Data Center News Roundup: AI, SVB, and Data Centers in Public Pools

With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for data center professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.

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.

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Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Hits Data Center Startups

News this week was dominated by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after a spate of panic withdrawals from its clients and major VC backers.

Like many in the tech sector, the data center industry wasn’t immune to the fallout. Storage companies with a financial connection to SVB include:

Outage at Reddit

Meanwhile, just down the road from SVB, Reddit encountered its own—if relatively minor—issues. On Tuesday afternoon, Reddit was hit with “a major outage” that brought down the world’s 19th-largest website for several hours. With its own site down, Reddit took to the now regularly down Twitter to share updates:

Data Centers in Swimming Pools

Last week, we had data centers on the moon. This week, we have servers underwater. According to the BBC, a British tech firm, Deep Green, is planning to set up small data centers at public pools across the UK. An innovative solution for data center cooling and energy efficiency, this approach uses the excess heat generated by servers installed beneath a public pool to warm the water via a heat exchanger.

As server power consumption continues to rise and water conservation is a regular issue, new approaches to data center cooling (including at the public pool) are becoming increasingly critical to the industry’s growth and our planet’s survival.

Former COO of Digital Realty Appointed CEO of Salute

After Digital Realty terminated the employment of COO Erich Sanchack in January, he’s now taken on the role of CEO at the data center services provider Salute Mission Critical.

Prior to the announcement, Data Center Knowledge spoke with Sanchack about how he transitioned from military service into the tech industry and the biggest trends, technologies, and challenges in data centers today. You can read the full exclusive interview with Sanchack here.

The Battle of AI: Google and Microsoft Edition

With GPT-4 announced this week—and claims that it can perform better on most exams than I can—every major tech company (and their friends and enemies) is doubling down on artificial intelligence investments.

While Microsoft strung together thousands of Nvidia chips to meet the massive power demands of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence training and research, Google recently showcased a Generative AI App Builder that it says will help companies build applications “in minutes or hours.”

Who among these tech giants will win the battle of AI? If history has anything to say, it probably won’t be the consumer.

Other Great Reads on DCK This Week

Major Data Center Certifications for 2023, Broken Down by Category. Want to level up your data center skills and knowledge? We break down the data center certifications that matter the most, and which ones are the best fit for your specific role in the industry.

The State of Data Center Tax Incentives and Legislation in 2023. Although tax incentives for the data center industry remain plentiful, the goals that drive these breaks are shifting from promoting economic growth to supporting environmental sustainability.

IAM Challenges in the Public Cloud: Feeling the Pain Already? “What does Identity and Access Management (IAM) for/in IT departments have in common with the song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ in shopping centers in December?” writes DCK contributor Klaus Haller. “Well, both are an integral part of the experience, and you only enjoy them if you make money off it.”

Digital Twins in the Data Center: Yes, It's Really Happening! To wrap up the week, DCK contributing editor Bill Kleyman digs into the impact of digital twins—yes, as the title suggests, they are really happening—in the data center industry.

That's all for this week. Which of these stories is most important to you? Let us know in the comments below!