The Future of Big Data Storage
Meera Blueprint 10.5.2020
It is tough to understand and comprehend how much data is created every single day and where it goes. Nearly 90% of ALL data was created in the past 2 years.
The IDC estimates that there will be 44 zettabytes of data captured through 2020 and 175 zettabytes in 2025. If you were to store 175 zettabytes on DVDs, those DVDs would stretch long enough to circle the earth 222 times.
The role of data storage has been evolving and growing just as fast as data itself. The issue data centers are struggling with is sustainability. The amount of energy data centers use doubles every 4 years and have the fastest growing carbon footprint in the IT sector.
If they continue this trend, data centers could surpass using more than 10% of the global electricity supply. They currently consume 3% of the global electricity supply and have 2% of the total greenhouse gas emission. This is where green data centers are poised to thrive in this market.
Green data centers are focused on reducing overhead while simultaneously helping the environment. Their goal is to be 100% self-sustainable. These include the typical wind and solar panels, but Microsoft is taking it a step further.
Microsoft is now submerging their data centers underwater. These cloud-based servers are powered through 100% renewable energy from wind, solar, and wave energy. These watertight pods are mass-produced and standardized for guaranteed operational efficiency. They are quite literally dropped in the middle of the ocean.
So why are these water-based centers better than traditional land data centers?
Gives Cloud computing more power, as 50% of the world population lives near the ocean emitting a stronger signal to those near
These centers could fill an immediate need. Microsoft estimates it could only take 90 days to build, implement, and install these pods.
Traditional data centers can take up to 2 years because of building codes, electrical connectivity, network connectivity, etc.
Humanity, oxygen, and temperature changes can cause computers to fail. All of these variables are present in every other human-run data center. Microsoft’s pod is produced to standardize everything. No human errors or interference, they can comfortably be pumped with nitrogen to neutralize any fears of overheating.
Microsoft estimates the water-based servers showed a failure rate of 1/8 that of their land-based servers
This is a new development in data centers, but if other companies follow this would be a huge technological advancement in the industry. Microsoft reported these results in July 2020, so it is still very much in the R&D and implementation phase. ESG principles must be at the forefront of this industry to sustain its growth. Big data is the future, and data centers must be able to show they can handle the future.