The cloud revolution is a stark transition from the client-server model, with as-a-service models also taking the stage and edging out dedicated data centers.

The cloud is evolving quickly as well, with the architecture changing and demanding that companies keep up with its infrastructural fluctuations.

“Initially, the assumption was it’s all one thing and now suddenly we’re starting to see a much cleaner separation of these different areas,” said Guido Appenzeller (pictured), chief technology officer of the Data Platforms Group at Intel. “A second major influence is that the type of workloads we’re seeing are evolving incredibly quickly — 10 years ago, things were mostly monolithic, but today most new workloads are microservices-based.” Microservices are loosely coupled, lightweight functions that can be strung together to build applications.

Appenzeller spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the HPE Discover event. They discussed the cloud revolution, the edge and reducing technology’s environmental impact. (* Disclosure below.)

AI-powered workloads

Large data reserves call for large workloads, which artificial intelligence is well-equipped to handle.

“We’re seeing five, maybe 10% and growing of workloads being AI,” Appenzeller said. “They’re very high-value workloads.”

The edge is another growing market, with billions of devices already connected.

“The edge is not just one homogeneous market; it’s a collection of separate submarkets,” Appenzeller said. “It’s very heterogeneous, and it runs on a variety of different hardware.”

Appenzeller concluded the conversation by reiterating how important it is to stay both green and economical, especially in an increasingly environmentally conscious society.

“We need to reduce the overall power of systems, or maybe just figure out better ways of cooling these systems,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of innovation that can be done to both make these data centers more economical but also to make them more green.”

Data centers are working hard to make their facilities, which collectively consume over one percent of the world’s electricity, more environmentally efficient in the future, Appenzeller said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE Discover event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for HPE Discover. Neither HPE, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE