Western Digital's predictions for 2022: cloud gaming, green data centers and a revolution in government
Giants like Western Digital are in a uniquely privileged position to accurately forecast technology and market trends. In recent years, this has been an extremely difficult task - yet the company has presented a set of predictions on how the world of technology will develop. In the simplest terms, we can expect to see the continued popularity of remote working, the growth of data archives, cloud gaming and the "greening" of data centers.
For us - Western Digital's PR agency - such forecasts are excellent "raw material" to work with. Here we have at our disposal a great, up-to-date topic that will be interesting for all journalists closely watching the technology industry. Such forecasts are great material for preparing not only press releases - they are also extremely useful when arranging activities such as expert articles, statements of specialists or comments to articles describing broader market trends, but also other forms, such as adverstories, white papers, case studies or simply briefs that can inspire journalists' original articles.
But this is one of those situations - not so common in our work - when a company, while talking about its predictions, products and observations, is actually talking about an entire market segment, economy, or even the whole changing world. We like such topics... so expect more articles and publications on Western Digital's forecasts. Especially that it is one of the most interesting ways of telling about the company and its influence on our environment - not through dry product presentations or marketing texts, but through stories about how the world is changing (and how the client's products stimulate/facilitate these changes). The impact and value of such articles may be difficult to measure with an advertising equivalent... but they certainly effectively demonstrate our Clients' experience and know-how.
1. archive data will grow the fastest
Remote/Hybrid working will remain extremely popular in 2022 with an estimated 52% employees in the UK, for example. This means that corporate IT professionals must provide all of these people with convenient, remote access to the files they need to work - with a significant (and fastest growing in 2022) portion of this being cold (or archived) data. These are files that need to be preserved and stored in a way that makes them easy to reach - but they don't need to be instantly accessible. This category would include any backups, archives, data from monitoring systems, research, etc. Western Digital's storage specialists explain that you don't need the fastest storage media available - HDDs or tape drives will do just fine.
2. the dawn of the "green" data center era
Data centers can consume huge amounts of energy - which means that in some countries they can be some of the major "producers" of (simplifying) dioxide carbon (it is estimated, for example, that in 2023 in Ireland data centers will be responsible for consuming 70% of the total electricity used).
Therefore, in 2022. Western Digital expects a massive migration of such system operators toward green, renewable energy - with this manifesting itself in retrofitting existing centers rather than building new ones. One of the many ways to reduce energy consumption may be, for example, implementation of new, more capacious data carriers (which will allow to reduce their number). The dominant trend will be data storage densification - that is, taking all data towards storing more data on fewer devices.
3. data independence concerns
One effect of the pandemic has been to accelerate the adoption of digital services in government - which in turn has led to a new wave of discussion about how to ensure data security and data sovereignty (in other words, how to keep government data out of the hands of unauthorized people). Western Digital expects that this year will see many government data storage systems being upgraded to meet new, heightened expectations for data security and confidentiality. This will involve both providing adequate security systems and organizing storage systems so that government data remains within the boundaries of countries or international organizations (such as the EU).
4. the future of gaming is in the cloud
2021 was the year of popularization of services allowing to run games in the cloud - without having to download and install them on the user's device. In 2022 this trend will only strengthen - thanks to services such as Netfilx, users have already become accustomed to this model of "delivering" entertainment (the best proof can be the launch of Netflix Games at the end of 2021). In order to service such services, efficient data centers will be necessary - and brands such as Xbox or Netflix will be forced to virtualize these centers in order to efficiently serve interested players and remain profitable in this new world.
Western Digital specialists add that in 2022, NFT tokens will also become an important phenomenon in the gaming world - as many game developers see this technology as a solution that can be easily and profitably implemented into gameplay (e.g., to authenticate unique items in games).
For us - Western Digital's PR agency - such forecasts are excellent "raw material" to work with. Here we have at our disposal a great, up-to-date topic that will be interesting for all journalists closely watching the technology industry. Such forecasts are great material for preparing not only press releases - they are also extremely useful when arranging activities such as expert articles, statements of specialists or comments to articles describing broader market trends, but also other forms, such as adverstories, white papers, case studies or simply briefs that can inspire journalists' original articles.
But this is one of those situations - not so common in our work - when a company, while talking about its predictions, products and observations, is actually talking about an entire market segment, economy, or even the whole changing world. We like such topics... so expect more articles and publications on Western Digital's forecasts. Especially that it is one of the most interesting ways of telling about the company and its influence on our environment - not through dry product presentations or marketing texts, but through stories about how the world is changing (and how the client's products stimulate/facilitate these changes). The impact and value of such articles may be difficult to measure with an advertising equivalent... but they certainly effectively demonstrate our Clients' experience and know-how.
So what will the world of technology look like in 2022?
The last two years have turned many previous predictions about how technology will evolve upside down. In the wake of a pandemic, the entire world has "switched" to remote work and reduced travel - which on the one hand has boosted some developments, but on the other: slowed down others. Western Digital experts were tempted to make a new prediction about how storage and related technologies will evolve in 2022 - here are their predictions.1. archive data will grow the fastest
Remote/Hybrid working will remain extremely popular in 2022 with an estimated 52% employees in the UK, for example. This means that corporate IT professionals must provide all of these people with convenient, remote access to the files they need to work - with a significant (and fastest growing in 2022) portion of this being cold (or archived) data. These are files that need to be preserved and stored in a way that makes them easy to reach - but they don't need to be instantly accessible. This category would include any backups, archives, data from monitoring systems, research, etc. Western Digital's storage specialists explain that you don't need the fastest storage media available - HDDs or tape drives will do just fine.
2. the dawn of the "green" data center era
Data centers can consume huge amounts of energy - which means that in some countries they can be some of the major "producers" of (simplifying) dioxide carbon (it is estimated, for example, that in 2023 in Ireland data centers will be responsible for consuming 70% of the total electricity used).
Therefore, in 2022. Western Digital expects a massive migration of such system operators toward green, renewable energy - with this manifesting itself in retrofitting existing centers rather than building new ones. One of the many ways to reduce energy consumption may be, for example, implementation of new, more capacious data carriers (which will allow to reduce their number). The dominant trend will be data storage densification - that is, taking all data towards storing more data on fewer devices.
3. data independence concerns
One effect of the pandemic has been to accelerate the adoption of digital services in government - which in turn has led to a new wave of discussion about how to ensure data security and data sovereignty (in other words, how to keep government data out of the hands of unauthorized people). Western Digital expects that this year will see many government data storage systems being upgraded to meet new, heightened expectations for data security and confidentiality. This will involve both providing adequate security systems and organizing storage systems so that government data remains within the boundaries of countries or international organizations (such as the EU).
4. the future of gaming is in the cloud
2021 was the year of popularization of services allowing to run games in the cloud - without having to download and install them on the user's device. In 2022 this trend will only strengthen - thanks to services such as Netfilx, users have already become accustomed to this model of "delivering" entertainment (the best proof can be the launch of Netflix Games at the end of 2021). In order to service such services, efficient data centers will be necessary - and brands such as Xbox or Netflix will be forced to virtualize these centers in order to efficiently serve interested players and remain profitable in this new world.
Western Digital specialists add that in 2022, NFT tokens will also become an important phenomenon in the gaming world - as many game developers see this technology as a solution that can be easily and profitably implemented into gameplay (e.g., to authenticate unique items in games).
