Cloud datacenters anticipated to become largely robot-dependent by 2025

In a strong endorsement to the value of artificial intelligence and machine learning, research firm Gartner predicts that half of cloud datacenters will be leveraging advanced robots by 2025.

Gartner believes these AI-centered deployments will ramp up the operating efficiency of datacenters by a margin of 30%.

So what role will robots play in cloud datacenters? Why are these robots considered so vital, and what motivates businesses to adopt them at such a robust pace?

The role of robots in cloud datacenters

The typical workflow in a cloud datacenter comprises a host of different actions. These actions include capacity planning, VM rightsizing, rightsizing the container environments, and ensuring that there is no cloud waste for enterprises as well as their buyers. While all these jobs are crucial, these are tedious, complex, and iterative actions to be performed rigorously day in and day out. These are the areas where advanced robots prove efficient. The successful deployment of robots and AI reduce the scope of human intervention without compromising the security, accuracy, and efficiency of the environment.

More specifically, the Gartner study has been able to identify four areas where robots will prove impactful in datacenter automation in the next four years.

Decommissioning drives

Once servers phase out, there’s the phase of decommissioning and destroying drives. Industrial robots can accomplish this job faster and in a way that is more efficient than humans. Cloud providers would benefit from this since they need to conduct such mass upgrades and transitions more frequently.

Efficient and remote monitoring

Monitoring becomes highly efficient with the deployment of robot sensors. Even without requiring invasive physical hardware, robot sensors can provide more granular server rack temperature data. Remote monitoring-competent robots can collect a range of other datasets, such as sound and images. These data help detect irregularities.

Security maintenance

Robots help maintain a digitally and physically secure datacenter facility. The physical security layers could be human temperature checks done through heat sensors or license plate recognition technologies deployed in parking facilities.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

The deployment of modern artificial intelligence and machine learning methods helps manage datacenter IT processes. The natural language processing capabilities of these technologies help site reliability engineers to interact and communicate with the platform. Platforms that can learn from past situations to improve future efficiency.

Sid Nag, research VP at Gartner, said in a statement, “IT leaders can steer the intelligent automation of cloud datacenter operations and processes” to differentiate their services and improve them in terms of “increased uptime and meeting SLAs.”