At first glance, the concept of an “unmanned” data center may sound almost like science fiction. But the reality is that unmanned data centers already exist, and the increasing availability of technology to operate data centers without on-site staff means that the benefits of unmanned data centers are increasing. There is good reason to think that unmanned data centers will become more prominent in the coming years. We operate a “lights out” facility.
Here's everything you need to know about unmanned data centers, including how they work, why they're valuable, and how they're likely to impact the data center industry over the next decade or so. Here's what you need to know.
What is an unmanned data center?
An unattended data center (also known as a “lights out” data center) is, as the name suggests, a data center without on-site personnel. (Incidentally, not all data center employees are male, so we think a term like “unmanned data center” would be a bit more appropriate, but “unmanned” is a popular terminology in the industry. I am using.)
Most data centers typically do not have a particularly large number of data centers. engineer Most facilities do not require extensive maintenance, so you can work there. However, traditional data centers usually have at least a few staff members who can handle tasks such as power and monitoring of his HVAC system. Some facilities rely on on-premises staff to provide services. “White gloves” service We provide services to customers such as server setup and management.
However, unmanned facilities do not have staff on-site during normal operations. Although personnel visits to facilities for maintenance are extremely rare, day-to-day operations are fully automated and data centers can operate for weeks or months without human intervention.
Importantly, people can and often do help run unmanned data centers. But they do this remotely, utilizing network-connected tools to monitor facilities and implement changes.
Advantages and disadvantages of unmanned data centers
The main benefits of unmanned data centers boil down to cost savings. Unmanned facilities do not require the physical presence of staff; Operation costs are lower. Data center operators may still pay engineers to support unmanned facilities remotely, but labor costs may be lower because a single team can oversee multiple facilities. . This would not be possible if each local site had to be staffed.
Additionally, unmanned data centers tend to be designed for a high degree of reliability and resiliency. Designers planning traditional data centers may not place much emphasis on the ability of HVAC, power, and other systems to automatically recover from failures. This is because it assumes that a human will be there to repair it when a problem occurs. However, unmanned facilities prioritize reliability and reduce the risk of problems occurring in the first place.
On the other hand, unmanned data centers can be costly. design and buildBecause they require advanced self-management capabilities that traditional data centers don't have. In addition, unmanned facilities run the risk that if something serious goes wrong, it may take longer to fix it because there is no on-site staff available to respond immediately.
Current status of unmanned data centers
In 2024, the majority of the world's data centers will still rely on on-site human operators. However, unmanned data centers already exist in some locations.
The most common example is a small edge facility located in an area where it is not practical to have human technicians on a regular basis. Some of the more creative examples of unmanned data centers include: Underwater data center equipment, launched by Microsoft as a proof of concept.Eventually, we might see Unmanned data center in spacetoo.
Conclusion: The future of unmanned data centers
Although there aren't many lights-out data centers in operation today, there's plenty of incentive for more companies to utilize unmanned facilities. Unattended operating models can reduce costs, although initial costs can be high, and enable more enterprises to deploy data centers at the edge and locations, offering benefits such as: Masu. Easy access to renewable energy.
at the same time, Remote monitoring and management tools Data centers are expected to find it increasingly easier to operate unmanned facilities.
So while we probably shouldn't expect the majority of data centers to become unmanned anytime soon, we should expect more companies to start taking advantage of the lower costs and higher reliability that unmanned data centers offer. need to do it.