The data center industry is facing some huge challenges – but can it conquer them?

Data centers are under increasing pressure as they face what Keysource’s ‘State of the Industry Report 2023’ is calling a trilemma.

Keysource says that balancing speed, substance, and sustainability is causing a real headache for data center professionals who are being faced with rising costs and regulation changes.

Headlining the report is the skills shortage facing the industry, which makes tackling upcoming issues even more of a challenge.

Data centers are in for a shock

Keysource found that nearly half of its respondents went on to subcontract more projects or services than they had initially planned in order to adhere to program timescales in light of a lack of skills.

With the industry under intense scrutiny over its environmental impacts, more than half said that their organization had a separate ‘green budget’ to tackle sustainability issues. Alarmingly, only 17% see sustainability as a high priority, and more than half don’t even have a sustainability strategy.

While budget is clearly available for more environmentally friendly decisions, data center professionals are having to sometimes cut corners to ensure sufficient growth to keep up with demand.

Keysource COO Jon Healy said: “The pressure to speed up project delivery is perhaps the most concerning finding of the report with 75% of those surveyed identifying quality issues which could reasonably have been identified or better managed earlier as a result.”

Despite changes to technology, regulation, energy resources, corporate governance, and a lack of skilled people, Keysource reckons that promising returns and performance remain on the cards for data centers.

Moving forward, it’s clear that more attention needs to be given to sustainability in the industry. Some factors contributing to tackling the trilemma include optimizing operations through analytics and automation, improving efficiency, and maintaining already strong reliability.