Japan’s data center industry is showing resilience following the devastating earthquake that caused chaos on March 11.

 

The event could also drive a new interest in efficiency, which could make it one of the greenest data center locations in the world, according to Nomura Research Institute senior researcher for the Center of Strategic Management and Innovation Tomoo Misaki.

 

Misaki said cloud computing and other data center service providers had experienced an increased level of inquiries for disaster recovery and other services following the event.

 

"Unfortunately many businesses owning their own data centers lost their server rooms. [For example] some town halls got washed away because of the tidal wave," Misaki said.

 

"So there is now an inquiry into data center outsourcing for back up and cloud usage."

 

"Many data center vendors that have outsourcing services have been getting a lot of inquiries from outside customers who usually run their own server room."

 

Furthermore, Misaki said he believes the energy saving efforts brought on by power issues experienced since the earthquake and tsunami, and the proposed brownouts that could reduce power use by 25% between June and September, could drive a new "green" data center industry.