Grid pressures, AI infrastructure and operational wisdom - outcomes from the 2025 Uptime Network Americas Fall Conference

Uptime Network Fall Americas Conference 2025

As the longest-running knowledge-sharing community dedicated to data center operators, the Uptime Network Americas Conference has taken place twice a year since the late 1990s.

Hosted by Uptime Institute in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, the 2025 Fall Americas event opened with a team-building gathering at Bowlmor Cupertino. As all Uptime Network members operate under non-disclosure agreements, bowling scores — and detailed insights from conference discussions — remain confidential, in keeping with Uptime Network’s strict confidentiality agreement.

We can share, however, that the true value of the event lies in the candid discussions among members, combined with and stimulated by presentations from Uptime Institute and the Uptime Intelligence analyst team.

Some of the presentation topics and discussions included:

• Global outage trends.
• How aging utility infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with modern demand.
• Climate pressures.
• Distributed energy generation.

Members also discussed insights from the recent Hot Chips 2025 conference, which highlighted how emerging silicon technologies and system designs are transforming IT infrastructure, as well as the increased likelihood of stranded GPU capacity due to uncertain demand and supply timelines.

Resiliency remained a consistent theme as members shared their approaches to tabletop exercises and drills, as a means of improving response readiness. Another presentation delved into the ongoing tension between cloud availability requirements and meeting sustainability commitments.

Network members participate in knowledge-sharing exercises and working groups throughout the year. This meeting featured a summary of the activities of the Uptime Network’s AI-enhanced Operations Working Group, which proactively shares guidance and real-world experiences from organizations using generative AI to develop data center procedures, data analytics and commercial software to automate data center operations.

The network members also held a working session to navigate the increasingly complex lines of responsibility for enterprise tenants deploying liquid-cooled hardware in colocation facilities.

As in previous events, members had the opportunity to tour data center facilities as part of the agenda. Network member NTT Global Data Centers’ SV1 facility offered attendees a close look at cutting-edge security and resiliency features. A second tour at network member Intel Corp’s nearby Santa Clara data center demonstrated an innovative 100% air-cooling approach to support high-density workloads of 30 kW to 85 kW per rack, with a reported PUE below 1.1.

As the digital infrastructure sector heads into another year of rapid AI-driven change, the discussions in Santa Clara highlighted the challenges ahead and the value of a candid, operator-led forum to confront them.

The Uptime Network EMEA Fall Conference is being held in Frankfurt, Germany from October 21-22.