Empty shops are now a common sight on many high streets and one idea gaining traction is to turn them into edge and micro data centres. At first glance it makes perfect sense, as these sites sit close to where people live and work, which is exactly what low latency services demand. Furthermore, many already have optical fibre connections, while reusing existing space avoids the carbon impact of starting from scratch.

But there are some significant obstacles to consider. Retail units weren’t built for the power loads, cooling systems or structural demands of data centre infrastructure. Even if technically feasible, the benefits to local communities are modest, with few jobs created and potential pushback over energy use and noise.

We explore the idea in more depth in this month’s Question Time. A specially selected panel of industry experts discuss how feasible is it to repurpose empty retail units and derelict buildings into edge and small scale data centres and what key challenges face those that attempt to do so.

Data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software has had a turbulent evolution but it is now gaining real traction. In this issue Herman Chan of Sunbird Software looks at the state of DCIM and the Gartner Hype Cycle, James Kirkwood at EkkoSense explains why a lack of real time visibility is simply too big a risk for most operators and Assaf Skolnik of RiT Tech tells us why it is time to rethink and strategise infrastructure management.

Containment and cable management play essential roles but they are often overlooked and don’t always receive the attention they deserve. We put that right with two excellent articles. Michael Akinla of Panduit looks at how white cabinets are redefining efficiency in data centres, while Mike van der Donk of Legrand examines why containment should shape the next phase of data centre cooling.

Rob Shepherd 
Editor