Frontier Spotlight: The Top 10 Data Center Stories for May 2019

June 4, 2019
May’s data center headlines featured big news  in Data Center Alley from Digital Realty, as well as a move from Flexential into Atlanta’s “Transaction Alley.” Top stories for the month on Data Center Frontier also broke down trends like the arrival of AI startups, rethinking redundancy and the rise of data-driven M&A. 

May’s headlines in the data center industry were topped by big news  in Data Center Alley from Digital Realty, as well as a move from Flexential into Atlanta’s “Transaction Alley.”

Other top stories for the month on Data Center Frontier also broke down trends like the arrival of AI startups, rethinking redundancy and the rise of data-driven M&A.

Read on for the most popular data center stories for May 2019:

Digital Realty Acquires Prime Parcel in Data Center Alley: Digital Realty has acquired a chunk of prime real estate in the heart of “Data Center Alley” in Northern Virginia, adjacent to the Equinix campus in Ashburn.

The AI Startups Are Coming. Intel Plans to Be Ready: The market for artificial intelligence hardware is entering a new phase, as a cluster of startups prepare to bring specialized AI chips to market.

Rethinking Redundancy: Is Culture Part of the Problem?: Cloud computing’s focus on software-based application resiliency is prompting new conversations about infrastructure redundancy in the data center industry, as seen at Data Center World 2019.

The first phase of Building L on Digital Realty’s campus in Ashburn, Virginia. (Photo: Digital Realty)

Ready for launch: EdgeCore Preps First Data Center in Mesa: EdgeCore Internet Real Estate is nearing completion of its first facility in Mesa, Arizona. We take a closer look at EdgeCore, and its data center design and approach to the market.

Infrastructure Tower Optimizes Space at CoreSite’s New Virginia Campus: The new CoreSite campus in Northern Virginia includes a four-story infrastructure tower, which centralizes the mechanical and electrical equipment supporting the first phase of the campus.

Data-Driven M&A Expands Across Data Centers, Wireless, Fiber, Towers: Investors are looking to build broad-based portfolios of digital assets, including data centers, telecom towers, fiber and antennas. Recent examples include Digital Colony’s deal for Zayo Group, and American Tower’s entry into colocation.

Flexential Expands With New Data Center in Atlanta’s ‘Transaction Alley’: Financial services is a target market for Flexential as it adds capacity in Atlanta’s “Transaction Alley” in the latest phase of a broader expansion of its national footprint.

The Lincoln Rackhouse data center in Plano, Texas. (Photo: Lincoln Rackhouse)

Lincoln Rackhouse Continues Expansion With Purchase of ByteGrid: Lincoln Rackhouse continues to expand its data center network. It has just acquired ByteGrid, which offers colocation and managed services in three markets.

GIGA Data Centers Focuses on Module-Powered Colocation: GIGA Data Centers seeks to bring hyperscale-style efficiency and economics to colocation customers. CEO Jake Ring says the company can deploy data center space at $5 million per megawatt.

Microsoft Plans Zero-Carbon Data Center in Sweden: Microsoft says its new data centers in Sweden will be its most advanced and sustainable to date by integrating renewable energy sources, and a new data center design.​

Voices of the Industry

In May, Data Center Frontier heard from experts from RagingWire, Digital Realty and Aligned Energy via the site’s  guest column series:

8 Reasons Why Dallas-Fort Worth is a Rising Destination Data Center Market (RagingWire): There are only a few real destination data center markets in the world. Dallas-Fort Worth has earned that status for several reasons. Rodney Willis, RagingWire’s Senior Director of Enterprise Sales, lives and works in Dallas and knows first-hand eight solid reasons why Dallas should be on a  data center buyer’s short list.

Optimizing Your Network With SDN in 2019 (Digital Realty): Software defined networking architectures automate and centralize the management of your network connectivity. Brandon Tikalsky, Sr. Director, Cloud & Network Architecture at Digital Realty, highlights how companies are using SDN to  create dynamic, virtual data center networks.

Future-Proofing Cooling With the Adaptive Data Center (Aligned Energy): Andrew Schaap, CEO at Aligned Energy, explores the many ways to approach data center cooling. According to Schaap, to future-proof your data center cooling, it is best to start with an adaptive data center partner.

Keep pace with the fact-moving world of data centers and cloud computing by following us on Twitter and Facebook, connecting with Data Center Frontier editor Rich Miller on LinkedIn, and signing up for our weekly newspaper using the form below.

Sponsored Recommendations

Guide to Environmental Sustainability Metrics for Data Centers

Unlock the power of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting in the data center industry with our comprehensive guide, proposing 28 key metrics across five categories...

The AI Disruption: Challenges and Guidance for Data Center Design

From large training clusters to small edge inference servers, AI is becoming a larger percentage of data center workloads. Learn more.

A better approach to boost data center capacity – Supply capacity agreements

Explore a transformative approach to data center capacity planning with insights on supply capacity agreements, addressing the impact of COVID-19, the AI race, and the evolving...

How Modernizing Aging Data Center Infrastructure Improves Sustainability

Explore the path to improved sustainability in data centers by modernizing aging infrastructure, uncovering challenges, three effective approaches, and specific examples outlined...