Data Center News Roundup: Mixed Results for OEMs, Operators Explore Nuclear Power

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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Getting Physical

Total revenue for the data center storage systems market decreased 14.2% year-on-year to $13.6 billion and quarter-over-quarter increased 1.8% in the second quarter of 2023, offering a sequential boost but falling short of the usual seasonality increase.

According to the latest industry insight from Omdia, a slowdown in data center storage demand has had a broad impact on both enterprise or traditional storage system manufacturers and ODM equipment providers.

"Enterprise storage equipment vendors saw a decline in demand from levels seen last year as enterprise purchasers have slowed acquisitions and postponed big-ticket storage purchases again in the second quarter of this year," said Omdia analyst Dennis Hahn.

In other hardware news this week, Samsung Electronics Company reported a more modest slide in quarterly profit after staunching losses at its chip division, suggesting the global semiconductor market may have rounded a corner.

Related:Data Center Storage Systems Revenue Decline Continues – Omdia

Samsung's shares rose as much as 4.4%, their most in more than a month, with some investors saying a 78% decline in operating income was better than they’d feared.

Expectations are rising that Samsung's semiconductor business "has pretty much passed the bottom," said Sanjeev Rana, head of Korea Research at CLSA. "And the recovery is underway in the fourth quarter."

Turning Up the Dial

China aims to grow the country's computing power by more than a third in less than three years, a move set to benefit local suppliers and boost technology self-reliance as US sanctions pressure domestic industry.

According to Bloomberg, the world's second-largest economy is targeting more than 300 exaflops of computing capacity across its tech sector by 2025, and is planning to build an additional 20 ‘smart computing centers’ in two years.

New Data Center Announcements

This week, NTT Global Data Centers Corporation announced the launch of its sixth data center on the company's sprawling Cyberjaya campus in Malaysia.

The $50 million 'CBJ6' facility has a critical IT load of 7MW, two 33kV substations and advanced cooling wall technology to maintain a stable environment for high-density racks up to 15kW.

Related:Economy vs. Environment: Some Taiwanese Consider Cashing In Their Chips

CBJ6 complements the Cyberjaya 5 Data Center, built in 2021.

"NTT's continuous expansion in Malaysia is a strong testament to the company’s confidence in Malaysia's capability as a data center hub in the region," said Datuk Wira Arham Abdul Rahman, chief executive of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority.

In the US, QTS Realty Trust is reportedly planning a huge new data center project in Irving, Texas.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the $180 million project will see the development of a 264,000-square-foot data center, which is earmarked in late 2025.

In India, meanwhile, CtrlS Datacenters has laid out an ambitious $2 billion investment plan that will result in a huge footprint expansion and a doubling of its workforce.

"The company has identified three key areas of focus as it looks to scale its operations, reaffirm its commitment to the region, and further establish its leadership position," the company said in a statement.

In addition to hiring more than 1,000 new employees in the next six years, the data center service provider plans to add 350MW of capacity to service an anticipated surge in demand and hit its 'net zero' goal by 2030.

A Design for Life?

Gordon Johnson, senior CFD manager at Subzero Engineering, explores how ASHRAE's thermal guidelines are impacting data center design.

"By adopting ASHRAE's thermal guidelines for recommended temperature and humidity ranges, data centers have already improved energy efficiency, optimized cooling systems and embraced innovative technologies," he said.

"However, it should be highlighted that data center designers and managers need to take a holistic approach to cooling."

For those looking to improve their existing operations, Chris Tozzi takes a closer look at how organizations can retrofit their data centers for efficiency and sustainability.

"Retrofitting isn't always the best solution for improving the cost-effectiveness of data centers or addressing new requirements,” he noted. “But if the changes you want to make are limited in scale, a retrofit is likely to be the faster, more affordable, and more sustainable way to bring your data center up to speed."

The Nuclear Option

And finally, infrastructure management company Standard Power has unveiled plans to develop two small modular reactor-powered facilities in the US that will together produce nearly 2GW of "clean, carbon-free energy." 

The facilities will be located in Ohio and Pennsylvania and developed in partnership with NuScale Power Corporation, a certified developer of small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Standard Power said it would use the carbon-free energy to power nearby data centers.

"We see a lot of legacy baseload grid capacity going offline with a lack of new sustainable baseload generation options on the market especially as power demand for artificial intelligence-computing and data centers is growing," said Maxim Serezhin, chief executive of Standard Power. 

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