Data Center News Roundup: Layoffs—and Outages—Ramp Up

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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Hiring (Whoops, We Mean Firing)

For workers across the tech industry—including data centers—the hits keep coming.

Over the weekend, we saw new layoffs from Ericsson and Twitter. Since last October, Twitter has laid-off over 5,500 employees, nearly 75% of its workforce.

After an initial round of layoffs in January, Salesforce is allegedly considering additional layoffs under investor pressure to grow the company’s margins.

As layoffs show no signs of stopping, CEOs seem to be singing two somewhat contradictory songs. On one hand, leaders are implementing cuts over concerns about economic uncertainty. On the other, they’re expressing fear about finding enough workers to fill those empty roles.

Our friends at InformationWeek are documenting the most significant tech layoffs with an up-to-date layoff tracker.

Outages Take Down Dish, Gmail, Twitter

At Twitter, we’re seeing a clear correlation between layoffs and computing performance. The New York Times reports that “in February alone, Twitter experienced at least four widespread outages, compared with nine in all of 2022.” While we can’t predict the future, as Twitter closes data centers and fires engineers, all signs point to further outages for the social media platform.

Additionally, we saw a range of major businesses including Dish and Gmail and Google Workspace experience outages as a result of breaks in physical and digital data center infrastructure.

In light of these ongoing issues, DCK contributor Klaus Haller wrote a comprehensive guide on how data center professionals can address and prevent possible cloud outages.

Environmental Progress in Iceland

In good news, Iceland made headlines this week for its leadership in clean, renewable energy infrastructure.

The Nordic nation’s regulatory commitment to innovative sustainable practices, particularly hydro and geothermal power, has enabled it to establish a reliable and environmentally friendly energy grid, providing an example for others to follow.

While lacking Iceland’s legislative push to sustainable practices, some tech companies took small steps this week toward environmental sustainability in their data centers:

We love to see green energy solutions in action! If you have a tip on data center sustainability, let us know.

New Development in the Face of Local Resistance

Despite a reasonable local resistance—whether in Northern Virginia, Kansas, or Idaho—to the environmental impacts of data centers, development and construction continued per usual this week in markets big and small across the U.S.

In Fremont, California, Valley Oak Partners have submitted an application for a new 490,000-square-foot 90MW data center. As data centers spread across the Bay Area, the area is cementing its reputation as an enduring hotspot for data center construction.

Even in Virginia, where there’s a strong NIMBY opposition, PowerHouse’s first data center in the region, part of a one billion dollar investment, is nearing completion. PowerHouse expects to welcome its first tenants by July and to finish construction by October.

Outside the States, this week also saw new data center construction begin in Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Algeria, London, and the Philippines.

Other Great Reads on DCK This Week

Catching Up With Data Center Construction Constraints. DCK contributing editor Bill Kleyman explores the world of data center construction and how organizations are adapting to challenges and finding creative solutions to bring infrastructure to market faster.

Data-at-Rest Encryption in the Cloud: Explore Your Options. Klaus Haller breaks down four approaches to handling data-at-rest encryption in the public cloud alongside three basic patterns for integrating cloud storage services in enterprise application landscapes.

Cyber Insurance Is Back From the Brink After Ransomware Attacks. Cyber insurance is making a comeback after a surge in ransomware attacks last year caused many insurers to pull back from the market.

Rethinking Old-Fashioned Backup Strategies for the Cloud Age. We look at two widely used on-prem backup strategies—grandfather-father-son and 3-2-1—and explore their relevance in the world of public clouds.

Which of these stories is most important to you? Let us know in the comments below!