CoreSite has published its 2024 State of the Data Center Report, which explores the latest trends, strategies, and requirements in data centers and cloud computing. Now in its fifth year, the report highlights a consensus among IT leaders on the increasing variety of data management and processing needs, necessitating highly customized IT solutions.
Despite high confidence in the economy among C-suite executives, a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment has led many business leaders to proceed cautiously with their IT and data strategies. The emphasis is on cost control, predictability, flexibility, and risk management. This approach must also accommodate the growing volume of resource-intensive AI and high-density workloads essential for growth and innovation. Consequently, there is a significant shift towards hybrid IT ecosystems, with 98% of organizations having adopted or planning to adopt a hybrid model using colocation, private cloud, and public cloud to manage their workloads.
Key Insights from the 2024 Report:
- Cloud Interconnection: Direct connections to the cloud and interconnection systems are crucial for transferring large-scale data efficiently.
- Nearly half of the surveyed workloads use colocation primarily for cloud interconnection, though only 31% of respondents report their current colocation provider offers interconnection to a variety of cloud providers. Additionally, 95% of respondents consider native, direct connections to major cloud providers important, with 69% rating it as very important.
- Shift from Public Cloud: Organizations are increasingly valuing “cloud smart” hybrid IT infrastructures over an “all-in” cloud approach due to cost, performance, and compliance considerations. Many survey participants are considering moving from public cloud to colocation for various workloads, especially for generative AI applications, BI/analytics, and IoT connectivity and management. The use of public cloud is trending down across all workloads compared to 2023.
- AI Driving Hybrid IT Adoption: The rising use of AI, which demands more computing resources and high data volumes, is prompting IT leaders to re-evaluate their hosting options. The 2024 report shows a shift of AI-specific workloads from on-prem environments to colocation data centers. Over three-quarters of respondents are considering moving AI-related workloads from public cloud to colocation, including GenAI applications (91%), chatbots (81%), predictive analytics (79%), and augmented AI applications (76%).
The 2024 State of the Data Center report is based on a quantitative survey of 300 CIOs, CTOs, and other IT decision-makers, along with in-depth interviews with senior technology executives from various sectors. The research was conducted by Foundry, an IDG, Inc. company.