A digitized data center future begins with dimming the lights. That means less people on-site, thanks to connected critical infrastructure, data center expertise, and powerful analytics. One day, robots, sensors, and self-healing systems may enable a total lights-out environment. Until then, humans will use innovative technology to reduce risk and improve efficiency in all areas.

In recent years, the IoT, ever-escalating data requirements, and ongoing cloud adoption have contributed to a shift away from traditional, enterprise data center facilities. Instead, many organizations are adopting new approaches — all of which afford numerous benefits but, at the same time, create critical challenges.

For the latest installment of the State of the Mission Critical Industry series, we sat down with Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters.

The data center industry is experiencing unprecedented growth. There is currently 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day, and this pace is accelerating with the emergence of the IoT. By the year 2020, the IoT will comprise more than 30 billion connected devices.