The Overlooked Opportunity of Modern Infrastructure

When Storage is Under Pressure

Data can be F1’s greatest asset and its toughest challenge. F1 cars can generate 1.5 terabytes (TB) of data in a single race weekend. They are fitted with approximately 300 sensors creating up to 100,000 data points, all of which record and synthesise performance indicators such as tire degradation or aerodynamics. However, not all of this data is equally valuable: some datasets inform immediate race decisions, others feed long-term development models, and some of it may never be used again.

Storage is under pressure from a deluge of data and this is a challenge faced by clinicians, scientists (such as those responsible for weather models), traders, retailers, manufacturers, and beyond.

Modern businesses are generating and capturing unprecedented volumes of data across customer interactions, IoT devices, and operational systems. But storing everything indefinitely is neither practical nor cost-effective.

The winners will be those who apply intelligence to their storage strategy.

Quick Wins for Smarter Storage

• Classify data by value, not just volume.
• Use tiered storage to match cost with importance.
• Have you considered a backup strategy?
• Automate lifecycle management to prevent “data hoarding.

For CIOs and CTOs the F1 analogy is clear: you become competitive by having the right data stored in the right places.

How Has Modern Infrastructure Moved On?

If you manage infrastructure, the innovations happening in F1 should inspire a drive to demand more from your technology stack. Look no further than F1 for understanding how leaders are reimaging infrastructure in this new era of agility.

Traditional infrastructure has often been designed like a house: reliable, sturdy, predictable, and built to last. Systems were centralised, updates and patching carefully scheduled, and performance measured in steady, incremental gains over time. These traditional platforms are, however, not always built to adapt and evolve with the changing conditions, pressure and demands faced by modern businesses.

When we talk about modern, agile IT operations, the image of a house no longer serves what we need from our infrastructure. New capabilities in areas like hardened resilience and hardware-level threat detection have outpaced what conventional platforms could ever achieve. IBM Power11, for example, has phased out downtime, which creates even less operational interruption.

F1 treats infrastructure differently – rapid deployments to new locations, it’s tested under pressure, and it’s expected to perform in often highly demanding, unpredictable conditions.

So, what’s next? Resilience and agility must be designed into the fabric of your infrastructure. That means building hybrid environments that are workload-driven along with storage strategies that are intelligent.

For IT leaders, the parallel with F1 is instructive. Infrastructure is not just an operational concern; it is a competitive differentiator. In business as in racing, speed to insight, resilience under pressure, and the ability to adapt in real-time can be the razor-thin margin that stands between success and failure.

Four Lessons from Formula 1 for Building Modern Business Infrastructure

01. Start with Data.

An F1 car is a rolling supercomputer, generating gigabytes of telemetry every lap. Teams don’t just store this data – they act on it instantly to adjust race strategy.

For businesses, the takeaway is clear: infrastructure should enable rapid data capture and analysis, turning raw information into actionable insight in real-time.

02. Build for Resilience, Not Perfection.

In racing, things break – tyres degrade, components fail. What matters is the team’s ability to adapt and recover.

For IT leaders, modern infrastructure should prioritise resilience over rigidity, with automation, redundancy, and self-healing systems keeping the business running no matter the conditions.

03. Treat Infrastructure as Iterative.

F1 cars evolve all the time. The infrastructure behind them is built for change, not permanence. Business infrastructure should follow the same principle: software-defined systems, composability, and flexible architectures make it possible to adapt quickly to new challenges.

04. Align Infrastructure with Culture.

Perhaps the most overlooked lesson: technology only wins when paired with the right mindset.

F1 teams operate with relentless curiosity and a readiness to experiment. For business leaders, success with modern infrastructure comes when teams are encouraged to test, learn, and refine continuously. Take CSI’s AI early adopter programme for example: get ahead of AI initiatives before they hit the market.

Every Millisecond Counts

Formula 1 is a sport where margins are measured in thousandths of a second. The same principle is increasingly the case with running operations for an enterprise. Customers expect fast, reliable services even as the headwinds of change cause markets to shift in real-time. Competitive advantage is often determined by those who can act faster on the information at hand.

F1 proves that the combination of infrastructure agility, hybrid cloud strategies, and intelligent storage can deliver performance at the limits of possibility. The challenge for enterprise leaders is to adopt those lessons in their own environments.

The grid has formed up. The lights are counting down. The question remains: will your infrastructure be able to handle the pressure?

Ready to Take Pole Position?

At CSI, we help organisations build the resilient, flexible infrastructure needed to compete at full speed. If you’d like to explore how hybrid cloud, storage, and modern IT strategies can give your business an edge above the competition, book a call with our team today – and start preparing your infrastructure for the fast lane.