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6 Data Key Center Acronyms to Watch in 20256 Data Key Center Acronyms to Watch in 2025
Keeping up with tech trends? Watch these key data center acronyms that are set to shape 2025.
4 Min Read
Do you know your BMaaS from your PQC? Test your data center acronym IQImage: Data Center Knowledge
One way to stay on top of tech trends is to watch which acronyms are gaining traction. Data Center Knowledge did that last year when we published a list of data center acronyms poised to impact the industry in 2024.
A year later, new acronyms have gained prominence and it’s time to update our list. Keep reading for a rundown of the top data center acronyms to watch in 2025 to understand key trends in the digital infrastructure space.
For the record, not all these acronyms are brand new – many have been around for years. But we expect them to trend in 2025 because they relate to technologies or domains (such as AI or new types of data center infrastructure offerings) that are at the center of innovation within the industry.
1. ARM
ARM, short for ‘Advanced RISC Machines’, is a type of CPU architecture that has existed since the 1980s. For most of its history, ARM played little role in data center servers, which instead relied in virtually all cases on x86 computing chips.
Slowly, however, ARM has been gaining ground in data centers. Hyperscalers have built their own ARM-based chips (like AWS’s Graviton processors and Microsoft’s Cobalt chips), and ARM-based servers are available for companies that want to set them up in their data centers.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft said almost a decade ago that half of its servers could one day run on ARM, and that remains far from reality today. The ARM revolution has played out slowly. Still, 2025 may well prove to be the inflection point at which ARM finally starts to feel like a norm, not an exception, inside data centers.
2. BMaaS
The traditional data center operating model involves companies setting up and managing servers themselves inside a data center. But in a world where cloud computing has accustomed organizations to the convenience of being able to deploy infrastructure instantly without having to worry about managing it, some companies don’t want to manage their own hardware – even though they still want the benefits of bare-metal servers, which are in limited supply within public cloud platforms.
This is why Bare-Metal-as-a-Service, or ‘BmaaS’, is a trendy data center acronym. BMaaS is a model in which data center operators provision and manage bare-metal servers that they effectively rent to customers. The idea is to deliver the flexibility and convenience of the cloud combined with the performance and security advantages of bare-metal hardware.
3. CNN
CNN, short for ‘Convolutional Neural Network’, is one of many trendy acronyms taking hold within the AI space. CNN refers to a type of neural network designed especially for image and video processing.
As AI software grows increasingly sophisticated and capable of supporting more complex use cases, such as identifying people or objects in video streams, CNNs are likely to become an increasingly important AI technology.
By extension, CNNs will likely prove to be one of the technologies driving increased data center demand in 2025 and beyond.
NVIDIA GB200 is a supercomputing module that combines a Grace CPU and two NVIDIA Blackwell Tensor Core GPUs (Image: Alamy)
4. GB200
A year ago, H100 – a GPU from Nvidia designed for AI workloads – was the acronym to know to be in the know about AI chips. As of 2025, it’s GB200 – a new class of NVIDIA GPUs that promises to deliver even more performance than H100s.
Don’t expect H100s to disappear anytime soon, but expect to hear GB200 dominate conversations about NVIDIA AI hardware over the coming months.
5. PQC
The jury remains out on exactly when (or even if) quantum computers will ever become practical enough for real-world use. But an increasing number of folks think that day is fast approaching.
When it arrives, traditional cryptography techniques will essentially become useless because the massive computing power of quantum machines will be able to break any encryption key via sheer brute force. This is driving growing interest in post-quantum cryptography, or ‘PQC’.
PQC refers to cryptography and data privacy protections that are effective against attackers equipped with quantum computing resources. PQC remains a developing field, but it’s one to watch if you want to know what to do when quantum computers upend the traditional cybersecurity space.
6. UPSaaS
Like bare-metal servers inside data centers, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units can also be delivered using an “as-a-Service” model. Hence the rise of ‘UpsaaS’, a type of service in which an external vendor delivers, sets up, and manages UPS units inside data centers.
Some vendors have offered this type of solution for a few years now, and we’d bet that it will become more popular as companies seek to simplify operations by outsourcing responsibility for managing peripheral equipment.
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