Energy efficiency and sustainability are the two main problems that data centers have. There are numerous voices that are already alerting the environmental impact of large data centers in a context in which the data centers market in Spain is booming. Our country is in fact that the most data centers are implementing throughout Europe, and forecasts are that the installed power multiply by six in the next two years, going from the current 160 MW to the 600 MW in 2026, according to the Spain DC data, the Data Centers association in Spain.
At the same time that this essential sector is developed to sustain digital infrastructure, the emergence of artificial intelligence is transforming the operation of data centers. “They are the key to providing services in the current economy, whether an on-premise strategy that maintains the data at home, to enable services in La Nine, or by a combined modality is chosen. However, organizations must reassess their plans to implement data centers, and more with the revolution of AI and Genai, which has clear advantages, but also challenges to take into account, ”says Tomás Callejo, director, director De /Fdata, the Fibratel unit specialized in this field.
The experts of the Spanish Multinational of IT highlight the advantages of artificial intelligence in four areas: capacity management and performance, predictive maintenance, energy optimization and security.
In this regard, they point out that the benefits it contributes in the implementations are “incontestable”. work, or to detect, by monitoring, early signals of possible failures, which increases the reliability of the infrastructure. In addition, it helps detect anomalous patterns that could be an indication of security threat and to automate the response to incidents, as well as optimize the use of energy through real -time data analysis. Thus, by adjusting cooling systems and servers, operating costs are reduced.
AI challenges in the data center
However, /Fdata have also taken into account in their analysis the challenges of the deployment of AI and Genai in these facilities.
Apart from the initial costs involved in hardware and software that support technology, they mention that it is necessary to consider that IA applications require more energy and computer resources, which implies an increase in general costs. At this point, Gartner’s report is echoed that argues that the AI and the generative AI are creating an “insatiable demand” of energy, and its consumption will increase to 160%. The prediction of the analysis firm is that 40% of the data centers, enabled with AI, will be operationally limited by the availability of energy in 2027. “Therefore, it is crucial that energy networks can increase their capacity with sufficient speed, ”says Callejo.
40% of the data centers, enabled with AI, will be operationally limited by energy availability in 2027
In line with this, the increase in workloads and energy requirements require advanced cooling solutions, such as liquid or immersion cooling, which drive energy efficiency.
In the short term, sustainability objectives could be affected, linked to the reduction of carbon emissions. “If we are not able to expand energy networks, it will be necessary to resort to less sustainable energy sources than wind or solar, and that will have a negative impact on corporate policies in this area. We will have to shuffle viable options so that data centers and customers can meet their CO2 emission reduction plans ”.
Finally, it will be essential to devote resources to training. The AI propitiates great advance and a paradigm shift, so skills development is a huge challenge. A continuous learning and training environment must be created and, from IT companies, as large provider of talent and specialization, addressing the human capital gap, qualifying new professionals and collaborating with educational institutions and organizations in the sector to boost training in key technologies like this.
Consequently, “the implementation of AI in data centers requires strategic planning that helps to enhance its advantages but also mitigate these challenges and, in this, the work of specialists in the design and construction of these infrastructure is essential , like Fibratel. The design must be focused on four aspects: energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, location of the facilities and responsible management of the resources, ”concludes Tomás Callejo.
