At the conference, Yao Quan, President of Huawei Data Center Domain, defined three characteristics of the data centers of the future: reliable, simplified and sustainable. Yao outlined the technology evolution trends in terms of components, products, systems and architecture in order to develop the industry and leverage collective wisdom.

According to Yao, in the context of growing AI core models, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of global AI computing power is expected to exceed 80% in the next 5 years, driving the transition from cloud data centers to cloud computing data center + intelligent operation. Based on comprehensive explorations and practices over a long term, Huawei released the top 10 data center trends in 2024 to the global audience, announcing to the industry its ideas and thoughts on the future of data centers.

In recent years, according to the UPTIME Institute, there has been a remarkable growth in data center security-related incidents, from 2019 to 2022, the percentage of losses exceed $100,000 that are attributed to data center service disruption increasing from 39% to 71%, and that number will multiply with the increasing demand for computing power.

Beyond any doubt, reliability is at the core of data centers and should not be underestimated or underdeveloped.

The 10 trends are:

1.Professional products and services are the key to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the data center.

2.Distributed cooling architecture will become a better choice to ensure cooling security.

3. Preventive maintenance will become a basic feature of the data center infrastructure.

4. The lifecycle of the network security protection system will become a shield for the data center services.

5. Prefabricated and modular solutions will become the most optimal choice for fast and high quality delivery.

6. Professional management platform makes data center operation and maintenance more secure and efficient.

7. Convergence and air and liquid cooling becomes the preferred architecture in scenarios of uncertain service requirements.

8. Indirect evaporative cooling remains the best cooling scheme now and in the future.

9. To further reduce PUE, the optimal solution is to shift the focus on efficient components to engineering system optimization.

10.AI optimization will become the best option for intelligent energy efficiency optimization of existing data centers.

Today, the explosion of intelligent computing power exposes a bright future for the industry. Looking ahead, Huawei will urge on creating products and solutions for reliable, simplified and sustainable data center services to help its customers and partners build a green and reliable infrastructure to enable every watt to generate more computing power, as part of our efforts to power the digital world.

Translated by: A.M