Rethinking the Cost of Ownership of Digital Infrastructure

- Susanna Kass, Data Center Advisor to UN Sustainable Development UNEP DTU Partnership, Member of Climate 50

Published on Cloud Expo Europe 17 July 2020

We can no longer measure the total cost of ownership for a Data Center solely in terms of economic costs for the traditional design, construction, and operation expense of a data center single site per megawatt installed.

We are living in a Connected Everything Era, with data centers rapidly expanding and depleting environmental resources. As an integral part of urban communities, they require abundant spaces and remain the primary driver of the global energy consumption in the foreseeable future.

This demand is disruptive during times of both peril and opportunity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

COVID-19 has altered the demands of digital infrastructure 24x7 around the world. What we learned from previous economic dislocations, such as the dotcom bust or the 2008 financial crisis, is that data center providers adapt, emerge, and stay resilient.

For the past twenty years, the data center industry has averaged a tremendous growth rate of 6% per year globally. We all recognize more Data Centers are being built, especially post COVID-19, to support the exponential growth of surges in Digital Services.

The current demand of Data Center infrastructure becomes a beneficiary of COVID-19, as a result of the shift to a socially distanced, contactless, and work-anywhere new normal.

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