Emerson Network Power has released a forward-thinking report – Data Centre 2025: Exploring the Possibilities – summarising four months of global research designed to identify the industry’s vision of the data centre in the year 2025.

The results range from the expected – increased use of the cloud – to the ambitious – largely solar-powered data centres with power densities exceeding 50 kW per rack. One thing was clear: most experts believe the data centre as we know it will undergo massive changes over the next decade.

More than 800 data centre professionals from around the world responded to the Data Centre 2025 survey, with dozens more contributing their thoughts via interviews, email and video. The feedback, viewed collectively, indicates most in the field remain bullish on the data centre industry and on continued innovation in the IT space and beyond.

For example, on average, experts predict density in 2025 will climb to 52 kW per rack. According to the Data Centre Users’ Group™ sponsored by Emerson Network Power, average density has remained relatively flat since peaking around 6 kW nearly a decade ago, but experts are anticipating a dramatic upswing in density that could radically change the physical environment of the data centre.

“Australian and New Zealand companies are increasing their reliance on digital information and most of it is housed in physical, power-hungry data centres,” said Robert Linsdell, Emerson Network Power’s national sales director for A/NZ. “The Data Centre 2025 Report tells us that we’re expected to increase our energy output. While Australia has initiatives such as NABERS and New Zealand has released its Energy Strategy 2011-2021 report, it’s clear we are about to hit an inflection point in which alternative solutions and new data centre designs will be needed.”

Other notable survey results and forecasts from the report:

Big changes in how data centres are powered: The experts believe a mix of sources will be used to provide electrical power to data centres. Solar will lead, followed by a nearly equal mix of nuclear, natural gas and wind. Sixty-five per cent believe it is likely hyperscale facilities will be powered by private power generation.

Cloud forecasts are somewhat conservative: Industry experts predict two-thirds of data centre computing will be done in the cloud in 2025. That’s actually a fairly conservative estimate. According to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, cloud workloads represent around 46 per cent of current total data centre workloads, and will reach 63 per cent by 2017.

DCIM will play a prominent role: Twenty-nine per cent of experts anticipate comprehensive visibility across all systems and layers, while 43 per cent expect data centres to be self-healing and self-optimising. Taken together, that would indicate 72 per cent of the experts believe some level of DCIM will be deployed in 2025 – significantly higher than most current estimates of DCIM adoption.

Usage rates will be higher: That increased visibility is expected to lead to more efficient performance overall, as 72 per cent of industry experts expect IT resource use rates to be at least 60 per cent in 2025. The average projection is 70 per cent. That compares to estimated averages today as low as 6-12 per cent, with best practices somewhere between 30-50 per cent.

To view the full report and video input from industry experts, visitwww.EmersonNetworkPower.com/DataCenter2025.