Crunch time: innovations in data centre technology

If the smoking factory chimney stack is a potent physical symbol of the industrial revolution, then the data centre - the humming, server-crammed, high-tech temple to the bits and bytes that underpin almost every area of our lives - is perhaps its modern equivalent. And at a time when our demand for data is growing exponentially these engine-rooms of the digital economy have never been busier.

Even before the pandemic struck, our collective demand for data was insatiable, but in early March, as businesses across the globe switched to remote working; human relationships migrated en-masse to the virtual realm; and streamed entertainment became a lifeline for the quarantined masses, this demand was turbocharged. OpenVault’s Broadband Insights report points to a surge in internet usage of 47 percent during the first quarter of 2020, whilst figures from real estate analyst EG Radius Exchange point to a corresponding growth in plans to build new data centres to cater for this spiraling demand.