{"id":2370,"date":"2013-03-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T07:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:10:30","slug":"the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to have a time machine like Marty McFly in \u201cBack to the Future\u201d to see what technology will be in 20 and 30 years from now?\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s only possible in the movies.<\/p>\n<p>In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/searchdatacenter.techtarget.com\/feature\/What-will-the-next-big-data-center-transformation-look-like\">What will the next big data center transformation look like?<\/a><\/em>, Stephen J. Bigelow gives us a look into the next-generation data center.\u00a0 He describes the transformation in data centers will be \u201cmore science and less fiction\u201d and will focus on refining technologies for power, cooling and facility design.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Data Center Power<\/strong><br \/>\nWith the increase of mobile computing and social networking, the demand for power will still increase even if companies are shifting towards outsourcing or <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/solutions\/cloud\/\">cloud hosting providers<\/a>.\u00a0 Next-generation data centers will look to more efficient servers and power alternatives to help reduce power consumption.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Energy-efficient servers<\/strong> \u2013 Server designs are becoming more energy-efficient and able to operate at higher temperatures.\u00a0 Next-generation servers will only use a fraction of their power when idle and actively power down when it is not needed.\u00a0 Servers are also being \u201cpurpose-built\u201d rather than \u201cgeneral-propose,\u201d according to Pete Sclafani, CIO at 6connect. More efficient servers and virtualization will have an impact on data center cooling.\u00a0 With fewer servers and the ability to sustain higher temperatures, there is less heat to remove in a data center.\u00a0 Thus, reducing the amount of power needed to cool the data center.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Power Alternatives<\/strong> \u2013 The cost and availability of power is a growing concern among data center operators since power grids continue to age and the government is implementing more aggressive carbon emission standards.\u00a0 Future data centers will likely supplement power or offset utility prices by contracting with alternative energy providers like wind or solar farms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Data Center Cooling<\/strong><br \/>\nExperts are predicting that cooling technologies will be refined and data centers will look to adopt alternative systems.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mixture of cooling technologies<\/strong> &#8211; John Stanley, senior analyst for data center technologies at the 451 Group, says that future data center designs will have a mixture of both traditional and alternative cooling technologies. Environmental cooling alternatives can be adopted at any data center location, but to really reduce the use of mechanical refrigeration, next-generation data center sites need to be in locations that accommodate environmental cooling.\u00a0 For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/operations\/locations\/michigan-cloud-and-data-centers\/\">Michigan data centers<\/a> can benefit from the year-round cool temperatures.\u00a0\u00a0 With average temperature ranging from 23 degrees to 72 degrees, Michigan data centers can use free cooling the entire year and supplement with mechanical refrigeration as needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cooling Improvements<\/strong> \u2013 Next-generation data centers will take advantage of alternative cooling methodologies like using variable frequency drives.\u00a0 A lot of mechanical equipment operate motors at fixed speeds \u2013 on or off &#8211; but introducing variable-speed motors can save energy.\u00a0 Also proper airflow, full immersion cooling or using closer coupling between the cooling medium and servers will be critical to future data centers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Data Center Facilities<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Smaller Data Center Facilities<\/strong> \u2013 Sclafani notes that large data centers like Google and Yahoo may not be appropriate for most businesses.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead the trend will likely be smaller data centers and \u201cmore distributed to maintain performance and move computing and storage closer to users.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Environment will become more important<\/strong> &#8211; Site selection will always be key for data centers, but next-generation data centers will look more closely at the environmental impact.\u00a0 Future data centers will feel the social pressure to use electricity from alternative sources.\u00a0 Michigan data centers already have an advantage over other U.S. regions due to its cool temperatures and accessibility to alternative energy resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Related Articles:<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/could-wind-farms-power-michigan-data-centers\/\">Could Wind Farms Power Michigan Data Centers?<\/a><\/em><br \/>\nGlobally, data centers are seeing increases in their power consumption as well as higher energy costs. If you combine these factors together, you can understand why CIOs and data center operators are looking to alternative energy resources to reduce energy \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/could-wind-farms-power-michigan-data-centers\/\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/michigan-the-next-cool-thing-for-data-centers\/\">Michigan \u2013 The Next Cool Thing for Data Centers<\/a><\/em><br \/>\nKeeping cool is the number one cost for data centers.\u00a0 With rows and rows of servers and equipment producing heat, data centers have traditionally been cooled by using air conditioning.\u00a0 This is an inefficient way to cool data centers and \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/michigan-the-next-cool-thing-for-data-centers\/\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/investing-in-data-center-efficiencies-part-one\/\">Investing in Data Center Efficiencies \u2013 Part One<\/a><\/em><br \/>\nDo you know what the greatest operating expense is for data centers? Energy costs. Steadily rising over the years, the cost of energy now makes up 25 percent of a data center\u2019s total operating costs, says InformationWeekly.com. In a year-long \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/otavawebsite.wpengine.com\/blog\/investing-in-data-center-efficiencies-part-one\/\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wouldn\u2019t it be cool to have a time machine like Marty McFly in \u201cBack to the Future\u201d to see what technology will be in 20 and 30 years from now?\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s only possible in the movies. In What will the next big data center transformation look like?, Stephen J. Bigelow gives us a look into the next-generation data center.\u00a0 He describes the transformation in data centers will be \u201cmore science and less fiction\u201d and will focus on refining technologies for power, cooling and facility design. Data Center Power With the increase of mobile computing and social networking, the demand for power will still increase even if companies are shifting towards outsourcing or cloud hosting providers.\u00a0 Next-generation data centers will look to more efficient servers and power alternatives to help reduce power consumption. Energy-efficient servers \u2013 Server designs are becoming more energy-efficient and able to operate at higher temperatures.\u00a0 Next-generation servers will only use a fraction of their power when idle and actively power down when it is not needed.\u00a0 Servers are also being \u201cpurpose-built\u201d rather than \u201cgeneral-propose,\u201d according to Pete Sclafani, CIO at 6connect. More efficient servers and virtualization will have an impact on data center cooling.\u00a0 With fewer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"other_category":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill | OTAVA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OTAVA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Irma Brillantes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263\"},\"headline\":\"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\"},\"wordCount\":742,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\",\"name\":\"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill | OTAVA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\",\"name\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263\",\"name\":\"Irma Brillantes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Irma Brillantes\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/author\/ibrillantesotava-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill | OTAVA","description":"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill","og_description":"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/","og_site_name":"OTAVA","article_published_time":"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00","author":"Irma Brillantes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Irma Brillantes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/"},"author":{"name":"Irma Brillantes","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263"},"headline":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill","datePublished":"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/"},"wordCount":742,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/","name":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill | OTAVA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-29T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-14T07:10:30+00:00","description":"Discover how Michigan data centers are shaping the next generation of secure cloud infrastructure.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/the-next-generation-data-center-how-michigan-data-centers-fit-the-bill\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Generation Data Center: How Michigan Data Centers Fit the Bill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/","name":"OTAVA\u00ae","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization","name":"OTAVA\u00ae","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg","caption":"OTAVA\u00ae"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263","name":"Irma Brillantes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Irma Brillantes"},"url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/author\/ibrillantesotava-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"other_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/other_category?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}