Singapore’s public sector faces sustainability and IT infrastructure hurdles in AI deployment: Pure Storage – ETCIO SEA

Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers the world’s most advanced data storage technology and services, has released a new report highlighting the Singapore public sector’s readiness to navigate a business landscape typified by two key trends: AI and sustainability. The report, “Drivers of Change: Meeting the Energy and Data Demands of AI Adoption in Singapore’s Public Sector”, reveals a key challenge for the public agencies’ pursuit of AI: increased energy consumption and its impact on sustainability goals. While AI adoption is a top priority, 77% of public agencies grapple with concerns around rising energy consumption as a result of AI deployment.In addition, the report found that 83% of the organisations surveyed needed a complete or substantial overhaul of their IT infrastructure before they could deploy AI. Many of the respondents said that they lacked an understanding of the IT requirements needed for their AI projects.

Industry Significance:

AI is a key driver for Singapore’s economic transformation under National AI Strategy 2.0. However, the energy-intensive nature of AI workloads poses significant challenges – necessitating organisations to strike a balance between IT infrastructure requirements and energy efficiency to maximise AI’s potential while still aligning with the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

Survey Highlights:

• 97% of Singapore’s respondents have already adopted AI or are running trials: Themajority of organisations surveyed are already leveraging AI to drive innovation, productivity, and better citizen experiences – for use cases such as virtual assistants, personalised service delivery and AI operations.
• 77% of Singapore’s respondents are concerned with AI’s impact on energy consumption: Singapore public agencies are seeing a rise in energy consumption driven by AI. With sustainability (90%) remaining a top priority in Singapore’s public sector, they are conscious about mitigating AI’s impact on energy use and are exploring solutions such as energy-efficient infrastructure and optimising the use of equipment.

• IT infrastructure is a key challenge in AI deployment: 83% of respondents said they needed a substantial revamp of their IT infrastructure to support AI deployment, reflecting a significant gap in the sector’s AI preparedness. In addition, half of organisations have underestimated the impact of AI deployment on data storage – with 99% of organisations reporting at least a 50% increase in data storage demand. Besides data storage (73%), organisations also found that they had to upgrade compute infrastructure (60%) and networking infrastructure (60%) following AI implementation.
• Implications for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Goals: 100% of the public agencies surveyed agree that meeting ESG goals is impossible without adequately preparing IT infrastructure to support AI initiatives.

“The AI deployment journey is complex, and includes many factors such as escalating energy, data, and compute demands that impact both the success of an AI project and its ultimate impact on the environment and society. To sustain Singapore’s national AI strategy rollout, public agencies must ensure that they have set up their foundational infrastructure in a way that optimises both AI-scale data demands and energy efficiency. As AI paves the way forward to improve Singapore’s citizen services, meeting sustainability and the sector’s ESG goals remains critical in order to work towards a net-zero carbon economy,” said Nathan Hall, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Pure Storage.

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