The amount of digital data stored in the world grew relatively slowly until about 2010, at which point it took off exponentially. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% between 2017 and 2022. Cisco forecasts global IP traffic to rise from 122 exabytes (EB) per month in 2017 to 396 EB per month by 2022.

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Listed below are the leading data centre trends in big data, as identified by GlobalData.

Global data centre build-out

The overlapping demands of IoT, cloud computing, streaming media, gaming, and AI are leading to a bottleneck in the data centre market. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, and Google are building data centres across the world at a fast clip. These data centres take in, store, process and disseminate the data that forms the raw material for their operations. As data sovereignty gains momentum, companies are also looking to invest in edge data centres.

Hyperscale data centres

Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have been bringing hyperscale data centres on stream over the last several years. These are data centres running upwards of 100,000 servers, their software defined equivalents, or vast arrays of cheap bare metal servers running predominantly Linux operating software. Industrial and commercial giants such as GE, Toyota, Fanuc, and Goldman Sachs are going hyperscale as well, running hybrid internet-facing data centres in the cloud as well as on-site enterprise data centres.

Cloud computing

As computing moves from in-house corporate data centres to third-party cloud data centres, corporations need to buy less of their own networking gear. Moreover, the big cloud data centres run by Amazon and Microsoft are increasingly using custom networking kit from smaller suppliers like Arista Networks rather than purchasing; for example, an end-to-end Cisco network. Over time, white box makers like Quanta, Wistron, or Inventec might benefit at the expense of traditional proprietary networking equipment makers. The losers may be the proprietary networking equipment makers like NETGEAR and Belkin, unless they can adapt to the software-led environment that is coming.

This is an edited extract from the Big Data in Utilities – Thematic Research report produced by GlobalData Thematic Research.

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