Human error is an increasingly exploited weakness by cyberattackers, leading to data center security breaches and greater risk for enterprises and operators.
To meet the demands of unprecedented rack power densities, driven by AI workloads, data center cooling systems need to evolve and accommodate a growing mix of air and liquid cooling technologies.
Today, GPU designers pursue outright performance over power efficiency. This is a challenge for inference workloads that prize efficient token generation. GPU power management features can help, but require more attention.
The past year warrants a revision of generative AI power estimates, as GPU shipments have skyrocketed, despite some offsetting factors. However, uncertainty remains high, with no clarity on the viability of these spending levels.
As AI workloads surge, managing cloud costs is becoming more vital than ever, requiring organizations to balance scalability with cost control. This is crucial to prevent runaway spend and ensure AI projects remain viable and profitable.
The trend towards regulating and controlling data center energy use, efficiency and sustainability continues to grow globally, with the appearance of utility rate management regulations and the propagation policies influenced by the EU’s EED.
Tensions between team members of different ranks or departments can inhibit effective communication in a data center, putting uptime at risk. This can be avoided by adopting proven communication protocols from other mission-critical industries.
Uptime Institute believes that data center operators should optimize facility-level sustainability performance before addressing ecosystem issues. A clear definition of data center sustainability is needed to enable this approach.
The US government’s AI compute diffusion rules, introduced in January 2025, will be rescinded — with new rules coming. It warns any dealings linked to advanced Chinese chips will require US export authorization. Operators still face tough demands.
Data center owners are as committed to Tier III and Tier IV designs as ever, but more will be required to share power, adding complexity and possibly risk.
Organizations that architect resiliency into their cloud applications should expect a sharp rise in carbon emissions and costs. Some architectures provide a better compromise on cost, carbon and availability than others.
In the US, the politicization of data center development is underway, driven by its impact on power prices. As state governments seek ways to protect consumers, operators will need to engage in the policy debate.
Many operators expect GPUs to be highly utilized, but examples of real-world deployments paint a different picture. Why are expensive compute resources being wasted — and what effect does this have on data center power consumption?
Data center owners and operators find it challenging to retain qualified staff. Research-backed strategies can provide solutions for building stronger mentorship programs and improved staff retention.
Hyperscalers offer a confusing array of on-premises versions of their public cloud-enabling infrastructure — the differences between them are rooted in whether the customer or the provider manages the control plane and server hardware.
John O'Brien
Rose Weinschenk
Dr. Tomas Rahkonen
Max Smolaks
Daniel Bizo
Dr. Owen Rogers
Jay Dietrich
Seb Shehadi
Andy Lawrence
Peter Judge