One option to keep on prime of tech tendencies is to observe which acronyms are gaining traction. DCN did that final 12 months after we printed a listing of knowledge middle acronyms poised to influence the business in 2024.
A 12 months later, new acronyms have gained prominence and it’s time to replace our record. Maintain studying for a rundown of the highest knowledge middle acronyms to observe in 2025 to know key tendencies within the digital infrastructure house.
For the report, not all these acronyms are model new – many have been round for years. However we anticipate them to development in 2025 as a result of they relate to applied sciences or domains (reminiscent of AI or new varieties of knowledge middle infrastructure choices) which are on the middle of innovation inside the business.
1. ARM
ARM, quick for ‘Superior RISC Machines’, is a sort of CPU structure that has existed for the reason that Eighties. For many of its historical past, ARM performed little function in knowledge middle servers, which as a substitute relied in just about all instances on x86 computing chips.
Slowly, nevertheless, ARM has been gaining floor in knowledge facilities. Hyperscalers have constructed their very own ARM-based chips (like AWS’s Graviton processors and Microsoft’s Cobalt chips), and ARM-based servers can be found for firms that need to set them up of their knowledge facilities.
It’s value noting that Microsoft mentioned virtually a decade in the past that half of its servers might in the future run on ARM, and that is still removed from actuality right this moment. The ARM revolution has performed out slowly. Nonetheless, 2025 could effectively show to be the inflection level at which ARM lastly begins to really feel like a norm, not an exception, inside knowledge facilities.
2. BMaaS
The standard knowledge middle working mannequin includes firms organising and managing servers themselves inside a knowledge middle. However in a world the place cloud computing has accustomed organizations to the comfort of with the ability to deploy infrastructure immediately with out having to fret about managing it, some firms don’t need to handle their very own {hardware} – despite the fact that they nonetheless need the advantages of bare-metal servers, that are in restricted provide inside public cloud platforms.
That is why Naked-Steel-as-a-Service, or ‘BmaaS’, is a stylish knowledge middle acronym. BMaaS is a mannequin during which knowledge middle operators provision and handle bare-metal servers that they successfully hire to clients. The concept is to ship the flexibleness and comfort of the cloud mixed with the efficiency and safety benefits of bare-metal {hardware}.
3. CNN
CNN, quick for ‘Convolutional Neural Community’, is one in all many fashionable acronyms taking maintain inside the AI house. CNN refers to a sort of neural community designed particularly for picture and video processing.
As AI software program grows more and more refined and able to supporting extra advanced use instances, reminiscent of figuring out individuals or objects in video streams, CNNs are prone to turn out to be an more and more vital AI expertise.
By extension, CNNs will possible show to be one of many applied sciences driving elevated knowledge middle demand in 2025 and past.
NVIDIA GB200 is a supercomputing module that mixes a Grace CPU and two NVIDIA Blackwell Tensor Core GPUs (Picture: Alamy)
4. GB200
A 12 months in the past, H100 – a GPU from Nvidia designed for AI workloads – was the acronym to know to be within the learn about AI chips. As of 2025, it’s GB200 – a brand new class of NVIDIA GPUs that guarantees to ship much more efficiency than H100s.
Don’t anticipate H100s to vanish anytime quickly, however anticipate to listen to GB200 dominate conversations about NVIDIA AI {hardware} over the approaching months.
5. PQC
The jury stays out on precisely when (and even if) quantum computer systems will ever turn out to be sensible sufficient for real-world use. However an rising variety of of us assume that day is quick approaching.
When it arrives, conventional cryptography methods will primarily turn out to be ineffective as a result of the large computing energy of quantum machines will be capable of break any encryption key through sheer brute pressure. That is driving rising curiosity in post-quantum cryptography, or ‘PQC’.
PQC refers to cryptography and knowledge privateness protections which are efficient towards attackers geared up with quantum computing sources. PQC stays a creating area, however it’s one to observe if you wish to know what to do when quantum computer systems upend the standard cybersecurity house.
6. UPSaaS
Like bare-metal servers inside knowledge facilities, Uninterruptible Energy Provide (UPS) items may also be delivered utilizing an “as-a-Service” mannequin. Therefore the rise of ‘UpsaaS’, a sort of service during which an exterior vendor delivers, units up, and manages UPS items inside knowledge facilities.
Some distributors have offered this type of solution for a couple of years now, and we’d guess that it’ll turn out to be extra common as firms search to simplify operations by outsourcing duty for managing peripheral gear.
