Open Data Day, an annual event to promote the use and awareness of open data globally, serves as a timely reminder of the benefits of “openness.” While not all organisations may adopt an open approach to data, the accessibility of data — its essence — is vital for fostering collaboration and innovation, helping companies respond swiftly and effectively to changing business needs.
The data centres of tomorrow
Advancements in generative AI are highlighting the importance of data accessibility. As AI reshapes entire industry sectors, a crucial yet often overlooked aspect is the fundamental role of data — the lifeblood of AI. Without vast amounts of diverse, high-quality data, AI models cannot learn, adapt, or deliver the desired results.
As data generation continues to increase exponentially, it must be properly managed, stored, and processed. It is now common to see companies leveraging interoperability between physical infrastructure and various on-premises IT and cloud environments. An IDC APAC cloud survey reports an increasing adoption of hybrid IT, with 77% of organisations having a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environment—a figure expected to reach 84% within two years.
Today, data centres are no longer just siloed structures for server and networking hardware; they are crucial hubs that act as digital clearinghouses for the constant ebb and flow of data in our world. Hybrid IT infrastructure, which supports both public and private data movements, plays a vital role in enabling organisations to harness technologies like AI while addressing data privacy, security, and cost considerations.
With the growth of generative AI, data sets are also expanding, and the resulting data gravity is prompting companies to rethink their IT architectures. This concept underscores the critical need for hybrid IT infrastructure that supports seamless information exchange across the business.
As a result, businesses are reassessing their digital infrastructure for flexible solutions, focusing on enhanced data-centre-to-data-centre or data-centre-to-cloud connectivity to support increasingly complex requirements.
Here is where a new era of open, collaborative infrastructure comes into play.
The power of an open ecosystem
The ability to seamlessly exchange data, both within departments and with external parties, can make or break modern businesses. Closed systems can limit access to a broader ecosystem of their digital supply chain. To overcome data gravity and empower digital businesses to innovate and grow, organisations need a collaborative environment to build flexible, scalable, and reliable digital infrastructures that adapt to their needs.
Multi-tenant data centres that are open foster collaboration and accelerate digital transformation by facilitating seamless data exchange in a secure meeting place with dense, connected data communities. On such platforms, businesses have the freedom to access and select from a rich ecosystem of reliable and cost-efficient services and connectivity offerings. This enables them to build and orchestrate their ideal solutions with ease and efficiency, thus opening doors to innovation without the constraints of physical location or closed ecosystems.
Consider the example of KakaoBank, a mobile-only bank in Korea. To enhance its AI-driven services and support research and development for new financial products, the bank established its AI lab in Seoul. This strategic move underscores the broader trend among businesses to invest in advanced facilities that enable significant technological advancements.
KakaoBank’s decision was influenced by the need for a data centre that supports compute-intensive workloads and offers a network-neutral environment with extensive connectivity options. This enables KakaoBank to access a broad range of service providers, with more than 100 services available, including secure and direct connections to over 200 global cloud on-ramps.
In a world where data is king, the data centre industry plays a pivotal role in opening doors to partnerships and collaborations that enable organisations to fully realise their data’s potential.
With a free-market ecosystem approach that removes the constraints of physical location or closed ecosystems, multi-tenant data centre providers offer organisations cost-effective, scalable, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure solutions, allowing them to focus on their core business objectives.
