Analyzing AI's Impact on Data Center Power Distribution

Story by Henry Chapman

Key Points:

• During a recent webinar hosted by Data Center Knowledge, the swift and profound impact of AI on the data center industry was top-of-mind, with a focus on the challenges it presents to power distribution.
• In the webinar on March?13, moderator Dana Gardner , president of Interarbor Solutions, opened the discussion by stating the obvious: everywhere you turn, AI is being deployed.
• Christopher McLean, PE, ATD, LEED AP , principal at Critical Facility Group , joined by John Berenbrok , director of product management at Starline , for a wide-ranging discussion that addressed some of the most pressing questions facing data centers in light of AI’s dominance, including limitations of heating and supply chain, the need for creative solutions to heating, evolving design criteria for data centers, and the role sustainability and regulation play in the future of power distribution.
• Watch the archived "Challenges of AI on Power Distribution" webinar On-Demand Today!

Welcome to Data Center Knowledge Discoveries!

You already know that every day at Data Center Knowledge brings advice, trends and strategies for data center professionals on how to design, build, and manage world-class data centers.

That means original reporting from our team of journalists and unique commentary you won’t see anywhere else! But in case you missed them, here are some of our other must-read favorites from this week:

The Fastest AI Chip in the World Has Arrived

Story by Wylie Wong

Key Points:

• The WSE-3 chip doubles the performance of its predecessor, which was the previous record holder, the company said today (March 13).
• “Once again, we’ve delivered the biggest and fastest AI chip on the planet with the same dinner plate-size form factor,” said Andy Hock , Cerebras Systems ’ vice president of product management.
• The company today nearly doubled performance again with the WSE-3 chip, which features four million transistors and 900,000 cores, delivering 125 petaflops of performance. The new 5-nanometer processor powers Cerebras’ new CS-3 AI server, which is designed to train the largest AI models.
• Because Cerebras’ hardware focuses on AI training, it previously didn’t have an answer for customers’ AI inferencing needs. Now it does thanks to a new partnership with 高通 .

New Considerations for Data Center Builds

Story by Chris Tozzi

Key Points:

• Although groundwater conditions haven't traditionally been as important as factors like energy sources and network infrastructure when constructing data centers, groundwater is poised to play an increasingly important role in shaping the reliability and cost-effectiveness of data centers in the decade to come.
• The main reason why data centers need access to groundwater is straightforward: Water plays an important role in cooling IT equipment within many data center facilities, and much of that water is pumped from underground aquifers.
• More businesses now face mandates from shareholders, customers, regulators and the public at large to be good stewards of the environment, and their ability to protect local groundwater is one facet of ESG.
• Currently, several of the regions in the United States where data center concentrations are densest – such as Phoenix, Dallas and parts of California – are among those experiencing varying degrees of water availability crises.

Unpacking Data Centre World London

Story by James Walker

Key Points:

• Despite staggering growth forecasts – and Europe experiencing a surge in new data center projects amid escalating global demand for digital infrastructure services – industry challenges are coming from all angles: demand is outstripping supply, power access and supply chain issues persist, and legislation and sustainability issues loom large, to name just a few.
• “We’re facing a poly-crisis situation within data center design whereby as an industry we cannot just concentrate on one specific area but need a collective focus on all of the most pressing items to be tackled together,” said James Rix , Head of Data Centers and Industrial for JLL Project and Development Services , before his opening address at?the Data Center Design &?Build?sessions at Data Centre World UK.
• This year has already witnessed a raft of announcements, with Google, Microsoft, NTT Global Data Centers, Virtus Data Centres, Global Switch, Maincubes, and Starwood Capital Group all unveiling plans to develop new data center facilities in Europe.
• As it becomes increasingly clear that the global data center industry must expand rapidly to service the growing demand, sustainable routes to scalability were a core focus of Data Centre World UK.

Data Center's March Madness

Story by James Walker

Key Points:

• To keep you informed about the latest data center news involving design, construction, and related developments, we bring you the highlights from the past month.

• Expedient , the US-based cloud provider, has announced the addition of a former?Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company?data center to its portfolio. Located near Columbus, Ohio, the 102,000 sq.ft facility is Expedient’s 15th data center in the US and its fifth in Ohio.?
• In?Latin American?data center news this month,?Hurricane Electric, the IPv6-native Internet backbone and colocation provider, has opened a new point of presence at the Ascenty SCL2 facility in Santiago, Chile.?
• In France, construction firm?Mercury?has announced the handover of?Digital Realty’s PAR9 data center, marking a “significant milestone” in the ongoing development of the operator’s Paris Digital Park.??

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