SINGAPORE, April 26, 2025 – As AI adoption surges across industries, the global technology landscape is facing a critical crossroads: how to balance the mounting demand for data storage with the urgent need for sustainability. In its latest global report titled “Decarbonizing Data”, Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) underscores the need for the data centre ecosystem to move beyond fragmented efforts and adopt a unified approach towards environmental responsibility.
According to the report, which surveyed business leaders worldwide, energy consumption has rapidly risen to the top of the agenda. With data centres already among the most energy-intensive sectors, and Goldman Sachs Research predicting a 165% surge in power demand by 2030 compared to 2023, enterprises now face unprecedented pressure to manage carbon emissions, infrastructure expansion, and total cost of ownership (TCO) — all simultaneously.
The Seagate survey revealed that 53.5% of business leaders now rank energy usage as a top concern. However, while 95% globally, and 90% in Singapore, voiced concern about environmental impact, only a meagre 3.3% prioritise sustainability when making purchasing decisions. In Singapore specifically, environmental considerations barely influence choices related to data storage infrastructure or equipment.
AI Drives Soaring Demand for Data Storage
A staggering 94.5% of respondents worldwide reported increasing data storage needs, with 97% expecting AI’s expansion to further amplify this demand. Singapore stood out as one of the top three markets—after Australia and the United States—where more than half (56.7%) strongly agreed that data storage requirements have grown at their companies.
However, this exponential growth comes at a cost. High energy consumption (53.5%), raw material constraints (49.5%), limited physical space (45.5%), and infrastructure costs (28.5%) emerged as key barriers to sustainable development globally. In Singapore, space constraints and the lack of electricity sources topped the list, with 70% of respondents identifying these as their biggest hurdles.
Life Cycle Disconnect in Sustainability Goals
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the need to extend equipment life cycles—92.2% globally and 93.4% in Singapore—only a small fraction of businesses actively prioritise products that support longer life spans during procurement. In Singapore, just 10% said they consider life cycle extension a top factor when purchasing storage solutions.
“Data centres are under intense scrutiny — not only because they underpin modern AI workloads but also because of their growing energy footprint,” said Jason Feist, Senior Vice President of Cloud Marketing at Seagate. “This calls for a fundamental shift in how we think about infrastructure — not as a trade-off between cost and sustainability, but as an opportunity to optimise for both.”
Three Strategic Pillars for a Sustainable Data Future
To navigate these challenges, Seagate’s “Decarbonizing Data” report outlines three key strategies:
- Technological Innovation: Embracing energy-efficient advancements such as liquid cooling, high-density storage, and Seagate’s HAMR-based Mozaic 3+ platform — which delivers triple the capacity in the same footprint, slashes embodied carbon by over 70% per terabyte, and cuts cost per terabyte by 25%.
- Commitment to Life Cycle Extension: Prioritising refurbishment, reuse, and maintenance of equipment to extend product life and minimise waste, supported by real-time environmental monitoring and transparent reporting.
- Shared Accountability Across the Ecosystem: Driving emissions reductions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 by fostering collaboration among vendors, suppliers, and cloud service providers.
Feist emphasised the importance of collective action, noting: “Sustainability cannot be solved in isolation. A holistic approach spanning infrastructure, life cycle management, and industry-wide collaboration is crucial to ensure that the growth of AI and data centre operations does not come at the expense of the environment.”
As AI continues to fuel the next wave of technological evolution, Seagate’s findings highlight the urgent need for industry players to rethink priorities and build a future where cost efficiency and carbon reduction are not mutually exclusive — but intrinsically linked.