White Space Today - 20 May 2020

Microsoft Azure’s 8-hour Outage in India

The cloud necessitates data centers rather than replacing them, as has been mistakenly reported over the past few months. But even the much acclaimed cloud is a tool, which has its pros and cons, as Microsoft’s lengthy Azure outage in India clearly illustrated. While the specifics are still being investigated, a disruption in local power distribution disabled some air handling units, which elevated temperatures and shut down network and storage resources to protect data. PayU and Citrus Pay were among those impacted by the outage, much to dismay of many angry customers who could not process their payments in the world’s 2nd most populous country (1.3bn people).

Phoenix – 2nd Most Active Data Center Market in the US

Edging past long-time primary data center markets like Silicon Valley, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, and Atlanta, Phoenix, AZ is getting a lot of attention from mission critical operators, like EdgeCore, Stream Data Center, Iron Mountain, Compass Data Centers, Microsoft, Google, and QTS Data Centers. This is in addition to the already established presence in the area by the likes of Digital Realty, CyrusOne, and phoenixNAP.

Green Mountain’s New Norway DC to Be Top Nordic Site

The right combination of present and future power and fiber sets the newly developing “cluster” of data centers in Kalberg Valley, Norway on the path to overtake Lule?, Sweden, where Facebook has established itself. The location, a 54-acre plot with immediate access to 3MW of power and 10MW in 12 months (300MW in 36 months), is 30 mins south of Stavanger, with its international airport, deep sea ports, and a railway. Fiber-wise, Green Mountain is part of the consortium (along with Lyse, Haugaland Kraft and BKK, the Hatteland Group, and Ryfylke IKS) that is building a 160 terabit submarine cable (the Englandcable) which will link Norway to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg.