Top 10 Data Center Management Trends of 2022 (That You Can’t Miss in 2023)

As we wrap up another year, it’s time to reflect on how data center management has evolved over the last 12 months.

The data center industry is known for rapidly changing. New challenges, best practices, and technologies are always appearing that need to be noted and addressed. By staying on top of the latest trends, you can put yourself in the best position to have a successful 2023.

Here are the top 10 data center management trends that we saw in 2022 that all data center professionals should be aware of. If you are falling behind on some of these, consider putting them in your plan for next year to start 2023 off right.

1. Sustainability became a top priority. Data center managers are under increased pressure to dramatically increase their energy efficiency to meet corporate sustainability goals. Fortunately, there are proven sustainability best practices that you can implement to reduce the carbon footprint of your data center. For example, Vodafone is building solar power farms and wind turbines, implementing free air cooling and cold aisle containment, and using DCIM software to know how much they can raise temperatures to save energy.
2. Increased integration and automation. Leading data center professionals are reducing manual effort and improving data accuracy by integrating their management tools and automating many of their routine tasks. Top data center automation use cases for organizations like Workday, eBay, Comcast, and The University of Chicago include enabling a single source of truth and automating virtual machine management, provisioning and orchestration, parts management, and device power budgeting.
3. Increased pressure to get more out of existing resources. Data center professionals must maximize the utilization of their existing space and power resources to defer new buildouts that are costly and have an environmental impact. However, it’s common for these professionals to not know exactly how much power their data center is using and how much stranded capacity they have. Try our smart rack calculator to see how much stranded power you have and how much you can save by automating device power budgeting.
4. Rack power densities are rising. High-performance compute devices require a lot of power. As such, only a few of these devices can be installed in a cabinet because the heat they generate cannot be cooled by traditional cooling equipment. Data center managers are turning to innovative cooling technologies such as liquid cooling and immersion cooling that can accommodate high-density cabinets and also increase sustainability.
5. More colocation and edge deployments. Modern data center environments are increasingly distributed across on-premises, colocation, edge, and remote infrastructure deployments. To set yourself up for success, know what to look for in a colocation data center and make sure you have the right tools to be able to remotely manage thousands of edge sites with ease.
6. Leveraging actionable insights from data center analytics. Today’s data centers generate a massive volume and variety of data from intelligent rack PDUs and other metered power infrastructure, environmental sensors, and the constant moves, adds, and changes happening. While some struggle with collecting the data, analyzing, and deriving insights from it, others are leveraging zero-configuration and custom analytics on their favorite data center dashboards for an at-a-glance understanding of their site health, capacity, and much more.
7. The rise of the Data Center CMDB. A traditional IT CMDB is commonly used to store information on the hardware, software, systems, facilities, and personnel within an organization, but it’s just a database of fields. It doesn’t allow you to remotely visualize any of your devices or supporting infrastructure assets and how they are all connected. For that, the most demanding data center managers have turned to a Data Center CMDB. By integrating traditional IT CMDBs and Data Center CMDBs, data can flow automatically between both tools, keeping a system of federated databases up to date with richer data.
8. New speed and accuracy improvements for asset audits. Routine asset audits improve remote planning of moves, adds, and changes and facilitates corporate reporting, but they are often a struggle due to the complex, distributed, and constantly changing nature of modern data centers. It’s estimated that on average only 80% of an organization’s asset information is correct. However, new automated asset audit functionality with barcode/QR code scanners and DCIM software is generating excitement for companies like Akamai, Chevron, and KPMG. One person with a scanner can complete fast and accurate asset audits. Built-in logic anticipates the next step in the process and a voice response provides information about the assets and recommends changes if the scan doesn’t match the database.
9. The data center skills gap continues to widen. The data center industry is facing an older workforce that is expected to retire in the next 10 years while younger employees don’t have the necessary skills to advance their careers. Data center professionals who wish to separate themselves from their peers and be among the best data center managers in the world must acquire the proper training and information for the must-have data center skills.
10. Customers of second-generation DCIM software report enormous success. While the problems of first-generation DCIM are well-documented, the emergence of second-generation DCIM has been a game changer. Choosy data center managers that choose modern DCIM over legacy tools report that it has dramatically simplified data center management and provided serious ROI. DCIM success stories include Comcast unlocking 40% more capacity out their facilities and power resources, Workday automating their data center operations, Merck moving off spreadsheets to track and manage their parts and spares, Paddy Power Betfair’s data center team being elevated within the organization by increasing the number of users on their DCIM system by 900%, Vodafone dramatically increasing their data center sustainability, and UF Health increasing their asset tracking efficiency by 50%.

Simplify Data Center Management in 2023 and Beyond

These trends aren’t going away anytime soon. This is what many of the best data center managers in the world are prioritizing in their data centers. Are there any areas where you can improve your data center management?

For many, yearly project budgets are about to be closed out. Consider how modern DCIM tools can help you maintain uptime, increase efficiency, and boost productivity in 2023.

Want to see why the most demanding data center managers choose Sunbird DCIM? Get your free test drive today!