Urges data centre ecosystem to shift from fragmented efforts to a unified sustainability approach
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX), a leader in mass-capacity data storage, today released the Decarbonising Data report, its latest global report based on a commissioned survey, highlighting the growing sustainability challenges facing data centres as enterprises scale to meet the demands of AI.
Goldman Sachs Research forecasts that global power demand from data centres will increase by as much as 165% by 2030, compared with 2023. Seagate’s new report reveals that energy usage is now a top concern for 53.5% of business leaders. The rising data volumes, slowing power efficiency gains, and increasing AI adoption are putting pressure on organisations to manage carbon emissions, infrastructure expansion, and total cost of ownership (TCO) – all at once.
Key Findings:
AI to spur a wave of demand for data storage: 94.5% of respondents reported increasing data storage needs, with 97% anticipating AI’s growth to further impact storage demand.
Environmental impact vs. total cost of ownership: Nearly 95% of respondents are concerned about environmental impact, but only 3.3% prioritise it in purchasing decisions.
Top barriers in driving sustainability at data centres: High energy consumption (53.5%), raw material requirements (49.5%), physical space constraints (45.5%), infrastructure costs (28.5%), and acquisition costs (27%)
Disconnect in life cycle management: 92.2% acknowledge the importance of extending the life cycle of storage equipment, but only 15.5% consider it a top purchasing factor.
“Data centres are under intense scrutiny – not only because they support modern AI workloads, but because they are becoming one of the most energy-intensive sectors of the digital economy,” said Jason Feist, senior vice president of cloud marketing, Seagate. “This calls for a fundamental shift in how we think about data infrastructure – not as a trade-off between cost and sustainability, but as an opportunity to optimise for both.”
As organisations expand their data capabilities, they face three options: improve efficiency within existing infrastructure, expand data center footprint, or migrate workloads to the cloud. Each option involves trade-offs between cost, carbon, and control, indicating that total cost of ownership and sustainability can be compatible goals. Decisions on energy consumption, space utilisation, raw material use, and infrastructure investment now impact both business performance and environmental outcomes.
To support the industry in navigating this shift, the Decarbonising Data report outlines three strategic pillars for building a more sustainable data future:
Technological Innovation: Technological innovation remains a key driver of sustainable transformation. Advances in computational power, storage areal density, and energy-efficient technologies like liquid/immersion cooling and HVAC systems can significantly lower energy consumption and carbon emissions, effectively managing the growing demand profile. Seagate’s HAMR-based Mozaic 3+ platform, now in volume production, enables up to 3 times more capacity in the same footprint, reduces embodied carbon by over 70% per terabyte1, and lowers cost per terabyte by 25%2.
Commitment to life cycle extension and circularity: Refurbishing, reusing, and maintaining storage equipment extends lifespan and reduces waste. Real-time environmental monitoring and transparent reporting can foster accountability across the data centre environment.
Share accountability across the ecosystem: Achieving meaningful emissions reduction – across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 as outlined in the report – requires collaboration across the entire value chain, including vendors, suppliers, and cloud service providers.
"Sustainability cannot be solved in isolation. A holistic approach spanning infrastructure, life cycle management, and industry-wide accountability could ensure that the growth of AI and data centre operations does not come at the expense of the environment," said Jason Feist.
To view the comprehensive survey results and analysis, download the full Decarbonising Data Report.
Seagate Technology's Decarbonising Data report is based on a commissioned global study conducted by independent research firm Dynata, with fieldwork by global communications consultancy Current Global. Interviews were conducted with experts in the field of data storage and infrastructure, and a multi-market online survey was conducted with 330 data centre professionals responding across 11 markets, including Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, North America, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
AUSTRALIAN MARKET KEY FINDINGS
AI Spurs a Wave of Demand for Data Storage
66.7% of respondents in Australia strongly agreed that there has been an increase in demand for data storage services at their company, making it the highest market globally ahead of The US.
43% of Australian respondents strongly agreed that AI will significantly impact the need for data centre operations, behind The US, Taiwan, and China globally.
Environmental Impact vs. Total Cost of Ownership
A significant majority of Australian respondents (96.7%) expressed concern about the environmental impact of data storage practices,
More than half of data centre professionals in Australia (56.7%) cited that the large amount of raw materials needed for data storage infrastructure as an area of environmental concern.
In addition, 56.7% of Australian respondents highlighted the carbon emissions generated by data storage operations as a key environmental concern, while 33.3% cited high energy consumption.
76.7% of respondents in Australia reported using renewable energy to power their infrastructure and just 13.3% used liquid/immersion cooling systems to reduce the environmental impact of data operations — compared to global averages of 61.2% and 16.4%, respectively.
Yet, low environmental impact has negligible influence on Australian purchasing decisions for data storage infrastructure or equipment, with none of the respondents considering it a priority.
Top Barriers to Driving Sustainability
Respondents stated the budget required to make data storage operations more sustainable in Australia is USD $4.5B, which is below the global average of USD $4.9B.
Australian respondents identified lack of physical space as the greatest barrier to implementing sustainable data storage solutions (40%), closely followed by the cost of building data storage infrastructure (36.7%).
The cost of acquiring data centre components was also cited as a major barrier to implementing sustainable data storage solutions by 30% of respondents.
Disconnect in Lifecycle Management
In Australia, a total of 93% of respondents strongly agreed (33%) or agreed (60%) that extending the lifecycle of data storage equipment or infrastructure has a significant impact on the sustainability of data centre operations.
Australian respondents also showed extremely high levels of familiarity with the life cycle of data storage equipment or infrastructure – with half of them indicated that they were Extremely Familiar (50%) behind only The US at 56.7%.
However, just 16.7% of respondents in Australia considered high-quality products for an extended lifecycle as a key factor in their purchasing decisions.
Motivators for Sustainability Adoption
In Australia, 40% of leaders cited financial benefits as a key factor in adopting greener data storage practices, well below the global average of 56.1%. A further 40% pointed to official certifications for green company as a key factor, just ahead of the global average of 38.2%.
While 20% or less of respondents within most markets felt that “Sanctions or fines if a company does not adopt greener options” would persuade their leaders in adopting greener practices, Australia was the only exception, with 30.0% of respondents saying that the method would work.
53.3% of respondents in Australia cited the use of AI to monitor sustainability targets and a further 56.7% mentioned using AI to streamline data storage operations as the top two methods to making data storage operations more sustainable in future.
70% of respondents in Australia believed that customers could encourage companies to adopt more greener solutions by requesting more sustainable data storage options.
About Seagate Technology
Seagate is a leader in mass-capacity data storage. We have delivered more than four and a half billion terabytes of capacity over the past four decades. We make storage that scales, bringing trust and integrity to innovations that depend on data. In an era of unprecedented creation, Seagate stores infinite potential. To learn more about how Seagate leads storage innovation, visit www.seagate.com and our blog, or follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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