Dinesh Dhut, senior director, DC power/OSP
Today, reducing carbon footprint to usher in energy sustainability has become key in the data centre market. In an interview with tele.net, Dinesh Dhut, senior director, DC power/OSP (SEA and India) and product development/engineering, Vertiv, shares his views on key factors driving the growth of data centres and strategies to ensure sustainability in the data centre industry…
How has the Indian data centre space evolved post the Covid-19 pandemic?
Quite clearly, data centres and their ability to enable remote work, schooling, healthcare, banking and other critical daily activities were a major focus during Covid-19 and they are continuing to be the backbone of most businesses. A global study projects that the industry will reach nearly $948 billion in 2030.
In the 2022 budget, the finance minister granted infrastructure status to the data centre industry, to help data centre companies avail credit more easily and manage their resources better. Over the next five to ten years, Rs 700 billion to Rs 720 billion of investments are expected to pour into the data centre market.
How has the onset of hybrid work models impacted the data centre industry? How have data centre solution providers expanded their offerings to cater to the evolving business landscape?
Hybrid work has been creating some waves in the corporate world and data centres are at the heart of businesses making this transformation. While on-premise data centres were often the go-to model in the past, the new IT landscape demands new types of data centres. Be it edge data centres, co-location data centres or decentralisation of the data centre, organisations need a mix of architecture to support remote operations.
What are Vertiv’s key offerings in the data centre space? What new solutions are you planning to launch?
Some of our offerings in the data centre space include:
- Micro and edge data centres: Vertiv micro data centres align power, cooling, monitoring and racks with business needs and constraints. Some of our products include Liebert® 1P uninterruptible power supply systems, Liebert® row-based cooling, Liebert® rack cooling and Geist™ rack power distribution units (rPDUs).
- Core and prefabricated data centres: We offer flexible, scalable and efficient solutions that are pre-engineered, prefabricated, and pre-tested, before being rapidly deployed and assembled on-site. Some of our solutions include Vertiv™ SmartMod™ and Vertiv™ prefabricated modular solutions.
- DC power and thermal solutions: Vertiv’s Netsure® 400V DC power technology combines the proven benefits of 48V DC power – modularity, scalability, ease of integration – with the cable and installation savings benefit of higher voltage distribution. Thermal solutions include Liebert® heat rejection, Liebert® high density solutions and Liebert® evaporative free cooling.
What are your views on the growing demand for edge data centres? What are the key factors driving their uptake in the market?
To reduce latency, network costs and bandwidth constraints in transporting data across far distances, data centres are being driven to the network edge. Additionally, edge data centres are required for telecom networks, emerging technologies, cloud storage and gaming.
What role do AI/ML play in the data centre domain? How are data centre providers adopting automation to ease workability?
With organisations operating on a hybrid model, there is an increase in data creation and consumption. The data centre of the future may be able to leverage artificial intelligence (AI). By incorporating machine learning (ML) in data centres, workloads can be evenly distributed in order to manage servers more efficiently.
How will the advent of 5G in India impact the data centre space?
The 5G roll-out in India will have a positive impact on the data centre market and will, in turn, play an integral part in boosting investments in the sector. The advent of 5G only implies that data centres will need to adapt their existing infrastructure or create new data centre spaces to support new loads and reduce latency. An upgrade could be required both in terms of hardware and software for more efficiency and seamless movement of this data.
How can data centres be made more sustainable? What are key market trends in this regard?
Vertiv, in its annual list of key data centre trends to watch in 2022, highlighted the anticipated dramatic acceleration in actions to address sustainability and navigate the climate crisis, especially in the data centre market.
Our focus has always been on helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals, by leveraging Vertiv’s energy-efficient and water-efficient technologies to reduce their carbon footprint
