New Seagate Report urges data center ecosystem to shift from fragmented efforts to a unified sustainability approach
FREMONT, Calif., April 16, 2025–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX), a leader in mass-capacity data storage, today released the Decarbonizing Data1 report, its latest global report based on a commissioned survey, highlighting the growing sustainability challenges facing data centers as enterprises scale to meet the demands of AI.
Goldman Sachs Research forecasts global power demand from data centers 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 organizations to manage carbon emissions, infrastructure expansion, and total cost of ownership (TCO) – all at once.
Key Findings:
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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.
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Environmental impact vs. total cost of ownership: Nearly 95% of respondents are concerned about environmental impact, but only 3.3% prioritize it in purchasing decisions.
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Top barriers in driving sustainability at data centers: High energy consumption (53.5%), raw material requirements (49.5%), physical space constraints (45.5%), infrastructure costs (28.5%), and acquisition costs (27%)
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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 centers 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 optimize for both.”
As organizations 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 utilization, raw material use, and infrastructure investment now impact both business performance and environmental outcomes.