The remote nature of cloud computing makes it vulnerable to extraterritorial legal reach. Colocations, by contrast, only manage infrastructure — not data — shielding them from the same level of foreign governmental access.
Liquid-cooled colocation capacity remains niche, but demand is likely to grow. Colocation providers planning capacity for DLC need to address novel questions about individual tenant needs, operations and SLAs.
Operators looking for low-carbon power may be assessing low-carbon hydrogen for standby or primary power. Except for niche applications, the technology is a long way from practicality.
Many operators report that they trust AI to draft their MOPs, EOPs and SOPs. But this potentially error-prone approach demands meticulous review by an appropriate member of staff, or operators risk increasing the likelihood of costly downtime.
Most operators do not trust AI-based systems to control equipment in the data center — this has implications for software products that are already available, as well as those in development.
Superconductive power cables promise faster, cheaper and simpler connections for data center operators waiting for power. They could also simplify campuses and microgrids.
Security vulnerabilities in data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software are leaving some operators at risk of cyberattacks.
Rising IT power densities are pushing chilled water systems to their limits. AI-driven control offers predictive load management, optimized sequencing and stable delta-T under demanding conditions.
Financial data suggests that hyperscalers' use of colocation facilities has grown substantially over the past few years. Their investments in colocations also show no signs of slowing down.
Water cold plates still lead DLC adoption — but more enterprise operators are considering dielectric cold plates than last year. The next DLC adopters may be amenable to multiple technologies, while remaining cautious about leak risks.
In Northern Virginia and Ireland, simultaneous responses by data centers to fluctuations on the grid have come close to causing a blackout. Transmission system operators are responding with new requirements on large demand loads.
Against a backdrop of higher densities and the push toward liquid cooling, air remains the dominant choice for cooling IT hardware. As long as air cooling works, many see no reason to change — and more think it is viable at high densities.
The European Commission is looking to revise the technical criteria for data centers under its taxonomy for financial sustainability to define what qualifies a data center as being environmentally sustainable.
AWS has recently cut prices on a range of GPU-backed instances. These price reductions make it harder to justify an investment in dedicated AI infrastructure.
Real-time computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is gradually nearing reality, with GPUs now capable of producing high-fidelity simulations in under 10 minutes. However, many operators may be skeptical about why this is necessary.
Dr. Owen Rogers
Jacqueline Davis
Peter Judge
Rose Weinschenk
Max Smolaks
John O'Brien
Dr. Rand Talib
Daniel Bizo
Dr. Tomas Rahkonen