impact and the subsequent development of the tools needed to reduce the resource burden associated with these requirements.
9. Increased use of private & hybrid cloud technologies
Dissatisfaction with Public #Cloud platforms will increase due to cost overruns, concerns over loss of control, and the lack of transparency and honesty where energy usage and sustainability are concerned.
Re-homing will continue to gain increasing popularity throughout 2025 and the Public Cloud platform providers will be under increasing pressure to be more open and honest about their exit costs and true power consumption within the IT stack (and consequential environmental impact).
10. Focus on #water usage and sustainability
The focus on #water usage will continue to increase this year, with more sense being applied to the type of water being used, and only questioning the use of evaporative cooling in locations where water resources are limited, or the energy and environmental impact of producing potable water usage is high, rather than those locations where fresh water is a renewable and sustainable resource.
The relationship between increased water consumption and potential #PUE improvements will also become more widely understood as will the knowledge that having both a good #PUE and good #WUE may not be possible in most locations, which is one of the reasons that a single metric for energy efficiency / environmental impact is so problematic.
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Out of Mark’s top 10 2025 data centre predictions, which data centre trends do you think will come true? We’ll find out as the year unfolds!
If you need expert data centre advice or services, contact the Future-tech team today – we’re here to ensure your data centre is operating at it’s very best efficiency and reliability.
All Future-tech content, including this post, is Human generated original content and not produced using any form of AI tool including ChatGPT or similar.