Five ways artificial intelligence is reshaping the data center

We look at how artificial intelligence is impacting the data center industry and what changes we can reasonably expect to see in the coming years.

Artificial intelligence has been making a lot of headlines lately, especially due to tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot being able to generate everything from code to poetry.

But what can artificial intelligence do for data centers? This question has received less attention, especially outside of the context of discussions about AI-driven data center monitoring solutions—solutions that, while important, do not exactly represent the cutting edge of AI technology.

So, let’s take a look at other ways artificial intelligence may impact the data center industry, and what changes we can reasonably expect to see in the coming years.

Improving the physical security of data centers

Physical security is critical for data centers, which need to be able to protect assets from unauthorized physical access by intruders. Unfortunately, providing physical security has traditionally been costly because it relies heavily on having security personnel on-site to detect and respond to breaches of the physical perimeter.

Artificial intelligence can help in this regard by analyzing data that can help detect physical intrusions. For example, by parsing video streams in real time, AI has the potential to identify individuals who pose a risk. It would also eliminate the need for people to watch videos continuously to detect risks.

Don’t expect on-site security personnel in data centers to disappear, but expect artificial intelligence to help them do their jobs more efficiently.

Data Center Energy Management

Determine when to switch a data center from one power source (such as solar) to another, or how to plan ahead for anticipated energy challenges (such as moving cooling systems heat waves that are pushed to the edge), often requiring careful human analysis. Given the many variables involved, there is no simple formula or procedure to follow when managing data center energy sources and challenges.

However, given the complexity of modern AI, it is feasible for AI to take on some of the decision-making. Data center operators may still want humans in the loop to double-check the recommendations of AI tools, but it makes sense for AI to take the lead in managing energy, rather than expecting humans to track energy usage and manually address challenges.

Capacity Management

Likewise, managing data center capacity—including tasks such as scaling infrastructure up or down to meet demand and ensuring physical space grows at a pace that keeps pace with the market—has traditionally been A manual job. But AI can help with automation. AI can help operators make more informed capacity management decisions by analyzing the many factors that determine how much capacity a data center needs at different times and in different aspects.

Incident Response

When something goes wrong in the data center—a power failure, someone accidentally turned off a switch, a cyberattack destroyed critical equipment, etc.—determine as quickly as possible what happened and what was affected What it is and how to fix it are crucial.

In the past, data center management teams have responded to these challenges by creating incident response “playbooks” that detail ways to deal with different types of challenges.

Playbooks are still useful, but modern artificial intelligence provides another tool that operators can leverage to manage incident response. AI can assess a situation and help plan a response faster than humans, a feat that could prove particularly valuable in situations where there is no response playbook and no one can predict a certain type of crisis in advance.

Growing demand for AI-friendly data center hardware

Surge in interest in modern AI technologies is also driving demand for data center infrastructure optimized for running AI workloads There is a surge in demand for, for example, servers capable of performing GPU acceleration. Going forward, data center operators may benefit from catering to this niche, especially given that AI-optimized hardware, unlike commodity servers, is more difficult to obtain from the public cloud.

The demand for AI-friendly data centers does not represent a new way of leveraging AI to help operate data centers, but it does create a market opportunity for data center operators.

Conclusion: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Data Centers

The application of modern artificial intelligence technology in data centers is still in its early stages, but the potential is huge. In the coming years, expect AI to do more than just help data center teams monitor assets. AI also plays a role in physical security, capacity management, incident response, and more.

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