The Data Center in 2010

It’s still early enough in the year to get those last minute predictions in. What to Expect in 2010, by Mission Critical’s Kevin Heslin, covers the gamut in terms of what is coming up this year in the data center space. While most of his predictions are safe bets, there are a few riskier propositions that will be fun to follow. Have to respect someone who is not scared to put it out there, especially knowing the potential risk of public ridicule at the end of the year in the event of serious error. Funky choice going with nine predictions instead of the oh-so- expected ten…

What made the list?

1. More government involvement in the data center space (think this prediction is already coming true – see Uncle Sam Distributing Energy Goodies)

2. End users will try new ways to beat high energy bills, to ensure compliance, and to simplify their data centers. See how this trend is playing out in Taking Control of Your Data Center: New Approaches to Reduce Energy and Improve Efficiency.

3. The role of water will gain new prominence in the data center world.

4. Because IT and facilities personnel just cannot get along, enterprise problems like poor designs, security breaches and network issues will rear their ugly heads.

5. Outages and more outages. Smart Grid anyone?

6. Data center specific LEED certification

7. The proliferation of infrastructure products

8. Increased popularity of performance-based testing for data center systems

9. PUE will be a thing of the past, replaced by a more comprehensive metric

On a more general note, Reuters addressed the issue of how current expectations match up to the rate of technological advancements (full article here). Interestingly, despite all the technological advances recent years have seen, those pesky 18 to 30 year old boys/men want more toys more quickly.

Some people find technology is moving too quickly – this video from SNL’s Seth Myers takes a wry look at the downside of technological advances.