Data center operating and capital costs have been rising strongly in recent years — and will almost certainly continue to do so. Sooner or later, those in the IT supply chain will need to deliver their backers a return on investment.
To meet the demand driven by AI workloads, a new breed of cloud provider has emerged, delivering inexpensive GPU infrastructure as a service. Their services are highly demanded today, but longer-term, the market is ripe for consolidation.
Powerful solar storms have already brought warnings of disruption to electricity grids and their customers twice in 2024 — and the Sun’s activity has yet to peak. Why do data centers and power utilities appear to have escaped unscathed?
Many speculate that AI and automation might replace humans in data center jobs but there is little evidence to support this line of thought. The data center industry has characteristics that researchers believe may protect against worker displacement
Historically, data center waste heat recovery has been promoted with a focus on the benefits for the heat off-taker. And yet, the overall winner in most situations is the data center operator — even if they are not paid for heat.
Although quantum computing promises a revolution in scientific discovery, its use is still constrained to research and continuing development. However, a new IBM quantum data center in Germany signals a growing interest in its capabilities.
Schneider Electric’s acquisition of Motivair Corporation aims to fill product gaps and meet future demand — which will be good for customers if it helps to reduce industry fragmentation
The Netherlands is now enforcing the energy saving obligation, suggesting they will also enforce EED energy management system and audit requirements. Data center operators need to establish a plan to optimize their energy performance.
The UK has become the latest nation to classify data centers as part of the critical national infrastructure. But for data center operators, is this a welcome move?
Some operators are using natural gas for on-site power where the local grid is constrained. This will increase their emissions — but gas is essential in the transition to renewable energy and operators’ use of it is best seen in this light.
As new capacity is concentrated in super-sized data centers and legacy facilities continue to operate in large numbers, market trends become more difficult to read. This report looks at how size affects the age distribution of capacity.
Data center outage recovery processes often overlook integrated cybersecurity systems. Power outages can disrupt these systems and prevent operators from accessing critical platforms.
AI training clusters can show rapid and large swings in power consumption. This behavior is likely driven by a combination of properties of both modern compute silicon and AI training software — and may be difficult to manage at scale.
Examining staffing trends in China’s data centers could provide insights into how US and European data center teams can expand their talent pipeline and address workforce shortages caused by an aging population.
Uptime analysis suggests a growing interest in public cloud by financial institutions. But concerns over cloud providers’ support for regulation compliance ahead of the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act may cause some to pull back.
Andy Lawrence
Dr. Owen Rogers
Jacqueline Davis
Rose Weinschenk
Max Smolaks
Daniel Bizo
Jay Dietrich
Peter Judge
Douglas Donnellan
John O'Brien