As Vertiv anticipated two years ago, the proliferation of AI, along with the infrastructure and sustainability challenges inherent in AI-enabled computing, are evident across the industry. Furthermore, according to Vertiv's (NYSE: VRT) data center trend forecasts, these considerations will remain critical through 2024.

"AI and its subsequent impact on data center densities and power requirements have become the dominant narratives in our industry," said Vertiv CEO Giordano Albertazzi. "Finding ways to help our customers both support the demand for AI and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions presents a significant challenge that requires new collaborations among data centers, chip and server manufacturers, and infrastructure providers."

The following trends, according to Vertiv experts, will dominate the data center ecosystem in 2024:

1. AI will dictate the terms of new installations and retrofits: The surge in demand for artificial intelligence across all applications is putting pressure on organizations to make significant changes to their operations. Legacy facilities are not adequately equipped to support the widespread deployment of the high-density computing required by AI, and many lack the necessary liquid cooling infrastructure. Over the next year, more and more organizations will realize that adding small upgrades is insufficient and will therefore opt for new builds, increasingly using prefabricated modular solutions to reduce deployment times. Alternatively, large-scale upgrades will fundamentally change power and cooling infrastructures. These significant changes present opportunities to implement more environmentally friendly technologies and practices, including liquid cooling for AI servers, applied alongside air cooling to support the entire data center space.

2. Expanding the search for energy storage alternatives: New energy storage technologies and approaches have demonstrated an excellent ability to integrate intelligently with the grid and address the urgent challenge of reducing generator starts. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) support the demand for extended runtime by switching loads as needed and for longer periods, as well as seamlessly integrating with alternative energy sources such as fuel cells or solar power. This minimizes generator use and reduces their environmental impact. BESS installations will also become more common in 2024, gradually evolving into bring-your-own-power (BYOP) models that will offer the capacity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness needed to meet the demand generated by AI.

3. Businesses will prioritize flexibility: While cloud and colocation providers will focus on new deployments to meet demand, organizations with enterprise data centers will increasingly diversify their investment and deployment strategies. AI will also play a significant role in this, as organizations consider how best to enable and apply the technology while meeting their sustainability goals. Businesses will begin leveraging on-premises capacity to support their proprietary AI, and edge application deployments may benefit from AI-driven tailwinds. Many organizations are expected to prioritize incremental investments, relying heavily on prefabricated, modular solutions, as well as maintenance and service to extend the life of their legacy equipment. Such services could provide additional benefits by streamlining operations and freeing up capacity in computing environments already operating at full capacity, while also improving energy efficiency. Organizations can also reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions by extending the lifespan of their existing servers, rather than replacing and disposing of them.

4. The race to the cloud faces security challenges: Gartner projects that global spending on public cloud services will increase by 20.4% through 2024 , and the mass migration to the cloud shows no signs of slowing down. This puts significant pressure on cloud service providers to rapidly scale their capabilities to meet the demand for AI and high-performance computing. As a result, they will continue to rely on colocation partners worldwide to facilitate this expansion. For cloud customers who are increasingly moving data off-premises, security is a critical factor, and according to Gartner, 80% of Chief Technology Officers plan to increase spending on cybersecurity and information security by 2024. Disparities between national and regional data security legislation could lead to complex security challenges as efforts to standardize this segment continue to progress.

More information