Seagate: As AI drives data storage demand, an integrated strategy required for sustainability

Seagate’s Decarbonizing Data report highlights the growing sustainability challenges facing data centers as enterprises scale to meet the demands of AI.

The increasing growth in AI deployments around the world has resulted in increased demand for compute power. Undoubtedly, data centers are core to AI at this point of time, and with agentic AI on the horizon, the compute demand is only going to get higher.

According to Goldman Sachs Research, global power demand from data centres will increase by as much as 165% by 2030. The boom of data centers especially in the Southeast Asian region signals the need for sustainability goals to be prioritized.

Given this scenario, Seagate’s Decarbonizing Data report highlights the growing sustainability challenges facing data centers as enterprises scale to meet the demands of AI. The global report, which is based on a commissioned survey, included responses from over 330 data center professionals globally.

The report revealed that energy usage is now a top concern for 53.5% of business leaders. There is also mounting pressure on organizations to manage carbon emissions, infrastructure expansion, and total cost of ownership (TCO) – all at once.

Global findings from the report clearly indicates that AI spurs demand for data storage with 97% anticipating AI’s growth to further impact storage demand. While 95% of respondents are concerned about environmental impact, only 3.3% prioritize it in purchasing decisions.

High energy consumption (53.5%), raw material requirements (49.5%), physical space constraints (45.5%), infrastructure costs (28.5%), and acquisition costs (27%) are among the top barriers to driving sustainability in data centers.

Taking a look at the Southeast Asian region, Singapore needs an estimated US$5.5 billion to make its data storage operations sustainable. This amount is one of the highest globally, and well above the worldwide average of US$4.9 billion. All the respondents from Singapore (100%) believe AI will significantly increase the need for data center operations, and more than half have already seen increased demand.

What’s more concerning is that none of the respondents consider sustainability a top factor when purchasing storage infrastructure despite 90% stating they are concerned about environmental impact. 70% cite limited access to alternative electricity sources as the top barrier to sustainability, while 33.3% cite the high cost of training for sustainable technology.

Given these findings, Seagate believes an integrated strategy is needed to tackle this challenge. This includes taking a strong focus on technological innovation, life cycle circularity, and ecosystem-wide accountability.

“By working together, data centers, technology providers, component suppliers, and regulatory bodies can develop and implement innovative solutions that reduce energy consumption, minimize carbon emissions, and promote the efficient use of resources. This includes adopting advanced cooling solutions, integrating renewable energy sources, extending the life cycle of storage equipment, choosing suppliers based on their sustainability commitments, and implementing circularity programs for the responsible disposal of components. Innovation by suppliers can play a key role in paving the way to more sustainable and efficient data centers,” stated the report.

Futoshi Niizuma, Vice President Asia Pacific and Japan Sales for Seagate explains more to CRN Asia.

How can businesses reconcile total cost of ownership with sustainability goals, and why is this now a boardroom issue?

As organizations ramp up AI investments to drive business value, the surge in data creation is fuelling demand for storage and processing, intensifying data centres’ carbon footprint. Already, 94.5% of respondents report rising data storage needs, and 97% anticipate AI growth to further accelerate demand. A recent IEA report highlights that AI is set to double data centre electricity demand by 2030, pushing consumption to approximately 945 terawatt hours (TWH) – more than Japan’s entire current electricity use. By then, data centres could account for as much as 8% of global carbon emissions, according to the IEEE.

As data volume surge, power efficiency gains slow, and AI adoption accelerates, organizations face growing pressure to manage carbon emissions, scale infrastructure, and total cost of ownership (TCO) - all at once. What were once operational concerns have now become boardroom priorities, requiring leadership to carefully balance profitability with environmental impact.

However, the notion that businesses must choose between cost and carbon is a false trade-off. The true challenge is not whether to prioritize total cost of ownership (TCO) or sustainability, but how to align both objectives for long-term success. With the right strategies, TCO and sustainability can reinforce each other, enabling companies to meet their business goals while addressing environmental concerns.

Embracing innovations like areal density - the amount of data stored per disk - enable businesses to store more data within the same physical space, while using fewer materials and consuming less energy. This directly addresses key challenges, particularly space constraints, cited by 45.5% respondents globally. For example, imagine a 10-disk hard drive where each disk holds 3TB, giving a total of 30TB.

Now, picture a data centre upgrading its hard drive in from 10TB to 30TB. This boost in areal density triples storage capacity or more within the same footprint – while cutting power use by over 60%, embodied carbon by 70% or more and cost by over 25% per terabyte. When applied across an entire fleet of data centres, these improvements can lead to significant cumulative reductions in carbon emissions and operational costs, amplifying their positive impact.

By expanding storage within the same space using fewer resources, organisations can reduce carbon emissions per unit of data stored – achieving sustainability goals without compromising performance. This is especially relevant in regions like Singapore, where over 53% of data centre professionals view raw materials use as a top sustainability concerns.

For businesses, reconciling TCO with sustainability goals goes beyond cost-management. It’s about securing a competitive edge in an increasingly sustainability-driven market.

Why is cross-industry collaboration – including with vendors, cloud providers, and regulators – essential to achieving meaningful sustainability outcomes in the AI and data centre era?

As AI adoption accelerates and data volumes surge, the environmental footprint of data centers is expanding rapidly. Achieving meaningful sustainability in the AI era requires a collaborative, cross-industry approach. The environmental impact of modern data infrastructure – including carbon emissions, energy use, and raw material consumption – spans across Scopes 1, 2 and 3, covering everything from direct operations to supply chain activities. Addressing this complexity requires transparency, shared accountability and alignment across all stakeholders.

Collaboration between the data centre industry and key decision-makers, cloud providers and regulators are essential. By working together, they can modernize energy infrastructure, integrate renewable energy sources, and deploy smart technologies. This includes setting industry-wide standards for energy efficiency, carbon reporting and circularity, while driving innovation in cooling technologies, high-efficiency hardware and sustainable infrastructure design.

These joint efforts not only promote practices like equipment refurbishment and reuse, reducing waste and extending product life cycles but also ensures that sustainability is embedded throughout the value chain, from design to deployment. Extending beyond the supply chain, collaboration with cloud providers and regulators is equally vital for developing unified sustainability frameworks, transparent reporting standards, and policy incentives that drive green innovation at scale while reinforcing both environmental and economic resilience.

Ultimately, it is not just about one technology. Achieving meaningful sustainability outcomes requires a holistic approach that covers infrastructure, life cycle management and industry accountability, along with coordinated action across the entire ecosystem – from vendors and cloud service providers to policymakers and end users. Only through shared responsibility can we ensure that AI and data infrastructure growths aligns with our environmental goals without comprising the planet.