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Intel did not establish that the world switched to scale data centers by 2025. In 2016, Intel executive Jason Waxman forecast that 70–80% of compute, network, and storage would go into facilities using “scale” design principles by that year. The available evidence includes a later account of Intel IT’s own infrastructure, not an independent measurement of worldwide adoption.
What Intel forecast in 2016
On April 22, 2016, Data Center Knowledge reported a projection from Jason Waxman, then Intel’s vice president and general manager of its Cloud Platforms Group: “Our projection is between 70 and 80 percent of the compute, network, and storage will be going into what we call scale data centers by 2025.” The percentage described where compute, network, and storage would be deployed—not the share of facilities that would reach a particular size. Read the 2016 report.
Waxman also said that “about 40 percent is already there.” That was his estimate as quoted in the same 2016 report, not a current figure or an independently verified global measurement.
What “scale data center” meant
“Scale” referred to applying design principles associated with web-scale operators such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Intel’s claim was not that most data centers would become physically as large as those companies’ facilities. It was that more infrastructure would be designed around similar ways of organizing and operating resources.
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The distinction matters: a data center can adopt scale-oriented architecture without becoming a hyperscale-sized building. The forecast concerned how infrastructure was designed and provisioned, not a prediction that facilities would converge on one physical footprint.
How rack-scale computing changes the building block
In a conventional server-centered model, a complete server is the basic unit operators procure and manage. In the rack-scale model described in the 2016 report, the rack becomes the more important unit: compute, networking, and storage resources are pooled and optimized for applications, provisioned through cloud systems, and assembled from components that can be replaced individually when needed.
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This shifts the focus from treating each server as a self-contained system to managing resources across a rack. Intel’s rack-scale work was described as involving collaboration with Facebook and the Open Compute Project. That is an example of the design direction Intel discussed, rather than evidence that all organizations adopted it.
What Intel IT reported in 2025
Intel IT’s 2025 white paper offers a company-specific example of infrastructure designed to grow and be provisioned at scale. It describes a leaf-spine network architecture and top-of-rack switches in Intel’s network modernization. Intel IT reported that its data-center footprint included 55 modules at 15 sites, with 126 MW of total capacity and more than 418,000 servers. Those figures describe Intel IT, not the global data-center industry.
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The same white paper says Intel IT faced annual network-capacity demand growth greater than 25%. It also reports that software-defined networking and automation reduced provisioning an entire server rack from nearly eight hours to less than two hours. These are results reported by Intel for its own environment; they illustrate one organization’s approach and do not establish a worldwide adoption rate. Read Intel IT’s 2025 white paper.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did the world switch to scale data centers by 2025?
The evidence cited here does not answer that question with a verified global percentage. The 70–80% figure was a 2016 forecast, and Intel IT’s 2025 account documents one company’s systems rather than measuring worldwide adoption. It would therefore be inaccurate to present the forecast as a confirmed outcome—or to conclude from this evidence alone that it was missed.
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What can be said precisely is that Intel described a move toward pooled, rack-level infrastructure and later documented its own network modernization using scale-oriented approaches. Whether 70–80% of compute, network, and storage globally had entered such environments by 2025 is not established by these sources.
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