Frontier Spotlight: The Top Data Center Stories for July 2017

Power is the lifeblood of the data center industry, and continues to engage data center thought leaders, as seen in the most popular stories on Data Center Frontier for July 2017. Electricity was the focus of three of our five stories. Other hot topics included the surging demand from cloud providers and next-generation technologies, and the future of 5G wireless and its capacity to disrupt America’s technology landscape.

Here’s a look at the month’s top five stories at DCF, ranked by page views:

The Unimaginable Future: Data Center Leaders Grapple With Growth: Some of the industry’s most optimistic industry thought leaders expressed amazement at the recent pace of data center growth at the recent DCD Webscale conference, and urged colleagues to prepare for further acceleration in demand. “A lot of things we’ve been talking about for years are all happening, and all happening at once,” said George Slessman, the CEO of IO.

5G Wireless: A New Network to Enable the Data Deluge: Faster wireless is the future of American technology. The arrival of next-generation 5G wireless is expected to bring widespread disruption of American business, as low-latency connections enable new services. 5G broadband also will mean more data traffic, and more business for data centers. 5G will enable new data-intensive services like autonomous vehicles, which are untenable with current wireless connectivity. If 5G succeeds, it will be easier to move data between locations, a trend that has always been good for the data center business.

The Future of Innovation in Data Center Electrical Infrastructure: Our DCF Data Center Executive Roundtable addresses the need for continuing innovation in data center electrical design and infrastructure. The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable is a feature showcasing the insights of thought leaders on the state of the data center industry, and where it is headed. Our panel features insights from Shay Demmons of RunSmart, FORTRUST COO Robert McClary, and Bob Woolley of RagingWire Data Centers.

Schneider Electric Buys ASCO Power Business From Vertiv: Schneider Electric announced July 27 that it has purchased ASCO Power Technologies from Vertiv for $1.25 billion. ASCO is a leading maker of automatic transfer switches (ATS) for data centers. ASCO’s products play a key role in the data center power chain. The company is a leading maker of automatic transfer switches (ATS) which transfer critical loads from primary power to a backup generation source.

Utilities, Cloud Builders Work to Address Tensions Over Power: At DCD Energy Smart, leading executives in the data center and utility sectors discussed looming challenges, as well as areas where the two industries may be able to work together for change. The data center industry’s growing appetite for power is testing its relationship with electric utilities, many of whom are struggling to meet cloud builders’ demand for renewable energy. New power architectures are a potentially disruptive trend. But some panelists expressed frustration that the data center industry must innovate to address problems in the utility sector.

Voices of the Industry

Our Voice of the Industry feature showcases guest articles on thought leadership. Here’s a look at the most popular Voices posts from July:

Customer Focus on Energy Efficiency Driving Green Data Center Market: The global green data center market, with Europe and the U.S. historically leading, is expected to reach or exceed $55 billion by 2021. Aaron Binkley, Director of Sustainability Programs at Digital Realty, discusses how a growing customer focus on energy efficiency is driving the “green” data center market.

Improving Data Center Performance and Efficiency on a Budget: If you are trying to improve data center operating performance without replacing your existing infrastructure, there are a variety of economical tactics you can employ. Choosing to follow these strategies can help to keep your existing infrastructure productive and efficient, and on track with industry best practices, writes Jack Pouchet of Vertiv.

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