FEATURE expanding physical footprint alone; instead, they must optimise how data is stored, moved and consumed.
The first lever is efficiency. Modern, AI‐enabled storage platforms like NetApp help reduce power consumption by placing the right data on the right tier at the right time. Intelligent tiering, compression and deduplication can reduce the effective capacity footprint by up to 60 – 70 %, meaning more performance is achieved with fewer watts and less space.
Hybrid cloud approach is another option. By extending workloads to hyperscalers or local cloud providers, DC operators can burst capacity without expanding on‐premises energy usage.
Finally, observability and automation are essential. With real‐time insights into energy use, cooling efficiency and workload behaviour, operators can automatically balance resources, eliminate inefficiencies and delay capex-heavy expansions. Combining this with renewable‐ready designs and liquid‐cooling‐friendly layouts positions data centres for long-term resilience.
In summary, sustainable scale isn’ t about building bigger, it’ s about building smarter. With efficient storage, hybrid cloud flexibility and intelligent automation, operators can grow capacity responsibly while meeting rising performance demands.
Jonathan Knepher, VP, Site Reliability Engineering, Forcepoint:
Data centre expansion can no longer focus solely on capacity – it must be tied to resilience, sustainability and long-term operational stability. While network capacity keeps scaling, energy generation and distribution infrastructure still face physical and regulatory limits. Power www. intelligentcio. com
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