Back to building. After several months of intense focus on managing the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, in June the news in the data center sector shifted to growth and building for the future. That included stories about new investors, huge new projects in Ashburn and Phoenix, an epic lease in Europe, a major portfolio acquisition, a partnership between leading edge and wholesale providers, and clouds extending into satellite services,

Here are the 10 most popular stories on Data Center Frontier in June 2020, in order of article views:

• Investors See Data Centers As Critical Infrastructure for the New Economy: Large investors remain focused on the data center market, citing extraordinary demand for capital to fuel the data economy, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a look at recent transaction trends.
• AWS Ground Station Connects the Amazon Cloud to Space Satellites: AWS Ground Station is positioning Amazon’s infrastructure as the key link in the fast-growing stream of image data between satellites and cloud data centers. Here’s a closer look at AWS and its leadership in cloud services for commercial space startups.
• Equinix Acquires 13 Bell Canada Data Centers in Canada for $750 Million: Global colocation giant Equinix will buy a portfolio of 13 data center sites from Bell Canada (BCE) for $750 million in cash, the companies said today.
• In a Hyper-Wired World, Interconnection Matters More Than Ever: Interconnection will become even more pivotal to the digital economy over the next 5 years, which will see a meteoric rise in the volume of data traffic flowing through network intersections.
• Aligned Plans 120 MW Data Center as Super-Sizing Continues in Ashburn: Aligned will begin building a massive 120-megawatt data center in Northern Virginia, continuing a trend toward larger facilities to support rapid cloud growth.
• Digital Realty, Vapor IO Team on Integrated ‘Core-to-Edge’ Offering: Data center developer Digital Realty and edge computing specialist Vapor IO are rolling out an “edge-to-core” offering in Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta. It’s an early examples of integration between edge computing and data centers.
• More Servers, Around the Clock: How Microsoft Scaled for COVID-19: Microsoft’s network expansion to handle COVID-19 data traffic required round-the-clock work from its Azure data center teams. A new blog post highlights the human component of Azure’s effort to scale its cloud operations.
• Iron Mountain Lands 27-Megawatt Data Center Lease: Iron Mountain has signed a 27-megawatt lease for a new data center in Frankfurt, serving notice that it has joined the top tier of developers that can provide capacity to the largest clients.
• KKR Puts $1 Billion Behind New Data Center Development Platform: KKR is the latest marquee investing firm to enter the data center industry, forming Global Technical Realty (GTR) to develop more than $2.5 billion in data centers across Europe in the coming years.
• STACK Plans 1 Million SF Data Center Campus in Western Phoenix: STACK Infrastructure has bought land for a data center campus in Avondale, Arizona, which could reach 1 million square feet of build-out. It’s the latest in a cluster of data centers around Goodyear.

Voices of the Industry

In April, Data Center Frontier’s guest column series, Voices of the Industry, featured insight from leaders from Stream Data Centers, Telescent, Eaton, Anord Mardix, CoreSite, ProLift Rigging, Data Aire, and BCS Data Center Operations. Here are the Voices columns that were most popular with DCF readers last month.:

• Exploring Project Buffering to Build Data Centers Faster (ProLift Rigging): Zech Connell, Data Center Market Manager at ProLift Rigging Co., explores Project Buffering to build faster data centers.
• Unexpected Benefits of Multi-Tenant Data Centers During a Network Crisis (Stream Data Centers): Chad Rodriguez, Vice President of Network and Cloud, along with Chris Bair, Senior Vice President of Sales and Leasing for Stream Data Centers, share key considerations for successfully managing network and cloud demands during a crisis.
• Predictive Analytics Are Key to a Smart, Proactive Business Approach (Eaton): Arthur Mulligan and Ed Spears from Eaton explore the value of predictive analytics when planning risk mitigation for critical system management. They also share examples of customers using predictive analytics to avoid problems associated with business and environmental challenges beyond your control.

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.