Good Wednesday morning, and welcome to Data Center Digest.
This is the newsletter that examines data centers and the people, technologies, and trends that make them run.

Here’s what we’re looking at today:

• Schneider Electric says our data centers aren’t ready for AI

• New Pan-European initiative looks to greenify data centers

• DC physical infrastructure market grew 15% in Q2

• Big Deals: Meta finishes first building at KC data center, T5 has plans for another Chicagoland campus, Cologix founders back for more outside Reno

• Resources: Free training courses offered by Schneider

Est. read time: 4mins 32

- News -

Schneider warns current data centers aren’t equipped for AI

Schneider Electric released a white paper earlier this week warning that the demands AI computing go beyond what current data center designs can handle.

Power and cooling

Traditional CPUs from AMD and Intel typically consume 300-400 watts per rack. However, the newer GPUs from Nvidia are drawing up to 700 watts per processor, usually arranged in groups of eight.

This heightened rack density presents a significant challenge. When power consumption surpasses 30kW per rack, air cooling becomes impractical, necessitating the consideration of liquid cooling solutions.

Schneider’s projection for cumulative global data center power consumption estimates it will reach 54GW in the current year, with a substantial increase to 90GW anticipated by 2028.
During this time frame, AI processing is set to surge from its current 8% share of total power consumption to a range of 15% to 20% by 2028.

Connectivity

AI training demands high-throughput network ports for each GPU. However, the rapid advancement of GPUs has outpaced network ports.
For instance, GPUs processing data at a rate of 900 Gbps, coupled with a 100 Gbps compute fabric, results in a slowdown as the GPU must wait for the network to process the data.
On the other hand, while InfiniBand offers significantly faster speeds than conventional copper wires, it is also considerably more expensive.

This is one example of one of the challenges and contraints that operators and developers are currently grappling with.

Schneider’s Recommendations

Schneider Electric proposes several solutions to address these challenges. Firstly, they advocate replacing the existing 120/280V power distribution with more efficient 240/415V systems within high-density racks, reducing the number of circuits required.

In terms of cooling methods, Schneider advocates for direct liquid cooling. This entails connecting a copper plate to the CPU, similar to air-cooled systems, but with two pipes. Cool water enters through one pipe, absorbs heat, and exits via the other pipe, where it is circulated and cooled.

Lastly, Schneider Electric encourages the standardization of liquid cooling methods to promote consistency and efficiency across the industry.

Hyperscalers drive Pan-European initiative to help greenify data centers

The newly announced coalition includes Danfoss (a Danish controls systems manufacturer), Microsoft, Google, and Schneider Electric.

Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers

The four data center giants have partnered with the Danish Data Center Industry to find ways to build better and more sustainable data centers.

The physical center will be in Fredericia, Denmark, but its initiative covers the entire European continent.
The consortium will act as a meeting place where key players can meet and share best practices and guidance from leading researchers.

The goal is to bring together key stakeholders across the European data center sector - from regulators, researchers, operators, utilities, and others, to collaborate on innovative solutions to accelerate the green transition.

CEO of the Danish Data Center Industry, Henrick Hanson says, "The roadmap to zero-carbon data centers requires solutions beyond the industry’s capabilities to solve independently. The open-sourced approach with stakeholders, both within and outside of the industry, will significantly accelerate the industry towards net zero, aligning with EU’s ambitions for data centers by 2030,”

Read more about the coalition here

DC physical infrastructure market grew 15% in Q2

According to Lightwave, this was the slowest growth quarter the industry has seen in the last six quarters.

Dell’Oro’s Q2 report

Per a Dell'Oro Group report, the slowdown was expected as supply chain constraints continued to normalize, and price realization began to wane. Dell'Oro also found that vendor backlogs, an issue prescient over the last 18 months, defied expectations and continued to grow in Q2 of this year.

“The DCPI market has surpassed our already elevated expectations in 1H 2023. Sales growth has been notably strong, but the strength in new orders has been most surprising, which pushed vendor backlogs to record highs at the end of 2Q 2023,” said Lucas Beran, research director at Dell’Oro Group.

Regionally, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and Africa were the fastest-growing regions last quarter - all in double digits. Latina America and Carribbean revenue growth slowed to single digits.

China's growth was relatively flat, year-over-year.

The research firm raised the worldwide DCPI revenue growth forecast for 2023 to over 13 percent. 
“This upward revision was due to multiple DCPI vendors raising full-year guidance as supply chain constraints ease and vendor backlogs continue to grow,” Beran said.

- Big Deals -

Meta finishes first building at KC data center

Meta is making progress on its $800 million data center project in Kansas City's Northland. The first building in the Golden Plains Technology Park, constructed by LM2 Construction & Consulting in partnership with Turner Construction Company, is complete.
This building will serve as the hub for construction operations as the data center expands over the coming years. The project aligns with diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, as it follows city rules on hiring minority- and woman-owned contractors. Meta's 16th U.S. data center is expected to bring 100 jobs to the area when it becomes operational in 2024.

 Read more here

T5 plans for another Chicagoland data center

T5 Data Centers is expanding its presence in Chicago with the acquisition of a new data center site in Northlake, IL. This development, known as T5@Chicago III, is set to provide 36MW of IT capacity in a strategically significant submarket within the United States.
T5 currently operates a campus in the Elk Grove area at 200 Innovation Drive, approximately 10 miles away from the newly acquired Northlake site. The company has been actively expanding its data center facilities across the U.S. and has also filed plans for a massive 3 million sq ft campus in Atlanta, Georgia.

Read more here

Cologix founders are back with “Tract” data center outside Reno

Tract, a developer specializing in master-planned data center parks, has acquired over 2,200 acres of land in Nevada's Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRI) in Storey County. Tract aims to create shovel-ready campuses for data center users to meet their rapid growth needs.

The company, which has real estate holdings across the U.S., is partnering with NV Energy and has been advised by L. Lance Gilman Commercial Real Estate. Governor Joe Lombardo welcomed Tract's contribution to Nevada's growing tech sector, emphasizing its importance for economic diversification.

Read more here

Resources

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- Taylor