Dell Technologies Predicts Top 10 Trends for Server Development in 2021

        With artificial intelligence, edge, and cloud architectures continuing to inject "fresh blood" into the server market, what are the top trends that will impact server technology efforts and products in 2021?

　　Dell Technologies invited senior server technology experts from across the group to participate in a survey and, based on their input, compiled a report on server trends and observations for 2021, with a look at the top 10 predictions made by experts.

　　1

　　Everything-as-a-service becomes an enterprise theme

　　As the speed of technology continues to increase, enterprise customers need to focus on differentiated business outcomes with the most favorable price/performance ratio and the least start-up and maintenance costs while dealing with limited budgets and traditional skill sets. Choosing an on-premises infrastructure-as-a-service (as a service) offering gives customers the flexibility to focus on their business value through different deployments while maintaining their data security and management through a trusted infrastructure.

　　2

　　Server Growth

　　Is built on verticality

　　As customers look for the most effective outcomes from their infrastructure, the industry will continue to see more verticalization and specialization. Software ecosystem implementations and domain-specific gas pedals that meet unique performance and functional requirements and are optimized for specific business outcomes.

　　3

　　More data, more intelligence

　　Challenges in data velocity, volume and volatility continue, requiring continued adoption of AI/ML for analytics, along with an increased focus on addressing data lifecycle challenges. The integration of data management models, delivery methods, preservation and security architectures with faster analytics will all be key to supporting and monetizing the Internet of Behaviors (IoB).

　　4

　　The emergence of automated decision servers

　　Customers will begin to see higher levels of automation in their systems management infrastructure using telemetry, analytics and policy. Similar to the driver assistance/autonomous driving aspects of self-driving cars, AI operations and maintenance capabilities with system management will usher in the era of shifting automated tasks to automated decision making, as demonstrated by the implementation of a recommendation engine for resolving runaway system dynamics and policy advice.

　　5

　　Goodbye, Software Defined

　　Hello, software-defined hardware offload

　　Application architectures are evolving to create a separation between the control plane and the data plane. The control plane stays at the software layer, while the data plane moves to programmable hardware in the form of service processor add-on cards that allow bare-metal and containerized applications to run alongside disaggregated infrastructure software (network virtualization, storage virtualization, GPU virtualization, security services) to create intent-based computing for customer workloads.

　　6

　　5G is really here!

　　After years of hype and promises, we will see the proliferation of 5G and with it will come a paradigm shift around communications infrastructure, remote management models and connectivity that will impact server form factors and capabilities. As enterprises develop more edge infrastructure to handle the generation and influx of data, 5G will cause customers to reevaluate their edge connectivity and infrastructure management offerings to take advantage of 5G capabilities.

　　7

　　Rethinking data-centric

　　Memory and Storage

　　The industry is moving from compute-centric architectures to data-centric architectures, and this shift is driving a new server-connected memory and storage paradigm in IT. Technologies around persistent, encrypted and tiered memory inside servers, as well as remote access to SCM and NVMe oF data through new industry fabric standards, are creating innovative IT architectures for optimal data security, scaling and preservation.

　　8

　　When in a remote state

　　Adopting New Server Technologies

　　The world has changed, and companies are forced to not only plan for digital transformation, but also implement it to operate. Enterprises that handle faster digital transformation of tools, processes and infrastructure need to operate with remote work teams. This transformation is forcing enterprises to evaluate new server technologies and assess resource requirements, which will emphasize the need to leverage server capabilities around commissioning, telemetry and analytics in a remote manner to keep business continuity moving forward.

　　9

　　It's not a CPU competition

　　It's a "recipe" baking contest

　　The processor landscape is changing, and it is becoming an environment of acquisition, specialization and vendor differentiation and consolidation. We are seeing Intel, AMD and Nvidia all making acquisitions to provide CPUs, DPUs and gas pedals for their respective portfolios. The real winners will be able to leverage their portfolio of silicon products and software libraries into an integrated product "recipe" for workloads that will help end customers optimize business outcomes.

　　10

　　Measuring Your IT Trust Index

　　Security around server access and data protection has never been more challenging, so customers need their security confidence to be quantified to measure the trustworthiness of their infrastructure and identify digital risks. Customers need to analyze product origins and capabilities, new security technologies, and segmentation of specific digital threats in the context of a tightening regulatory environment to develop their measure of IT trust from the edge to the core to the cloud.