Data Center News Roundup: DCW Keynotes, Vodafone Layoffs

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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Data Center World Announces Keynotes

With Data Center World on the horizon, the conference announced its keynote addresses, including talks from Dr. Burcin Kaplanoglu, vice president of innovation at Oracle Industry Labs, futurist Kian Gohar, and Data Center Knowledge’s own contributing editor Bill Kleyman.

Additionally, a keynote panel with Shweta Saraf, head of network modernization at Equinix, Rebecca Weekly, vice president of hardware systems engineering at Cloudflare, and Garima Kochhar, senior distinguished engineer at Dell will “explore how connectivity, data, and new compute-heavy workloads are changing and modernizing data center infrastructure.”

Get in the mood for Data Center World 2023 with this video recap from last year’s event. Here, Dell exec Ihab Tarazi and Switch chief revenue officer Jonathan King discuss the future of edge computing.

Microsoft Data Center Causes a Stir

In the Netherlands, tensions between Dutch farmers and Microsoft have reached a boiling point as hyperscale data centers continue to sprout on fertile farmland.

Amid a nitrogen crisis and strict environmental targets, a growing political movement (the Farmer Citizen Movement) seeks to halt the construction of massive data centers. Microsoft’s newest data center, however, has jumped the queue despite lacking permits, causing local councilors to cry foul.

As the world continues to demand more data storage and processing power, the battle between environmental concerns, local communities, and tech giants will undoubtedly continue.

Data Center Industry Places Bets on AI

This week, industry experts made predictions for how AI might reshape the data center sector — from physical security to energy management to incident response — and companies doubled-down on their machine-learning-related investment.

After Micron’s quarterly revenue took a nosedive, plunging 53%, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra is putting his chips on AI, predicting that memory and storage silicon will be in high demand as AI applications like ChatGPT proliferate. Meanwhile, Supermicro has designed a new self-contained liquid-cooled server specifically for AI workloads.

South Korea Passes Chips Act

In the ongoing chips race, South Korea’s parliament approved a bill Thursday to help boost the country’s semiconductor industry.

Known as the K-Chips Act, the bill will give major companies investing in manufacturing facilities a 15% tax credit and smaller companies a 25% credit. Officials hope these tax breaks will spur investments in an industry that has recently experienced a “waning” demand.

Vodafone Prepares for Layoffs

Vodafone Germany is planning to lay off 1,300 employees, primarily in admin and management positions, as part of Vodafone Group’s plan to save €1 billion by 2026.

Philippe Rogge, the CEO of Vodafone Germany, called the cuts a “painful step” toward “[financing] our ambitions.” Sure . . . but that’s a lot easier to say when you’re not the one losing your job.

Other Great Reads (Plus a Video) on DCK This Week

The Devil Is in the Details When Assessing Data Center Sustainability. How green is a given data center, really? A new report by Cirrus Nexus found the answer can vary significantly based on factors like time of day or season. Here’s what to consider when evaluating your data center sustainability options.

When – and When Not – to Go All-In on Cloud Migration. Should you go all-in on the cloud? Chris Tozzi weighs the pros and cons of partial versus full cloud migration.

Industrialized Construction and Modern Data Centers. In this DCW 2022 video recap, Amy Marks, VP of Industrialized Construction at Autodesk, describes how prefabricated modules can meet the challenges of modern data center construction.

Authentication Patterns for Securing Technical Accounts in the Cloud. Technical accounts in the cloud can be a major target for malicious actors. DCK contributor Klaus Haller breaks down authentication patterns for protecting your accounts from unauthorized access and offers concrete examples of how to use these patterns in both Azure and AWS.

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