Mylaraiah JN 
Director- Sales, Enterprise Business India & SAARC, CommScope

How AI Boom and Efficiency Requirements will transform Data Centers 

As we move through 2024, it has become increasingly clear that AI is not just about the hype, it is in fact a game changer that is setting up a dramatic effect on data center construction and deployments, and on network architecture design in general.

The reality is our insatiable expansion of data consumption and appetite for cloud-based services, accelerated by the glitzy promises of generative AI. This means the need for robust and secure data storage, faster data transfer, higher computing intensity, and increased data center efficiency have never been more paramount and our dependence on data centers is only going to increase.

Here are four key trends I believe will continue to impact and influence data center operations in 2024 - 

1.      No surprise, generative AI will drive aggressive and expanded data center build-out 

According to Synergy Research Group, analysts anticipate hyperscale data center footprints will grow threefold in the next six years to accommodate the demands of generative AI. In India, 88% of Indian business leaders are planning to invest more in AI, Generative AI in next 12-18 months as per a recent Capgemini report. Even India’s IT ministry has announced an investment of USD 1.2 billion in a wide range of artificial intelligence projects.
Speed to market—how quickly hyperscalers, enterprises and operators can get data centers up and running—will continue to be equal parts challenge and competitive advantage. Powered by enormous data increases and intensified by the significantly higher compute of generative AI applications and workloads, organizations must broadly rethink how they plan, design and construct new facilities (or refurbish existing locations) to meet today’s increased demand and anticipate how that will look in the years ahead.

2.       Sustainability will save or sink data center deployments 
With heightened awareness about ESG in boardrooms, enterprises must recognize and implement highly efficient and sustainable practices across all three levels of the data center lifecycle—site location, construction, and operation—while avoiding material cost increases to day-to-day operations. In India the power consumption of data centers is expected to reach nearly 5 gigawatts over next six to seven years making sustainability critical. Anything that draws a milliwatt of electricity or power must be optimized, from chips, servers, switches, and cooling systems to the vending machine in the break room. It’s a challenge increasingly aggravated by compute-heavy generative AI workloads.
Current macroeconomic headwinds continue to put enormous pressure on enterprise leaders to perform a delicate dance—implement sustainable practices and processes without increasing costs or, most importantly, impacting profitability.

3.       The global regulatory tug of war on data centers will increase
There will continue to be a tug of war between lawmakers and corporations over two key data center sticking points—sustainability (the land and energy needed to operate) and data sovereignty (where and how data is stored).
On one hand, latency demands and data sovereignty laws will force data centers into more localized areas. On the other hand, despite their necessary role to avoid data being shared and processed abroad, data centers are likely to face stiff resistance from elected officials and distrust from local communities. What will undoubtedly challenge this space further are the inevitable AI regulations that continue to slowly build momentum across the world including the Indian government’s growing focus on building the AI regulation framework.

4.       The silver bullet: efficiency is the only way forward.
In the broader technology space, it’s rare that we stumble across a silver bullet, a perfect, bespoke solution, but for the myriad of hurdles data centers face in the next year or so, all pathways appear to lead to a single, intrinsic solution—efficiency. From a sustainability standpoint, more efficient data centers that leverage a combination of renewable energy sources—wind, solar, geothermal, hydro/tidal, and even safe, reliable nuclear power—mean less reliance on potentially scarce local power sources.
Finally, as competing technology innovations, labor, sustainability, macroeconomic conditions, and regulatory pressures put the squeeze on hyperscalers, enterprises, and operators, an unrelenting global appetite must be balanced by an intransigent commitment to efficiency—throughout the location/discovery, construction/design, and operations/management phases—to power data center growth and expansion in 2024