Yesterday, Honeywell released its most recent report, "Rethinking Data Centers as Resilient, Sustainable Facilities." The report explored a number of different factors, including the challenges, and priorities of facility managers in the sector across the United States, China, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, it revealed that safety and energy efficiency are top priorities.
Interestingly, 91% of surveyed managers experienced at least one "disruptive incident" during the last 12 months. The main causes behind these incidents included downtime related to an outage (54%), a cyber or physical breach (38%) or unplanned downtime (34%).
The importance of sustainability was outlined as a key factor, too. The survey found that 34% of those surveyed valued improving energy efficiency as a top priority over the next 12-18 months. Meanwhile, 54% are seeking to reduce building energy use to bolster sustainability goals.
Another trend that emerged from the survey was the err towards developing smart building solutions. The majority of respondents (96%) said that remote management is a focus in their facility or will be in the future. Those who had implemented these changes only accounted for 34% of those surveyed.
Speaking about where the sector is right now, Manish Sharma, vice president and chief technology and product officer, Honeywell Building Technologies, said: "Data centers have become one of the world's most valuable resources. They enable e-commerce, cloud computing, remote work and help businesses across nearly every industry meet growing demands. Investing in their efficiency, resilience and sustainability should be viewed not as a luxury but a strategic need."
