News in the Channel – February 2023

HYPERSCALE DATA CENTRES

increasing inflationary rises and whether there is the potential for full or partial modular deployments to run critical paths concurrently. Justin Bateman, product manager at servers and hosting provider Fasthosts, agrees that data centre providers will need to innovate to remain at the cutting edge. “This will require a focus on energy efficiency, cost optimisation and investment in new technologies such as AI and automation to improve operational efficiency,” he says. “In addition, the data centres of the future will require new, alternative cooling methods such as immersion cooling as well as renewable energy solutions to reduce energy consumption and cost.” There will also be opportunities for resellers,

resellers will be able to capture a share of the growing digital market enabled by the growth of hyperscale data centres.” 5G and 6G impact Meanwhile, Joe Barry, vice president marketing, systems and technology, Cloudand Communications Business Unit, at Analog Devices, notes that 5G and 6G impact the need for hyperscale data centres. “5G adoption and development introduces new opportunities for hyperscalers,” he says. “Increasing demand from Mobile Network Operators and Communication Service Providers for virtualised core architectures is an essential step towards relocating these functions to the cloud. An elevated hyperscaler presence at the edge and virtualised Open RAN architecture will further drive this progression. “The latest 5G networks are increasing connectivity among IoT devices, people, and services. Data centre operators must pivot quickly, transforming containers and virtual servers to cloud services and edge computing, or risk being left behind. Data centre operators should plan to upgrade existing infrastructure, devise new architectural approaches to handle hyperlocal edge data centres and incorporate automation for seamless 5G network management.” Joe adds that 6G, when it becomes available, is expected to provide even faster and more reliable connectivity compared to 5G. “6G will further drive the need for increased data management resources as ubiquitous connectivity and intelligent edge computing is realised, and new and innovative use cases, such as virtual and augmented reality applications come online, which will require even more powerful and scalable data processing and storage capabilities.” Future As the commentators have outlined, there is huge growth predicted for hyperscale data centres in the coming years, and there are opportunities for those who can support this, whether it is with hardware or software. “The reseller element is that support: the packaging of the multiple products supporting the network and that overall cloud demand which keeps growing year on year, we don’t see a downturn in that at all,” concludes Sam. “There’s a good opportunity for resellers to be involved in that market and grow the business in that market.”

Justin Bateman product manager Fasthosts

Justin adds. “All businesses, whether resellers or end-users will benefit from

fasthosts.co.uk

hyperscale data centres as life and business become increasingly digital. Accessing high- performance computing and storage resources

on-demand will offer excellent flexibility and scalability, as well as reducing their need for in-house expertise and hardware. “Hyperscale data centres will offer many opportunities to resellers, such as offering cloud computing solutions and server management services to their customers. Additionally, they could specialise in certain services such as IaaS or PaaS, or certain verticals such as healthcare or finance, to offer a unique, high-quality service to clients. “By finding their niche, and delivering reliable, expert solutions to their customers,

Joe Barry vice president

marketing, systems and technology, Cloudand Communications Business Unit Analog Devices

analog.com