Five Data Center Predictions for 2023 (Uptime Intelligence)

Overview

This document is the predictions report published by Uptime Institute Intelligence in January 2023 as UII Keynote Report 86. It addresses technological and geopolitical issues that make data center development and operations planning more difficult. The authors include A. Lawrence, D. Bizo, O. Rogers, J. Davis and M. Smolaks.

The abstract lists these issues: supply chain disruption, power and cooling for next-generation IT hardware, wariness of public cloud, pressure on the IT energy footprint, and inflation. Together they describe planning that is becoming less certain under stricter regulation. The introduction notes that the five predictions made for 2022 were largely borne out and remained relevant for 2023.

The full report sits behind a registration form or an Uptime Intelligence subscription; the information here comes only from the public landing page and abstract. The detail of each prediction, its supporting data and any figures are therefore not covered here. The report is not a source of design rules; it supplies direction and context. It can serve as background for explaining why assumptions on density, grid supply and liquid cooling need to be revisited during design.

Key points

1. Published as UII Keynote Report 86 in January 2023.
2. The issues range from technological to geopolitical and complicate planning.
3. Supply chain disruption is one of the headline issues.
4. Power and cooling for next-generation IT hardware is among the topics.
5. Wariness of public cloud is listed among the trends.
6. Pressure on the IT energy footprint and inflation are the other issues.
7. The five 2022 predictions were largely borne out and stayed relevant for 2023.
8. Access to the full report requires registration or a subscription.

Using it in design

• Use as context for roadmap and assumption notes (density, grid, liquid cooling) in the design wizard.
• Add supply chain risk to the project risk register as a prompt on equipment lead times and alternative suppliers.
• Cite it as background that justifies assumptions, not as a source of design rules.

Who should read it

Decision makers doing investment and capacity planning, and engineers who need to document the context behind design assumptions.

Publication details

Authors

Uptime Institute Intelligence

Publisher

Uptime Institute

Year

2023

Document number

UII Keynote Report 86

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Citation only

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation