Technological advances continue to dazzle us with new products and techniques previously thought to be futuristic or impossible. Among the most modern technological advances today is artificial intelligence (AI) and the automation it enables. This has been a recurring topic of interest, with companies aiming to take advantage of machine learning in their enhanced business solutions. But how can AI affect data center management, and how far are we to truly being able to incorporate it into our business?

It should come as no surprise that human error and real-time responsiveness can, and often do, affect business continuity. Managing virtual and traditional data centers manually can be tedious and time consuming due to the many administrative tasks required to ensure data center security and smooth operation. Businesses just can't afford downtime, and this is where AI machine learning solutions come in.

With machine learning, data center management can be simplified to automatically correct routine problems. Monitoring and controlling applications, storage and cooling of facilities would no longer require the practical work of IT teams.

Despite being seemingly unreachable, the industry has already made incredible progress in this regard. Google started using machine learning in 2014 to decrease complexity in managing its data centers, reducing energy use by 40%. HPE announced in late 2017 the industry's first AI recommendation engine.

While we may still be years away, fully self-managed data centers have never been more tangible than they are today. At some point in the future, self-managed data centers will allow for operational scalability and data center efficiency never before seen.