This Week's Top Stories in the Data Centre Industry
Investment in two US manufacturing sites by ABB aims to support expected growth in mission-critical industries, which includes data centres, buildings and utilities.
US$120m has been pledged by the company to expand US manufacturing, specifically boosting the production capacity of its low voltage electrification products. The investment is designed to enable ABB to meet surging demand from customers in growth industries and is expected to create new jobs at manufacturing facilities in the process.
“Demand is increasing steadily for advanced electrification technologies, driven by growth in key sectors including data centers and utilities,” explains Morten Wierod, CEO at ABB. “Today’s announcement will support our future growth in the US, ABB’s largest global market.”
Against constantly-escalating demands on data centre infrastructure, Juniper Networks and IBM have announced an expanded collaboration that could reshape how data centres manage increasingly complex network operations.
Data centres today face unprecedented challenges, with networks supporting a mix of legacy applications, cloud-native workloads, edge computing initiatives and expanding security requirements. The growing adoption of hybrid cloud architectures has introduced additional complexity, requiring data centre networks to provide seamless connectivity across multiple environments while maintaining strict performance parameters.
The Juniper-IBM partnership appears positioned to address these challenges through the integration of Juniper's Mist AI with IBM's watsonx platform – targeting the mounting complexity of data centre network management and troubleshooting with automated solutions that reduce the need for manual intervention.
The global telecommunications industry faces mounting pressure to balance the growth of data demands against increasing energy costs and environmental concerns.
Now, as mobile networks evolve 5G and 6G technologies, the integration of AI with network infrastructure has emerged as both a solution and a challenge to these pressures – by offering performance improvements but increasing power consumption.
For instance, whilst AI is improving data processing, storage and security in data centres, the energy requirements of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) – essential hardware for AI workloads – can be five to ten times higher than traditional computing hardware, creating new challenges for network operators.
However, tackling this problem, SoftBank, a major teco company and Red Hat, a provider of enterprise open source software solutions, have developed a system to monitor and optimise power consumption in data centres running virtualised Radio Access Networks (vRAN) and AI applications.
DataOne and Nebius have launched a collaboration to construct a 300MW data centre in Vineland, New Jersey, designed specifically for AI workloads.
The first phase of the facility will be delivered in 20 weeks, and will incorporate behind-the-meter electricity solutions to reduce dependence on the regional grid, along with heat recovery systems and energy-efficient cooling practices.
The partnership marks a significant expansion for both companies. For Nebius, the facility enhances its US market presence with a 10-year tenant commitment. For DataOne, it represents the company’s largest US project following its recent European developments.
Coming soon in March 2025, Data Centre Magazine is set to unveil its Top 100 Women supplement, celebrating influential leaders in the industry.
These trailblazers are women who continue to pave the way for innovation and are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion across the data centre industry.
Paving the way for future generations, the women on our list are creating space at the table for new faces, growth and innovations.
Those featured across these supplements have not just earned a prestigious spot on the list, but have also garnered profound respect through their remarkable professional achievements, showcasing outstanding talent and unwavering determination in their respective industries.
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