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Data Center News Roundup: Google Unveils $1B Investment, Latest Storage Trends Unveiled
In this week's top data center news, Google will develop a new facility outside London, and four storage trends are poised to shape the industry.
James Walker
January 19, 2024
4 Min Read
pichetw / Alamy Stock Photo
With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for industry 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.
To keep up to date with all things data centers, subscribe to the Data Center Knowledge newsletter to get content straight to your inbox.
Going Up
It’s been another busy week for data center developments, with Google unveiling plans to invest $1 billion in a new UK facility to help meet growing demand for its services.
Building work has started on a 33-acre site in Waltham Cross, north of London, which Google acquired in 2020. The data center “will help ensure reliable digital services to Google Cloud customers and Google users in the UK,” the tech giant said.
Elsewhere, private equity firm Convergence Partners has acquired Datacentrix, a South African data center firm, and BDx Indonesia has agreed to purchase Indosat’s data center assets in a $169 million deal.
Israeli real estate firm Azrieli Group is reportedly considering options for its Green Mountain data center arm, including a potential initial public offering.
According to Bloomberg, Azrieli has held early discussions with potential advisers about possibilities for the sustainability-focused data center business.
In South Korea, some of the country’s leading tech firms, including Samsung Electronics Company and SK Hynix, are planning to spend more than $470 billion to establish the world’s largest chipmaking cluster, joining a global race to safeguard domestic supply.
Data Center Storage Trends
As 2024 unfolds, Dennis Hahn, principal analyst at Omdia specializing in cloud storage and data management, looks at four key storage trends poised to shape the data center industry this year.
In an insightful video, Hahn said the key trends to watch out for this year include:
Primary storage with built-in ransomware protection;
On-premise storage-as-a-service;
Sustainable data center storage solutions; and
Storage systems using quad-level cell-based solid-state drives.
Reclaiming Waste Heat
Waste heat from the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) could soon be recycled to heat 5,000 households in the Scottish capital.
The university announced a £2.6 million ($3.3 million) feasibility study that will examine how water in old mine workings near the computing facility could be harnessed to heat people’s homes.
The ACF is home to the national supercomputer – which is funded by the UK Government's Department of Science, Innovation and Technology – and currently releases up to 70 GWh of excess heat per year.
The news comes as Octopus Energy announced it had purchased a £200 million ($254 million) stake in Deep Green, a UK firm that heats swimming pools using excess heat generated by data centers.
For more on data center sustainability, check out our latest industry predictions piece, which suggests that carbon offsets will be replaced by more substantive environmental action this year.
Quantum Leap
As new technologies place increased demand on data centers, we took a closer look at the companies that are experimenting with a new generation of superfast fiber-optic networks.
With the assistance of a $4 million grant from the state of Indiana, the Quantum Corridor network recently accomplished lightning-fast data transfer speeds of 40 Tbps during its first transmissions from the Chicago ORD 10 Data Center to an IT facility in Hammond, Indiana.
“Higher security, faster speeds, and more capacity are all going to be key targets for the data center industry as it adjusts to the demands of generative AI and increased data consumption, and quantum networks have the potential to help the industry meet those targets,” Ellie Brown, analyst at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, told Data Center Knowledge.
Check out the full article to catch up on the latest high-speed fiber-optic developments around the world.
Other Great Reads on DCK This Week
5 Things You Can't Automate In Your Data Center. Find out which data center operations are resistant to automation – for now.
Investors Plow Into Asia Data Centers on AI, Cloud Boom. Data center demand in Asia is expected to surge over the next five years.
Building Efficiency Upgrades Could Reduce Global Energy Demand by 12%. A new report from the World Economic Forum outlines the economic benefits of building efficiency upgrades.
Synopsys to Buy Software Maker Ansys for $34B. The acquisition aims to expand Synopsys’ customer base and its suite of products.
SEC Cyber Disclosure Rules Usher in a New Era for CISOs. The SEC’s new cyber disclosure requirement is both a burden and an opportunity for CISOs, whose role is now more strategic than ever.
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