In the second half of a two-part discussion on technology, Peter Judge, Global Editor for DatacenterDynamics, and host Raymond Hawkins turned their attention on the data center industry, the impact technology advancements have on it and the evolving role of the DatacenterDynamics’ publication.

One of the cornerstones of DatacenterDynamics’ success is its events, which they’ve done for years and utilize to bring the data center community together.

But the pandemic changed all that, and live events planned for 2020 have turned into all-digital formats.
“Once we got the hang of the fact that we could do these online events successfully, these events became actual replacements for the physical ones,” Judge said. “Since the beginning of lockdown, we’ve had eight online events, which, by and large, have gone along rather swimmingly,” Judge promised that, as soon as a physical event can happen, DatacenterDynamics will have one.

Looking at the data center industry and the advancements propelling it, Judge pointed to open-source architecture and software leading the way, even if that pace is not flashy. “The open compute project is one of the exciting things of the last few years,” Judge said. The result is building a cloud service inside of a data center that benefits from cheaper hardware.

A frequently asked question in terms of technology advancements and data centers is, as compute functions get miniaturized, efficient and use less power, will the need for data centers shrink? “The answer to that question is the reverse,” Judge said, “We will use vastly more data centers, because they are getting more efficient.” Judge cited Jevons Paradox, which occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use). Still, the rate of consumption of that resource rises due to increasing demand. Data centers will survive, and Judge sees the need growing now and into the future.