Data center sustainability, everything-as-a-service, and SME digitalization challenges will take the limelight next year: will your organizations react or pro-act?
For governments and businesses alike, rising geopolitical tensions have propelled data protection concerns to the forefront, motivating the urge to keep sensitive data on national soil.
In recent years governments have already laid the necessary groundwork with data localization policies. Data remains the lifeblood of digitalized economies, particularly for the South-east Asian region that will witness millions of new digital citizens in the coming years.
Ultimately, data sovereignty is set to grow to become a driver of data storage trends in 2023 and beyond. Businesses will have to ensure compliance across multiple data zones and the use of multiple cloud providers will be an inevitable outcome.
With that, it is cloud providers that ensure an open ecosystem that will emerge on top.
Data centers face the green challenge
As it stands, the current global emissions trajectory places us on a dangerous path that is far from limiting global warming to only 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
At the moment the Asia Pacific region has the second highest growth rate for data centers, and it is also on the precipice of a digital revolution with 5G.
Thankfully, furthering sustainability aims need not come at the expense of greater digitalization. While it is servers and cooling systems that have been notorious for expending massive quantities of energy, water cooling technology has proven itself as a far more energy-efficient and sustainable cooling model as opposed to active cooling methods like fans and heat sinks, especially when water cooling technology has also been proven to not only reduce the environmental impact, but also enhance servers’ processing capabilities.
In 2023, it is certain that countries in the region and globally will shore up on regulations to further their net-zero ambitions. As more countries embark along the green path, transitioning to greener technologies will no longer be a task that cloud providers will be able to put off.
PaaS migration will escalate
In 2023, adoption of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions will be on the uptick as the race to capture customers intensifies on the digital front, with APAC expected to generate 400m new 5G connections by 2025.
Investments in big data, IoT, applications and other emerging technologies are only set to grow from here on out, and PaaS will be the gateway for businesses to access advanced technologies in the cloud without paying the cost for the necessary infrastructure.
The projections are already out: reports have placed PaaS to grow 30% year-on-year. Especially as competition grows steeper, PaaS will be the tool that enables businesses to shift gears towards innovation. Finally, 2023 will continue to see APAC small- to medium- enterprises mull over the need to constantly innovate in order to stay competitive and not fall behind. Without the on-demand resources to expend at will, SMEs in the region labor under a disadvantage in matching up to their larger counterparts in the race for innovating with all things digital.
