Networks Europe Jan-Feb 2019 | Page 17

each day is expected to increase further from the creation and development of novel consumer technologies, such as virtual reality and autonomous vehicles. These are long term trends which we’re confident will sustain growth in the industry. In the next few years, we’ll see infrastructure demands explode, not just from business functions but across society. Should data centre industry companies specialise or is diversification essential? In the data centre industry diversification is crucial. Specialising in this industry means that a data centre will only be able to cater to a specific set of needs. However, in order to keep up with the constant evolution of the digital world, it requires a diverse range of approaches. Data centres are becoming an important meeting point for businesses – the place where all transactions, applications, and devices come together to exchange data. The data centre industry must remain flexible to ensure the interconnection ability of data centres and the services they offer align with customer goals, be it colocation, a data hall, or full-scale site. Providers must be able to accommodate a range of customers and help them respond to changes in demand for access to data. Alongside this, they must maximise the use of their own data to gain a competitive advantage by providing efficient, highly secure, and low latency access to important ecosystems and cloud platforms, and diversification is at the heart of this. 5 What does the data centre of tomorrow look like? The data centre of tomorrow is actually one that is flexible, agile and able to meet customers’ future needs today. Customers’ value chain is seeing a reordering, with new distribution systems, new infrastructure and completely new business and manufacturing models. Planning the right solution to enable the exchange needed between the growing number of company locations, customers, partners, 6 N G S I N C E /CANNONT4 Micro & Mini Data Centres in 17 vendors and users is growing increasingly complex, and data centre providers must be ready with a flexible environment to respond rapidly to these changes in demand for access to data. All of these elements require interconnection, data storage and analysis, and we in the data centre world sit at the heart of this. Our job is to help our customers unlock and achieve their digital ambitions. We’ll be the trusted foundation and enablers of that revolution. How is Digital Realty keeping abreast of current and future industry developments, and what lies ahead for the company? Research conducted by Digital Realty found that data will be worth £96.4 billion to the UK alone by 2025. With this, we’ll see businesses’ data strategies becoming increasingly sophisticated and the demand for connectivity will continue to boom. Demand for rapid and low-cost interconnection will increase as businesses look to adopt better data analytics and AI. Those technologies need multiple clouds, databases and software apps to link and exchange huge amounts of data at speed. Locating your data close to your data community is vital for ensuring fast, reliable and secure interconnections. We’re seeing the creation of such communities as a key driver of growth. Creating the infrastructure to deliver this is complicated for businesses so they will look to data centre providers with the right interconnected communities to drive their IT strategy forward. Data centres that offer a flexible environment are key for the future. For example, our strategy has enabled us to develop a range of solutions for customers to meet their digital transformation needs, whether that’s with cloud services, the edge, highly secure data storage or low latency, we're always focused on providing the right environment for our customers to optimise their data exchange. n 7 1 9 7 8 /CANNONTECHNOLOGIES Modular D a ta C e n t re s Data Centre Design, Build & Construction DCiM Monitoring & Control UR LATEST BROCHURES : [email protected] +44 (0) 1425 632600 www.networkseuropemagazine.com TOMISING STANDARDS | AWARD WINNING