From New Sustainability Initiatives to the Bifurcation of Storage: 5 Data Center Trends to Watch in 2025From New Sustainability Initiatives to the Bifurcation of Storage: 5 Data Center Trends to Watch in 2025

As we turn the calendar from 2024 to 2025, it is a time for much reflection while hopefully ushering in newfound optimism for the new year. Any innovation that comes out in 2025 – whether it’s flying cars, highly advanced AI or a breakthrough medical treatment – will be built on the backs of an equally innovative IT foundation driven by data. Data that needs to be stored, managed, and made accessible in the datacenter, in the cloud, or at the edge.

Is it too much of a stretch to say the future of humankind is dependent on data storage? We don’t think so.

2025 Datacenter Trends to Watch

The ability to keep up with data storage advancements will be a competitive differentiator in this brave, new world. Let’s take a look at five trends to watch in 2025.

1. Advanced AI models will drive storage growth

It’s no secret that data generation and consumption are skyrocketing while organizations face pressure to quickly derive value from this data. Innovative companies looking to invest heavily in advanced AI technologies will be taking a closer look at how this data is created, managed and securely accessed. Efficiency through greater performance, lower power and higher capacity at scale will be key drivers with data storage becoming an enabling technology for critical stages within the AI Data Cycle. New architectures such as NVMe-oF that enable GPU direct architectures, and advancements in high-capacity HDDs and QLC SSDs will continue to drive storage optimization, ensuring organizations get the most value out of their AI applications. —Scott Hamilton, senior director of platforms product management and marketing at Western Digital

Related:A Deep Dive on Nvidia’s Agentic AI

2. We’ll see a continued focus on sustainable data storage initiatives

Nearly every industry is introducing new, long-term sustainability initiatives and best practices to better our planet. For IT managers and datacenter architects, managing the influx of new data will drive a constant search for ways to optimize storage, making it more efficient, more effective, and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO). This includes investing in energy-efficient storage technologies such as newer HDDs and SSDs, which can consume less power per TB of data stored and help reduce energy and cooling costs. Or there are data management practices like de-duplication and compression, or data lifecycle management practices that can help optimize data on the right tier of storage. Knowing what storage technologies will help you meet these internal goals and sustainability targets will be crucial when building out storage infrastructures. —Brad Warbiany, director of HDD technical marketing at Western Digital

Related:Cisco Report: Enterprises Ill-prepared to Realize AI’s Potential

3. Evolving use cases will further drive bifurcated and hybrid storage solutions

Today’s evolving storage needs are transforming the way enterprise customers approach data management, especially in the context of the AI Data Cycle. High-capacity storage solutions emphasize cost-effective, large-scale data retention, while compute-optimized storage focuses on speed and low latency for performance-critical, time-sensitive applications. Many organizations require both capabilities. In this rapidly changing landscape, simply purchasing white-label drives as storage needs grow is no longer sufficient. Solutions must be tailored to specific use cases to ensure optimal performance and efficiency. —Zaki Hassan, director of cloud segment marketing at Western Digital

4. Autonomous vehicle advancements will drive the need for more edge and cloud storage

NAND flash storage needs are eve- increasing with advancements in feature-rich in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. While some dat must remain in the vehicle for real-time decision-making, much of the learning and improvements take place in the cloud. Sensory data and new scenarios are uploaded to the cloud where it is analyzed and new, smarter AI algorithms are updated over the air to the vehicle in a continuous learning loop. —Russell Ruben, director of automotive and emerging segment marketing at Western Digital

Related:Business Continuity Depends on the Intersection of Security and Resilience

5. HDDs will not disappear

No matter how you slice it, HDDs are going to be around for a long time. The amount of data generated continues to grow exponentially. AI/ML, big data and the cloud continue to expand and create more data that must be stored. HDD technology advancements have led to larger storage capacities than ever before.  When deploying storage solutions at scale, one of the most important considerations is lower total cost of ownership (TCO). When factoring in data center CapEx and OpEx requirements including power, maintenance, repairs and the initial acquisition cost for storage devices, high-capacity HDDs offer the lowest possible overall TCO. With HDDs enabling lower TCO, they can help organizations maximize efficiency and profitability. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why HDDs are here to stay. —Brad Warbiany, director of HDD technical marketing at Western Digital

Storage Solutions as Agile as Tomorrow’s Innovations

Honestly, no one knows what 2025 will really bring. But it’s clear the data center will continue to evolve to meet the increasingly dynamic needs of a massively changing digital world. Enabling this innovation will be data storage – providing the IT backbone for creating, managing, accessing and processing the data that leads to amazing breakthroughs.

Authors:

Scott Hamilton, Senior Director, Product Management & Marketing at Western Digital: Scott Hamilton, Senior Director, Product Management & Marketing at Western Digital, is leader of product management and marketing for the Platforms Business Unit that offers a diverse product portfolio spanning external storage, specialized storage servers, and composable disaggregated infrastructure. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in storage, IT, and communications technologies. Prior to joining Western Digital, Scott was Vice President, Product Management & Advanced Solutions at Quantum. He has held various leadership positions in product and business line management, product marketing, technical sales, and engineering at Quantum, Emulex, Raytheon, General Electric, and other companies.

Brad Warbiany, Director of HDD Technical Marketing at Western Digital: Brad Warbiany is the Director of HDD Technical Marketing at Western Digital. Brad has been with Western Digital for over 16 years, having held previous positions at SiliconSystems, Advantech, and Altera. Brad holds a Certificate in Management for Technical Professionals from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

Russell Ruben, WW Automotive Segment Marketing Director at Western Digital: Russell Ruben is director of automotive and emerging segment marketing at Western Digital. Previously, Russell was Western Digital’s Surveillance and Connected Home marketing director and prior to that was responsible for the automotive business in Korea and Japan. Prior to joining Western Digital, Russell worked at Microsemi Corp. and Altera Corp (now Intel) and has more than 25 years of experience in engineering, marketing and sales. While at SanDisk, he served as product marketing manager where he was responsible for SD cards, compact flash and custom OEM flash products.

Zaki Hassan, Director of Flash Marketing for Western Digital: Zaki Hassan serves as the Director of Flash Marketing for Western Digital’s Enterprise Business Unit. In this role, he leads the marketing and communication strategies for the company’s data center-class SSDs, focusing on showcasing their value to drive revenue growth across the hyperscale cloud and channel segments. With a diverse background spanning applications engineering, product management, and marketing, Zaki brings over two decades of expertise to the industry. Before joining Western Digital, he held a strategic marketing role at Micron focusing on early-stage investing, partnerships, startup incubation, and acquisitions.