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The unprecedented pace of digital transformation since the pandemic started may have many CIOs nodding wistfully at those “Life Comes at You Fast” and “Wanna Get Away” commercials.

After all, McKinsey & Company estimated that in just a matter of months at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, digital offerings leapfrogged seven years of progress. The pace has hardly slowed down since, though some are taking a slight breather this summer to take stock of their digital infrastructure and ponder the future of data centers.

Sustainability has become such a hot topic for all companies across all industries that the question moving forward is to how to best address this crucial issue.

“Sustainability has become an important business priority,” said global colocation data center giant Equinix. “Companies must now demonstrate a commitment to sustainability to ensure business growth and maintain competitive advantage.”

When it comes to extreme weather and data centers you might expect to look to the sky for signs of threatening storm clouds and the damaging winds, rain and flooding that can pose a risk to infrastructure.

While hurricanes, tornadoes and other high-profile natural disasters certainly affect data centers and their ability to maintain operations, the truth this summer is that even on crystal clear days extreme weather is affecting data centers as a heat wave washes across the globe.

Our planet's future is important to all of us so contributing to sustainability has become a universal goal across all businesses and sectors.

“Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives in almost every way imaginable,” wrote Mark Schwartz in Forbes. “This is obvious throughout the business community, in which committing to sustainable practices is no longer a “nice to have” but a “must do” as the negative impacts of climate change become more obvious and ominous, with the potential to alter everything from supply chains to profitability.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic ushered its first breath, the National Science Foundation (NSF) was putting together a report calling for a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to meet the needs of a digital first world.

The dizzying shift to a digital-first world is being matched by data center advancements that embrace emerging technology such as automation, AI, and robotics.

A new report by Deloitte says that women in tech continue to chip away at the glass ceiling with double-digit gains made in leadership roles.

In today’s digital-first world, data centers have become a modern quasi-public utility as their infrastructure -- as much as water, gas, and electricity -- provide the support needed to successfully navigate daily life.

“Access to digital infrastructure is now as essential as any other infrastructure for most of humanity,” Jim Connaughton, CEO at Nautilus Data Technologies, told Data Center Dynamics.

The world’s digital transformation has led to dire warnings that the information and communications technology (ICT) industry’s appetite for energy consumption would grow uncontrolled like the classic horror film creature, The Blob.

Network technicians installing and managing fiber cabling in data centers would be wise to take a page out of the “Ghostbusters” playbook: “When it comes to crossing the streams … be careful!”