Population explosion in UK by 2051; a minor problem compared with our Data Centres?

Added by Chris Gabriel, 9 months ago.

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Government statistics do not generally get me excited, but, while I ruminate on the environmental challenges facing IT departments, any news item that talks to increased populations always interests me.

Yesterday data from the office for national statistics projected a population growth of 17 million more people by 2051, and it got me thinking. How do you house 17 million more people in a country while your headline objective is managing down carbon emissions to save the planet?

I see most politicians stayed away from that discussion yesterday.

The same challenge talks directly to the challenge that most IT departments face.

"Store everything for ever,'" is the mantra of the business, "and by the way, we will be creating ever more data in the coming years; so store that as well"

However, manage down your energy use; make sure you keep the data centre operational costs steady or smaller, and meet the businesses environmental objectives.

I see most business leaders stay away from that discussion all of the time.

The population increase in the UK was a headline grabbing 8%. Information growth is headlining at 50% plus by most analysts.

Business executives have to face facts; they must improve their understanding of business policy on their IT environment. Policy chanced upon in the boardroom is creating havoc in our Data Centres. A business unit owner getting on their high horse about needing to store their data forever must be challenged; not by IT but by the business.

We know that Government will continue to create legislation that creates a massive growth in data retention (the European Union are not backwards in coming forwards on this either) so businesses must look hard at their own data retention policies and get their house in order soon.

Unless we want to create polluting information landfill across our country, we cannot continue with this uncontrolled growth in data creation and the unmanaged practice of data retention.

Comments

There are currently 4 comments about this blog.

chris gabriel, 8 months ago

Sorry for the delay to start with. Personally, no, I don't think the government will do anything about legislation on data retention, but, I think it is incumbent on us all to point out the madness of two pieces of competing legislation. I honestly don't think government are remotely joined up on this issue, but I don't think many businesses are either. One positive point. The UK IT Environment Board are questioning an adviser to number 10 next week, and this is one of the questions on the list. I will let you know what transpires.

Amanda Smith, 8 months ago

If this is going to be such a big problem, do you think there's any chance that the UK government may in fact bring down the number of years that companies have to hold data for? Also, outside the confines of this site, are any IT groups actively lobbying government on this issue?

Gary Eastwood, 9 months ago

You talk about the impact of business policy on the IT environment. Doesn't this come back to the same old argument about the disconnect between IT and business?

George Black, 9 months ago

I agree with your comment about additional legislation from Government and the EU creating increasing requirements for data retention. So surely responsibility starts with the politicians? Does the issue (and challenge) of data retention even come into the equation when new legislation is being created and introduced? It should do.