John
O'Brien
Max
Smolaks
The propensity to confidently give false information likely disqualifies generative AI from operational decision-making. However, this type of AI, with human supervision, could enhance other aspects of data center management.
Max Smolaks
Max is a Research Analyst at Uptime Institute Intelligence. Mr Smolaks’ expertise spans digital infrastructure management software, power and cooling equipment, and regulations and standards. He has 10 years’ experience as a technology journalist, reporting on innovation in IT and data center infrastructure.
msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com
Latest Research
What role might generative AI play in the data center?
The majority of enterprise IT is now off-premises
Findings from the latest Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey show for the first time that the proportion of IT workloads hosted in on-premises data centers now represents slightly less than half of the total enterprise footprint.
Heat reuse: a management primer
Recovery of data center waste heat is garnering renewed interest for its sustainability credentials. This report investigates these initiatives and looks at their impact both on efficiency and cost.
Operators’ trust in AI drops
Douglas
Donnellan
The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 shows that trust in artificial intelligence as a tool capable of making operational decisions has fallen sharply year on year. What is causing this reaction?
Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023
Daniel
Bizo
Jacqueline
Davis
Andy
Lawrence
Dr. Owen
Rogers
The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey highlights the experiences and strategies of data center owners and operators in areas of resiliency, sustainability, efficiency, staffing, cloud and innovative technologies.
AI will have a limited role in data centers — for now
The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public’s imaginations, and now barely a week goes by without reports of another breakthrough. Among the many, sometimes dramatic predictions made by experts and non-experts alike is the…
Data center operators will face more grid disturbances
The energy crisis of 2022, resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious problems for data center operators in Europe. Energy prices leapt up and are likely to stay high. This has resulted in ongoing concerns that utilities in some…
The effects of a failing power grid in South Africa
European countries narrowly avoided an energy crisis in the past winter months, as a shortfall in fossil fuel supplies from Russia threatened to destabilize power grids across the region. This elevated level of risk to the normally robust…
Data center costs set to rise and rise
Up until two years ago, the cost of building and operating data centers had been falling reasonably steeply. While labor costs have risen during this time, better management, processes and automation have helped to prevent spiraling wage bills.
Too hot to handle? Operators to struggle with new chips
Standard IT hardware was a boon for data centers: for almost two decades, mainstream servers have had relatively constant power and cooling requirements. This technical stability moored the planning and design of facilities (for both new builds and…
Geopolitics deepens supply chain worries
The COVID-19 pandemic — and the subsequent disruption to supply chains — demonstrated the data center industry’s reliance on interdependent global markets and the components they produce. Although the data center sector was just one of many…
Five data center predictions for 2023
Uptime Institute Intelligence looks beyond some of the more obvious trends of 2023 — that the sector continues to expand and innovate while facing stricter regulatory requirements — and identifies some challenging issues.
DCIM and automated operations: an introduction
This report examines multiple applications of AI and automation within data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software. Greater automation can result in improved efficiency and free up staff to focus on more complex tasks.
Rapid interconnectivity growth will add complexity and risk
Recent geopolitical concerns, predictions of a looming recession, and continued supply chain difficulties are unlikely to dampen growth in digital bandwidth on private networks according to Equinix’s 2022 Global Interconnection Index (GXI). Global…
Major data center fire highlights criticality of IT services
Uptime Institute’s outages database suggests data center fires are infrequent, and rarely have a significant impact on operations. Uptime has identified 14 publicly reported, high-profile data center outages caused by fire or fire suppression…