Taming the Beast: Utilities and Hyperscalers Join Forces to Curb Data Center Power Demands

Story by Henry Chapman

Key Points:

• As AI drives unprecedented growth in data center energy consumption, utilities and hyperscalers are locked in an uneasy, sometimes adversarial partnership to expand capacity.
• As of March this year, half of the 11,000 data centers worldwide were located in the US, according to David Porter , vice president of electrification and sustainable energy strategy at Electric Power Research Institute ( EPRI ).
• In Ireland, where Echelon Data Centres received permits for a new data center just this month for the first time in three years, there has been a “quasi-moratorium” on new construction, Echelon’s head of energy systems Cormac Nevins told Data Center Knowledge.
• “From 2022 through 2032, we’re looking at doubling data center capacity in Dublin,” Nevins said, describing ambitious government targets. “In the same period, we have to bring in 8 GW of solar, 4.5 GW of onshore wind, and 5 GW of offshore wind. And a bonus of another 2 GW of offshore wind to reach hydrogen targets. These are ambitious targets for renewables.”
• Discussing a suit filed this month by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta against an Ohio utility company, AEP Ohio, for its plan to charge hyperscalers increased upfront energy costs for their data centers, Porter said it was not unusual for utilities and large customers to be at odds about who should bear the cost of upgrades.
• Porter echoed Nevins’ sentiment that there’s no “silver bullet” to solving the challenges posed by data centers’ soaring power consumption. Instead, he advocated for an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach that includes alternative energy sources, innovations in longer energy duration storage, and projects to enhance existing assets.

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What's Next for Data Center Design?

Story by Drew Robb

Key Points:

• Goldman Sachs estimates that data centers could consume almost 8% of all US power, up from less than 2% today. That equates to a jump in data center power demand by as much as 160% by 2030.
• IT load capacity is expected to grow at almost 14% per year between now and 2030, according to Alan Howard, a data center analyst at IT research firm Omdia. By that time, almost half of all data center capacity will be used for AI, he predicts.
• The Yotta 2024 agenda mirrors these trends. Taking place from October 7-9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the event brings the entire digital infrastructure ecosystem together for a deep dive into the future of data center design. Yotta 2024 will explore the pressing challenges shaping the future of AI, compute, and power and how data centers must respond.
• Expert-led sessions at Yotta 24 will explore many themes. An expansive expo will include a series of Thematic Pavilions such as the Ampere AI Pavilion and the Liquid Cooling Coalition Pavilion, featuring top-tier companies like Ampere , Iceotope Technologies Limited , Shell Energy , and others.

How Will Data Centers Adapt to ESG Requirements?

Story by Steve Lewis

Key Points:

• In the past, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives were typically viewed as an element of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), where companies voluntarily?chose to implement measures to enhance their social influence.
• Research from data management firm ESG Book shows that ESG regulation has increased by 155% over the past decade. This sharp increase is indicative of the growing focus on sustainability-driven policies, with states like California leading the way.
• At the same time, new European regulations are already impacting how businesses worldwide approach sustainability. The European Union (EU)’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into effect on January 1, 2024. It mandates that all large companies and listed SMEs operating within the EU report on their climate impact and start publishing reports in 2025 for the year 2024.
• Moving from CSR initiatives to ESG compliance means data center operators can no longer rely on outdated or manual energy performance tracking methods. They now require tools that provide precision and accuracy to adhere to the evolving regulations.

Data Centers Get a New Status in the UK

Story by Graeme Burton

Key Points:

• According to the UK government, the new designation will result in a “dedicated CNI data infrastructure team of senior government officials” who will monitor and anticipate potential threats, provide prioritized access to security agencies, including the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and coordinate access to emergency services should an incident occur.
• “This is not an overnight decision but the result of years of careful consideration within the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, where a dedicated team has worked closely with operators to understand the operational and market characteristics of the sector,” Emma Fryer , director of public policy, Europe, at CyrusOne told Data Center Knowledge.
• Dr Thomas King, chief technology officer at carrier-neutral internet exchange operator DE-CIX , believes the new designation may not go far enough. After all, a data center on its own is next to useless. It is connectivity that counts, he told Data Center Knowledge.
• If the government regards data centers as critical, Dr King says it must also pay attention to the myriad networks, submarine cable landing stations, and other vital infrastructure that underpins the digital economy.

The Dark Side of Cloud Dynamics

Story by Klaus Haller

Key Points:

• The ongoing cloudification of workloads brings new challenges for IAM beyond the two traditional ones, i.e., enabling employees (and customers and partners) to access company resources while blocking cybercriminals.
• Assume an employee has a company account and a personal account with a cloud or SaaS provider – quite a typical scenario for engineers working with the Azure cloud and using M365 in the office and at home. Then, the employee can upload sensitive company R&D documents to their personal M365 account or a SharePoint account controlled by foreign agencies.
• IP filtering is the poor man’s tenant restriction variant. Smaller providers with few customers often implement this pattern. They might restrict access to tenant ?Germany-Southwest-43? to requests originating from the IP range 131.246.0.0/16, for example.
• In the pre-cloud era, CISOs never worried that someone would grant their engineers access to the Bank for International Settlement’s on-prem databases in Basel. The bank would never do that. In the cloud, however, CISOs need to worry about unsolicited access granting to M365 resources or Google Cloud Storage. It is a new attack path for cybercriminals.

Major Moves Inside the Industry

Story by James Walker

The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry – from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.

Key Points:

• Blackstone the charge in this week’s raft of new data center developments, with the private equity firm confirming it will invest ￡10 billion (around $13 billion) in a new AI-ready facility in Northumberland, UK. The deal will see the construction of the “biggest AI data center in Europe,” with more than 4,000 jobs being created through the venture.
• 谷歌 announced a $3.3 billion investment in South Carolina to expand its cloud and data center infrastructure, including two new data center campuses in Dorchester County and an expansion to its existing data center in Berkeley County.
• Data Center Knowledge writer Graeme Burton took a closer look at the country’s recent announcement that it will designate data centers as critical national infrastructure.
• According to the UK government, the new designation will result in a dedicated team of senior government officials who will monitor and anticipate potential threats, provide prioritized access to security agencies, and coordinate access to emergency services should an incident occur.
• As AI drives unprecedented growth in data center energy consumption, utilities and?hyperscalers?are locked in an uneasy, sometimes adversarial partnership to expand capacity.
• To gain a better understanding of the situation on the ground, Data Center Knowledge?spoke with technology infrastructure experts about the challenges, opportunities, and unanswered questions facing the industry, as well as the “complex mix” of strategies and technologies required to ensure the grid can meet escalating demand.
• And finally, the Asia-Pacific data center market is booming. According to the latest insight from 戴德梁行 , Asia’s data center market neared 12 GW in operational capacity during H1 2024, driven by 1.3 GW in additional supply during the period.

Chip Watch: Commentary of the Week

Story by Ashleigh Hollowell, M.S.

Key Points:

• Established in 2004, the Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every two years by the President of Finland to the developers of groundbreaking technological innovations that “promote the well-being of people and the planet.”
• Professor Baliga, a professor of electrical engineering at North Carolina State University, received this year’s €1 million prize for the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), a power semiconductor device he invented 25 years ago that allows for high efficiency and low power consumption in electric motors.
• “Professor Baliga’s innovation has allowed us to develop societies with electricity efficiently while dramatically reducing energy consumption,” said P?ivi T?rm?, chair of the International Selection Committee of the Millennium Technology Prize.
• Ahead of this year’s Millennium Technology Prize announcement, Data Center Knowledge spoke with Professor Baliga about transistors, sustainability, and the future of tech.

Latest Major Tech Layoff Announcements

Original Story by Jessica C. Davis, Updated by Brandon Taylor

Key Points:

• As COVID drove everyone online, tech companies hired like crazy. Now we are hitting the COVID tech bust as tech giants shed jobs by the thousands.
• Updated September 28, 2024 with layoff announcements from Northvolt , Drata , Moov , and IBM .
• Check back regularly for updates to InformationWeek's IT job layoffs tracker.

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