Happy Thursday all, and welcome to Data Center Digest.
We’re covering the business and technology of data centers and digital infrastructure.

Here’s what we’re looking at today:

• Airgap’s kill switch looks to revolutionize enterprise security

• Uptime looks at the data center boys club, eyes a fix

• Big Deals: Siemens invests big in data centers, FiberFirst launches its first Nebraska fiber, and a massive data center facility is coming to Mesa

• 🌭 Hot Links: DCDynamics podcast

Est. read time: 6mins 08secs

Airgap’s kill switch to revolutionize enterprise security

Many enterprise networks today are falling prey to cyberattacks, Airgap Networks looks to telecommunications networks to provide a solution.

Issues with enterprise

Ritesh Agrawal, who founded Airgap in 2019, Agrawal has observed a key difference that sets telco networks apart—their resilience to the threats that often besiege enterprise Local Area Networks.
This resilience exists despite telcos deploying similar routers, switches, and firewalls as those used in enterprise networks.

A significant issue with enterprise security is its reliance on antiquated LAN environments, which have seen little innovation since the inception of VLANs in 1984.
The outdated, interconnected nature of these networks often leaves them vulnerable, particularly to ransomware attacks.

It’s into this environment that Airgap has stepped, using the segmentation and zero-trust nature of telco networking as inspiration for solving the vulnerabilities of traditional enterprise networks.

Their novel approach draws from the insight that while individual devices can interact via text or Zoom, they remain isolated at the network level, preventing direct device-to-device communication that could lead to widespread infections.

Killswitch engage!

At the heart of Airgap Networks' solution is the Zero Trust Firewall (ZTF), designed to defend the core of enterprise networks and safeguard critical assets. The technology emphasizes creating virtual “airgaps” through what they term "agentless micro-segmentation."

This approach effectively emulates the isolation found in telco networks but is tailored for the enterprise environment.

Traditional LAN architectures, which group endpoints into unrestricted VLANs, inherently allow free network-level communications—this openness becomes a critical vulnerability.

To combat the porousness of traditional LAN architecture, Airgap's Zero Trust Isolation technology restricts unauthorized lateral movements within the LAN and halts any lateral scanning attempts by potential intruders.

There’s more to it…

Here’s a quick rundown of the key aspects of Airgap’s networking solutions:

• Agentless Discovery and Segmentation: Their technology allows for identity-based segmented access, network and asset discovery, and segmentation between machines without the need for traditional agents​.

• Disposable Jump Box: This feature prevents threat spread from users to machines by enforcing identity-based restricted access, with cloud-scale deployment, Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and per-app customization​​.

• Ransomware Kill Switch: Airgap's solution can segment systems, including vulnerable legacy and headless machines, to halt the lateral movement of threats, something not possible with traditional agent-based solutions.

• ThreatGPT™: An AI-powered feature for threat detection and prevention, offering advanced threat response, visibility into traffic flows, accurate anomaly detection, and natural language processing for quick insights​.

Uptime grapples with the understaffed data center boys’ club

The data center industry is grappling with a persistent staffing challenge and gender imbalance, as revealed by the 2023 Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey.

Major issues: retention and gender

The sector is struggling to attract and retain staff, with about half of the respondents finding it difficult to fill positions, and one in four reporting losing employees to competitors, often poached by other data center operators.

Despite the staffing crunch justifying aggressive hiring from all labor pools, data centers employ surprisingly few women, with the average proportion of female employees at a mere 8%. This is even lower than traditionally male-dominated fields like construction, mining, and manufacturing.

The lack of progress in gender diversity is notable despite past initiatives aimed at recruiting more women into data center careers. Four years ago, nearly three-quarters of survey respondents acknowledged the industry would benefit from more female hires, with 45% seeing the gender gap as a threat to the industry's talent pool and innovation.

Now what?

Today, the question remains: why has there been no significant change? Data center jobs, which often are less physically demanding than roles in construction or mining, still see lower female participation.

The issue may be the lack of visibility of data center careers and the absence of female role models, which could deter women from viewing the sector as welcoming or safe.

To address these challenges, the data center industry must improve its market visibility and actively communicate the rewarding career opportunities available to qualified women, according to Uptime.

This includes outreach to potential workers from universities, trade schools, and those considering a career change, as well as support for women re-entering the workforce. 

Operators need to reassess recruitment strategies and create an inclusive environment that leverages the full potential of the labor market, including underrepresented groups like women, to overcome the staffing shortfall.

- What’s More -

Siemens ramps up in Texas for data center investment

Siemens AG is investing $150 million to establish a high-tech manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas, aimed at bolstering the U.S. data center industry and supporting the surge in AI computing workloads.

The plant, focused on producing critical electrical infrastructure equipment, is part of Siemens' larger $500 million investment in U.S. infrastructure manufacturing for 2023.

This move is expected to meet the demands of an industry projected to grow 10% annually through 2030 and will create nearly 1,700 jobs.
The facility will feature advanced manufacturing tools like digital twins technology and is slated to begin production in 2024.

 Read more here

FiberFirst launches in Nebraska

FiberFirst has extended its high-speed fiber internet services to Omaha, Nebraska, leveraging its partnership with infrastructure firm Ubiquity.

After establishing its high-speed network in Texas, FiberFirst's Omaha launch marks its second state of operation, offering up to 5 GB residential speeds and business-specific solutions without data caps. This expansion is part of FiberFirst’s strategic growth, with plans to explore further markets.

Executive VP Bryan Davis says, “We are thrilled to bring FiberFirst to the community of Omaha, Nebraska, and we look forward to being a partner of the community for years to come,”

The company is dedicated to delivering multi-gigabit connectivity and enhancing the digital landscape in Omaha.

Read more here

Massive 360MW facility coming to Mesa

Pacific Proving LLC plans to develop a 178-acre data center campus in Mesa, Arizona, reported to feature six data centers with 32 data halls and 1.4 million square feet of space, providing 360MW of power.

The site, east of Legacy Park, continues Mesa's expansion as a key data center hub. While the end customer remains unnamed, a pre-submittal meeting is set for November 7. The land, part of the former GM Desert Proving Ground, was bought in 2004 by local businessman William Levine. However, Councilman Scott Somers voiced concerns over resource use and the need for diverse, high-value job creation.

Read more here

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- Taylor