The Top 10 Data Center Stories of February 2021

The boundaries between satellites and space and data centers on earth are being bridged, and Data Center Frontier readers want to learn more about it. Contributor Doug Mohney’s overview of low-earth orbit (LEO) broadband initiatives was our most popular story in February. Another hot topic was the hot Wall Street trend of SPACs and their growing impact on the data center sector, including a merger that will bring Cyxtera public. And all eyes were in Texas during the recent weather-driven infrastructure challenges.

Here the 10 most popular stories on Data Center Frontier in February 2021, in order of article views:

• SpaceX Gets Connected: Satellite Broadband Meets the Data Center: SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb and Telesat all plan to offer low-latency broadband via constellations of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Here’s an overview of the LEO broadband players, strategies and what these services will mean for the data center industry.
• Data Center M&A On The Horizon as New SPACs Go Shopping: More data center mergers and acquisitions (M&A) appear likely amid reports of two new special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs) featuring teams of data center executives. Meanwhile, the industry’s busiest consolidator is raising a huge new round of capital.
• Texas Data Centers Rely on Generators During Power Emergency: Amid a statewide power emergency, major data centers in Texas are running on generator power to keep customers online and reduce load on the state’s struggling grid. Large operators say service is uninterrupted, but news reports indicate some data centers in the region are experiencing outages.
• Beyond Green Power: New Frontiers in Data Center Sustainability: As the drive for data center sustainability enters a new and more urgent phase, what are the next frontiers beyond efficiency and energy sourcing? Here’s a look at the technologies, strategies and best practices we are watching at Data Center Frontier.
• From PUE to GUE: Measuring the Continued Evolution of Data Center Sustainability: Sean Farney, Director of Data Center Marketing, Kohler Power Systems, highlights the need for an all-encompassing and standardized way to measure and report on data center sustainability across the entire data center ecosystem.
• Cyxtera to Go Public Through $3.4 Billion Merger With Starboard SPAC: Cyxtera Technologies will become a public company through a merger with a SPAC sponsored by Starboard Value. The deal, which values Cyxtera at $3.4 billion marks the first major deal by a group of SPACs targeting the data center sector.
• Facebook to Expand Utah Data Center by 900,000 Square Feet: Facebook announced this week that it will expand its Eagle Mountain Data Center in Utah by more than 900,000 square feet with two new buildings, highlighting the extraordinary growth of data center campuses.
• ‘A Year Like No Other’ as NTT Global Data Centers Accelerates Expansion: NTT Global Data Centers Americas is deploying new capacity across multiple U.S. markets in 2021. The expansion kicks into high gear with this week’s launch of new data centers in Suburban Chicago and Hillsboro, Oregon.
• Building Through The Pandemic, Data Centers Added 17 Million SF in 2020: Data center developers added nearly 17 million square feet of new capacity during 2020, deploying new cloud capacity at top speed despite the challenges of construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Evoque Boosts Connectivity Options, Looks to Expand Data Centers Evoque Data Center Solutions enters 2021 with new connectivity options, and ambitions to boost its customer base and presence in the data center business. That includes data center expansions, and perhaps some M&A.

Education is part of our mission at Data Center Frontier. In our Voices of the Industry feature, we share the experience of data center executives on the front lines of innovation. Here’s a look at the most popular Voices columns for DCF readers last month:

• From PUE to GUE: Measuring the Continued Evolution of Data Center Sustainability (Kohler Power Systems): Sean Farney, Director of Data Center Marketing, Kohler Power Systems, highlights the need for an all-encompassing and standardized way to measure and report on data center sustainability across the entire data center ecosystem.
• Maximize Your Data Center Budget With High-Speed Point-to-Point Cables (The Siemon Company): Ryan Harris, Sales and Market Manager for High Speed Interconnects with The Siemon Company, explores the ins and outs of a variety of different data center cabling options to suit a variety of different data center budgets, as well as when reaching out to a cabling specialist might be the best approach.
• Enterprise and Hyperscale Requirements Have Converged (Stream Data Centers): Chris Bair, Senior Vice President of Sales and Leasing at Stream Data Centers, highlights how enterprise and hyperscale data center requirements have grown more and more similar over the past two decades.
• 5 Ways to Mitigate Supply Chain Unpredictability and Labor Shortages in Data Center Construction (ProLift Rigging): Blake Weaver, Data Center Specialist at ProLift Rigging offers a list of ways to overcome supply chain challenges and labor shortages in data center construction.

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