The Future of Hyperscalers

Hyperscale cloud data centres have emerged as crucial infrastructure that underpins the digital economy. These data centres are experiencing rapid growth, with new facilities being announced yearly. Despite this growth, hyperscale data centres continue to prioritise sustainability and technological advancements to ensure they can meet the ever-increasing demand for data storage and processing while minimising their environmental impact.

These facilities are equipped with advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which enable them to optimise energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions and minimise waste.

According to the Synergy Research Group, the average capacity of hyperscale data centres is expected to double over the next six years, compared to what is currently operational. As a result, data centre providers need to consider whether the energy grid surrounding a data centre has the ability to handle a significant increase in AI-related workloads.

Hyperscale data centre operators are increasingly concerned with balancing the need for growth and sustainability. In fact, environmental sustainability is a top priority for these companies in their 2024 strategy. All major hyperscalers have made sustainability pledges and are taking steps to optimise energy consumption and reduce their carbon footprint. A company that stands out for its sustainability efforts is Oracle, which is known for being particularly aggressive in this regard.

The demand for hyperscale data centre operations shows no signs of slowing down, which means that new data centres will need to be built from scratch to be AI-ready. The infrastructure of these data centres has unique requirements for cooling and power, which cannot be achieved through retrofitting. Service providers are now building new AI-ready data centres alongside their existing facilities. This means that once the new data centres are up and running, the old ones can be decommissioned and reused for other purposes.