2022 Predictions & Trends: Chris Sharp

Chief Technology Officer

With technology changing and evolving at a rapid pace, what will you be prioritizing in 2022?

We’ll continue to bring greater differentiation to our offerings, accelerating new products to the market, and creating additional industry partnerships that allow us to generate the highest value in the shortest time.

That will include, for example, helping customers overcome the complexities of software by offering a click-to-configure, click-to-procure experience. We’ll also be working with customers to better understand their thought process around AI. This can be a game-changer if businesses utilize it to establish neural networks where data can be used to make more efficient decisions.

We have also made a significant investment in establishing pre-certification through some of the largest chip manufacturers, to support the high-power density required for AI applications.

Largely due to Digital Realty’s interconnection diversity, many edge workloads can start from our core function and still fulfill end user requirements. This year, we’re investing heavily in our platform across the globe because we are seeing customers reconfiguring their financial and technological priorities in favor of edge infrastructure. We’re also ensuring that hyperscalers can develop and deploy these workloads.

What do you predict will be 2022’s key technology focus?

Software development will lead the way. When it’s combined with power density and interconnection, there is no end to what AI can achieve across a broad spectrum of challenges.

Cloud and edge are beneficial to our industry, as is the metaverse. Today, there is an opportunity to support how these elements come together-they need to be distributed and heavily interconnected.

Digital Realty is working to not just establish a foothold here, but to define the future roadmap. The type of support infrastructure we offer is becoming increasingly critical to the future of business.