Data Centres

Nokia building IP network to support AI workloads

Nokia has been selected by Nscale, the hyperscaler engineered for AI, to deliver an IP network solution to support AI workloads at Nscale’s new data centre in Stavanger, Norway. The data centre, which is powered entirely by renewable energy and optimised for energy-efficient cooling, will enable cutting edge AI services, including Graphics Processing Unit as a Service (GPUaaS), a technology which Nscale is an expert in. With a growing global demand for AI-driven applications that consume a large amount of data, Nscale required a reliable, high-performance network to support training and inferencing on large-scale GPU clusters. Nokia’s Ethernet-based data centre fabric provides scalability, programmability, and low-latency performance - essential for handling the rigorous demands of AI workloads across industries including education, healthcare, government and finance. David Power, CTO at Nscale, says, “Our mission is to redefine the boundaries of AI and High-Performance Computing through innovative, sustainable solutions. Nokia’s data centre fabric enables us to scale our GPU clusters while maintaining the reliability and performance needed to serve our customers with cutting-edge AI services. The flexibility of Nokia’s solution ensures we can bring advanced AI capabilities to market faster.” Paul Alexander, Vice President and Country General Manager UK&I at Nokia, adds, “As a hyperscaler, Nscale is already delivering turnkey AI development and deployment solutions to businesses worldwide. With support from Nokia, the path to accessible and transformative AI innovation has never been easier. By combining advanced Ethernet technology with sustainability, we are helping Nscale deliver world-class AI services while supporting its commitment to renewable energy and environmental responsibility.” The solution, based on Nokia’s 7220 IXR and 7750 SR platforms, is designed with the most modern, open, and programmable architectures to ensure ultra reliability, seamless automation and adaptability. Nokia is helping cloud builders worldwide to build modern data centre networks that are highly reliable, secure and easy to operate – which is essential to meet the growing demands of AI workloads worldwide. For more from Nokia, click here.

Yondr Group to develop data centre in Toronto

Yondr Group, a leading global developer, owner and operator of hyperscale data centres has secured a 4.5 acre site in Toronto to develop its first Canadian data centre. The three-storey 27MW data centre is planned to bring its first megawatts online in mid-2026. The development sits strategically within an emerging Canadian corridor for data centre infrastructure. Yondr’s entry into the Canadian market bolsters the business’ presence in North America and follows the successful completion of a 48MW data centre in Northern Virginia and other RFS milestones achieved in London and Frankfurt this year. Adam Sharp, Development Director at Yondr Group, says, “Our Toronto data centre campus will support one of North America’s high growth digital infrastructure hubs, and underpins our commitment to delivering scalable, secure and cost-efficient data centres that play a vital role in bolstering the digital economy and accommodating future technologies. “Close collaboration with Canadian authorities and other strategic partners has resulted in the design of a 27MW data centre that not only boasts aesthetic appeal but also aligns with our sustainability charter and goals. We are focused on commencing the next stage of development for this prime digital infrastructure asset, with ground-breaking expected early next year.” Paul Dillon, Chief Development Officer at Yondr Group, adds, “Our campus in Toronto demonstrates Yondr’s strategic site selection, which was driven by the city’s strong connectivity and status as a hub for innovation and technology. This milestone showcases Yondr’s ability to develop new locations in highly competitive markets and deliver cutting-edge cloud computing and connectivity infrastructure solutions for our clients.” For more from Yondr Group, click here.

NEXTDC brings Edge to Pilbara Desert with Vertiv

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has helped NEXTDC unlock new digital opportunities for Australia’s Pilbara region, delivering robust power and cooling infrastructure to its Port Hedland data centre. The new deployment supports the region’s need for robust data centre support to allow local government and industry to continue digitalisation growth and the adoption of AI. NEXTDC provides colocation and connectivity services to Australian and international organisations. The company operates 16 data centre facilities throughout the country, with another five sites currently in the planning and development stages. NEXTDC is a leader in the industry in edge computing, extending sophisticated data centre capabilities beyond major urban areas and delivering foundational digital services to remote regions. PH1 Port Hedland is NEXTDC’s Port Hedland data centre, located in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, which services the port operations of local mining, oil and gas, and Federal Government sectors. Within the facility, Vertiv’s integrated modular data centre solutions operate close to the region’s Vocus telecommunications fibre network, helping to make cloud-based services - including AI and machine learning - available to NEXTDC’s PH1 Port Hedland customers. Adam Gardner, Head of Product at NEXTDC, comments, “Before NEXTDC’s PH1 Port Hedland facility opened, data generated in the Pilbara often travelled 1,600 kilometres to Perth for processing. The high latency introduced by this extensive route introduced challenges for major resource organisations and other local industries. Innovative solutions, including those enabled by AI, frequently require low latency, reliable connectivity with real-time data access. These major Australian organisations turned to complex, bespoke point solutions to partially alleviate the digital proximity challenges, often at a significant cost to backhaul the data. “NEXTDC’s PH1 empowers the region’s businesses and allows them to innovate and optimise like never before. Vertiv’s strength in Edge data centre builds - particularly in far-flung locations like Port Hedland - meant they were an ideal partner for NEXTDC’s in-house expertise. The Vertiv prefabricated infrastructure solution at PH1 optimised build time and was a great fit to service the region’s operational, safety, and productivity needs.” Vertiv designed, procured, and implemented a complete prefabricated modular, rugged data centre for Stage 1 of the facility’s total capacity. The prefabricated approach allowed NEXTDC to overcome logistical issues because of the area’s remoteness, using capital city-built pre-engineered components and on-site standardised construction processes to reduce remote assembly costs and speed time to deployment. As a scalable, modular solution, the Vertiv deployment can be rapidly expanded to support additional growth. Meanwhile, the solution’s ruggedised design is tailored to withstand the Pilbara desert’s harsh environmental conditions. “Standard data centre equipment isn’t usually specified for these conditions. Vertiv knew and understood this, and together, we made sure to use condensers appropriately rated at 55°C,” says NEXTDC Project Manager, Mark Hamilton. “Plus, we considered the facility’s resilience in the event of a cyclone. So, PH1 Port Hedland has tie-downs to steel fixings, appropriate to withstand high wind pressures, and includes substantive protection around critical equipment to endure a flying tree, should an event occur. The modular solution is Tier III Uptime Institute-certified and uses refrigerant-based air cooling. It also promotes scalability, should NEXTDC introduce increasingly popular alternative liquid cooling methods. Other features include a high-efficiency UPS system, which supports the environment’s high-density power requirements, and lithium-ion batteries for longer-lasting power. Mark adds, “We’re excited to have delivered a robust facility that will offer the Pilbara region access to technologies that improve how industries operate. Mining and oil and gas are big power consumers. As AI becomes more commonplace, these businesses can draw real-time data from their site operations and use it to identify more efficient methods of extracting resources or using trucks.” The enablement of AI-driven, real-time data processing will play an even more prominent role amid NEXTDC’s second edge data centre build in the Pilbara region. NEXTDC’s NE1 Newman facility also leveraged the strong partnership between Vertiv and NEXTDC. Located 600km from Port Hedland and near several mines, the NE1 facility is almost identical to the PH1 facility with additional Stage 1 capacity. Mark notes, “This approach perfectly represents the modular and flexible nature of Vertiv’s prefabricated solutions: they are ready and able to service autonomous mines and other advanced programs.” Tony Gaunt, Vice President of Asia at Vertiv, concludes, “NEXTDC is bringing metro-level compute modular data centres, complete with all the security, safety, low-latency, and uptime resilience that you would expect of a large data centre in a major city, to geographically dispersed and previously-isolated locations. Together, we’re making access to the major cloud providers the new status quo for Australia’s most prominent and founding industries and allowing local businesses to capitalise on AI technologies with high-speed connectivity.” For more from Vertiv, click here.

365 Data Centers partners with Connectbase

365 Data Centers, a provider of network-centric colocation, network, cloud and other managed services, has announced a strategic partnership with Connectbase, the global ecosystem for buying and selling connectivity. This collaboration marks a significant step in enhancing the visibility of 365 Data Centers' extensive infrastructure and streamlining connectivity procurement processes. As a result of the partnership, 20 of 365 Data Centers' facilities will be listed on the Connectbase ecosystem, providing unprecedented greater visibility to a wider range of potential customers and partners. 365's 125 nationwide Points-of-Presence (PoPs) and backbone network will also be accessible through Connectbase. In addition, the partnership includes 365's cloud services nodes, offering a comprehensive view of its infrastructure ecosystem. Automated quoting capabilities will be implemented as well, significantly reducing the time and effort required for connectivity procurement. "This partnership with Connectbase represents a strategic investment in enhancing our market presence and operational efficiency," says Derek Gillepsie, CRO of 365 Data Centers. "By showcasing our entire infrastructure on the Connectbase ecosystem, we're ensuring that our customers, partners, and the carrier wholesale community have complete visibility into our assets and locations." "We are thrilled to welcome 365 Data Centers to the Connectbase ecosystem," adds Ben Edmond, CEO and Founder of Connectbase. "This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to bring transparency and efficiency to the connectivity industry. By integrating 365's extensive network of data centres, PoPs, and cloud nodes into our ecosystem, we're providing our users with unparalleled access to critical infrastructure information. The collaboration is set to revolutionise 365 Data Centers’ interactions with the market, giving customers using the Connectbase ecosystem immediate access to detailed information about 365's data centres, including power capacity and available services. The integration of 365 Data Centers' assets into the Connectbase ecosystem is expected to be completed by the end of this year. This move aligns with 365 Data Centers' commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions in the rapidly evolving data centre and connectivity landscape. For more from 365 Data Centers, click here.

Nscale secures funding for AI infrastructure expansion

Nscale, the hyperscaler engineered for AI, has raised $155 million in Series A funding to accelerate expansion across Europe and North America. Led by Sandton Capital Partners, with participation from Kestrel, Bluesky Asset Management, and Florence Capital, this oversubscribed funding round signals strong confidence in Nscale’s path to building the hyperscaler, purposely engineered for AI. Nscale develops sustainable AI-ready data centres, deploys massive-scale GPU infrastructure, and delivers high-performance AI cloud services. This unique full-stack approach enables Nscale to co-design the data centre and GPU supercluster infrastructure to deliver unrivalled speed, performance, and efficiency on AI workloads. Nscale's full-stack AI private cloud platform is designed to support the entire generative AI lifecycle, enabling developers to run and train AI models. Nscale’s platform provides bare metal and virtualised GPU nodes, Kubernetes-native services (NKS), AI workload scheduling powered by SLURM, and advanced serverless and dedicated inferencing options. In addition, Nscale is launching a public cloud service in Q1 2025 that will provide developers access to purpose-built inference and training solutions in a flexible development environment. Since launching from stealth in May 2024, Nscale has experienced insatiable demand for AI infrastructure, quickly growing its pipeline of greenfield data centres across Europe and North America from 300MW to 1.3GW, with 120MW planned for 2025 development. These sites will be designed from the ground up to support large supercluster deployments for global hyperscalers and LLM platforms, leveraging the latest advancements in closed-loop direct liquid cooling to deliver maximum performance and efficiency, while minimising environmental impact. The hyperscaler is now uniquely positioned to capitalise on the market for large-scale AI infrastructure, and can deliver bespoke GPU clusters at any scale for governments, AI scale-ups, and global enterprises. “The AI market is scaling rapidly, and so are we,” comments Joshua Payne, CEO of Nscale. “Nscale manages every layer of infrastructure in the value chain to meet the intensive needs of large-scale AI customers. In particular, the largest risk to the market's ability to scale is the large contiguous tranches of electricity required to power these large GPU superclusters. Nscale has a 1.3GW pipeline of sites in our portfolio, which allows us to design from the ground up, the data centre, the supercluster and the cloud environment end-to-end for our customers. “This means we can deploy bespoke GPU clusters tailored to customers’ requirements, do this faster than competitors and at any scale, all while delivering superior unit economics. With the support of our investors, we can now reach more customers globally with bespoke designed, sustainable and cost-effective AI infrastructure that unlocks new AI capabilities, products, and services.” Rael Nurick, Co-Founder at Sandton Capital Partners, adds, “We are excited to double down on our investment in Nscale with our lead investment in the Series A round. With a notable founder track record, established industry partnerships, and a unique vertically integrated approach, Nscale is building the hyperscale AI platform to power enterprise AI at scale.” This investment is the latest in a series of significant milestones, reflecting Nscale’s continued commitment to driving innovation and delivering value to customers since it raised $30 million in seed funding in December 2023. For more from Nscale, click here.

Pure Storage and Kioxia form hyperscale DC partnership

Pure Storage, an IT expert that delivers advanced data storage technology and services, has announced a collaboration with Kioxia Corporation, a provider of memory products, to develop cutting-edge technology that addresses the growing demand for high-performance, scalable storage infrastructure among today’s hyperscale environments. Traditional storage solutions, particularly those relying on hard disk drives (HDDs), struggle to meet the demands of hyperscale environments due to their limited speed, scalability, reliability, and excessive power consumption. HDDs are ill-equipped to handle the massive, fast-growing volumes of data generated in these environments without introducing latency and bandwidth limitations, and are difficult to scale and integrate seamlessly into modern data centers. To eliminate these obstacles, the latest collaboration between Pure Storage and Kioxia will deliver a data storage platform engineered from the ground up to tackle the needs of hyperscale environments, allowing for rapid scale while lowering power consumption and reducing the overall physical footprint of hyperscale data centers. With the combination of Pure Storage’s advanced data storage platform with Kioxia’s QLC flash memory, hyperscalers can now keep pace with growing data demands without sacrificing performance. Benefits include: Increased Performance: Ultra-fast, low-latency performance for handling massive, data-intensive workloads, while enabling greater reliability to keep pace with rapidly growing customer demands. Improved Cost Efficiency: Optimised storage costs and lower overall total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing the need for extensive physical resources, while offering better scalability. Lower Power and Waste: Reduced energy consumption significantly compared to traditional HDDs, lowering operational costs, leading to a smaller overall physical footprint, cutting hardware waste and supporting more sustainable data centre operations. Bill Cerreta, GM, Hyperscale, Pure Storage, comments, "Collaborating with Kioxia allows Pure Storage to bring the full potential of all-flash storage technology to hyperscale environments. Pure has a decade of experience in delivering systems that manage flash for enterprise businesses. Now we’re using those innovations, and Kioxia’s latest technology, to enable the hyperscalers. Together, we’re creating a solution that will empower these organisations to manage their data seamlessly, with speed and efficiency at the core." Caesar Ichimura, Chief Marketing Officer, Kioxia Corporation, adds, "Our collaboration with Pure Storage marks an exciting milestone in the evolution of hyperscale storage. As data volumes continue to explode, we’re committed to delivering a solution that combines high performance with lower operational costs. All-flash technology is the future of storage, and through this collaboration, we are driving the innovation needed to address the complexities of today’s hyperscale environments." For more from Pure Storage, click here.

Milestone for Yondr Group’s Frankfurt data centre

Yondr Group, a global developer, owner and operator of hyperscale data centres, has handed over the first 20MW of its 40MW project in Bischofsheim, just south of Frankfurt, Germany. The milestone, achieved in just 20 months, represents the completion of the first two ready-for-service (RFS) phases in Yondr’s planned four-phase schedule for its Bischofsheim data centre. It is Yondr’s second successful handover in Europe this year, following RFS for the first building at the company’s 100MW+ London campus in July. The Bischofsheim facility is also part of Yondr’s rapidly growing global data centre portfolio, with projects currently on site in EMEA, APAC and North America. Designed and constructed to industry-leading sustainability standards, the Bischofsheim data centre is aiming for LEED Gold certification. It will also comply with the German Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), which stipulates that data centres in Germany use renewable energy for 50% of the asset’s electricity consumption, rising to 100% renewables from 1 January 2027. To help align the data centre with Yondr’s sustainability goals and net carbon zero targets, the building has a solar PV installation on the roof, along with a green wall. The asset also has electric vehicle charging points. The Bischofsheim project is strategically located in one of Europe’s most important data industry hubs, which Yondr says demonstrates the company's expertise in identifying, procuring and developing sites in the world’s most sought-after data centre locations. Part of the FLAP market, the Frankfurt data centre hub is central to meeting Germany’s data demand, alongside Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich, and accounts for around 65% of Germany's upcoming data centre capacity. The new 40MW Bischofsheim data centre being delivered by Yondr will help to meet growing demand for capacity in a location that is both Germany's financial capital and a major technology hub. Peter Hill, VP Design & Construction EMEA at Yondr, comments, “Germany is a very dynamic market, with 1.2GW of capacity fully built, and a number of projects set to add to that capacity over the next couple of years, including our Bischofsheim facility. “This data centre has been built to provide exceptional resilience, while also delivering on our client’s goals for sustainability and operational efficiency. Achieving our first RFS milestone in Frankfurt adds to a busy year for Yondr, with more on the horizon.” Ailish McDonnell, Development Director, adds, “We are proud to contribute to Frankfurt’s reputation as a critical location in the FLAP market. This data centre reflects our desire to expand and invest further in the German market. Yondr is excited to continue partnering with local stakeholders to drive innovation and deliver cutting edge, sustainable data centres that meet the country’s evolving needs.” For more from Yondr Group, click here.

CyrusOne announces new Milan data centre

CyrusOne, a global data centre developer and operator specialising in delivering digital infrastructure solutions, has announced plans to enter the Italian data centre market with its latest development in Milan, named MIL1. The announcement follows its acquisition of an 18.5 acre site, strategically located in the Municipality of Segrate, East Milan, at the gateway between Italy, the rest of Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The MIL1 data centre will deliver 27 megawatts of IT capacity across 9,000 square metres of technical space within a single building over three floors. The data centre will be delivered in three phases, with the first nine megawatts operational by Q3 2027. “This is an exciting development for CyrusOne worldwide,” says Matt Pullen, EVP and Managing Director, Europe at CyrusOne. “Entering the Milan market is an important enabler for us to meet our hyperscale customers' demand, offering capacity and choice across the continent. We have seen relatively low enterprise adoption of the cloud in this market to date, demonstrating there are long-term growth opportunities for us here.” In the planning and development of this facility, CyrusOne has dedicated its efforts to support the local economy and prioritised opportunities for the community. In addition to the acquisition of the development site, it also completed the acquisition of a 658,628 square metre biodiverse plot, known as the Golfo Agricolo, which has been gifted to the Municipality of Segrate for community use. In a recent statement, Mayor Paolo Micheli commented, "This is an important day for all of us in Segrate. At last, the Golfo Agricolo is ours, our children's and grandchildren's. The battle we won against cementing this area was right, courageous and determined, but also long, difficult and costly. We are delighted with this outcome which ensures that this area will remain an ecological area for the benefit of the people of Segrate today and in years to come.” The collective commitment of the Municipality of Segrate and CyrusOne to the environment and the community is further demonstrated by CyrusOne’s pledge to install photovoltaic panels on certain municipal buildings within Segrate, the financing and delivery of important public works in the Redecesio district (including a link road), and the redevelopment of Via delle Regioni to expand pedestrian walkways and to include dedicated cycling paths. “We are delighted to have made our first strategic acquisition in the Italian market,” notes Mark O’Keefe, Senior Director of Architecture at CyrusOne. “The site itself satisfies all the requirements for data centre development, including a pre-existing agreement for the provision of power. We look forward to working closely with the Municipality of Segrate to deliver a design aligned to the needs of the community and our own sustainability goals.” Sustainability and biodiversity will play a central role in the new data centre, which is designed to achieve a BREEAM 'Very Good' certification as a minimum and will utilise 100% renewable energy. It will be built ‘heat reuse ready’, initially recovering and utilising waste heat for use in ancillary spaces within the data centre and providing the option to distribute to local third parties where demand exists. For more from CyrusOne, click here.

Kao Data names new DC facilities management partner

Kao Data, a specialist developer and operator of data centres engineered for AI and advanced computing, has named CBRE Group – the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm – its new integrated facilities management (FM) partner. CBRE was appointed for its global capability to support Kao Data's European platform expansion, and its exceptional reputation for managing hyperscale data centre and distributed real estate portfolios. The appointment will reinforce Kao Data’s leading reputation for customer service, uptime, operational excellence and sustainability, and provide the highest levels of FM service and procedural standardisation across its existing and new, ‘next tier’ data centre locations. As part of the new contract, CBRE will be responsible for managing the complete spectrum of hard and soft FM services across Kao Data’s advanced data centre portfolio. This includes all physical structures, mechanical, electrical, cooling and fire systems within its London data centres, as well as its new Greater Manchester facility, which is anticipated to become operational in 2026. CBRE’s hard FM and engineering services will include ongoing maintenance and support for Kao Data’s low-voltage and high-voltage electrical systems, including its uninterruptible power supplies, switchgear and HVO-powered generators, as well as its hybrid air and liquid cooling systems. Additionally, CBRE will be responsible for delivering a host of day-to-day, front-of-house FM services, including management of security, access control and cleaning services across Kao Data’s facilities, and will integrate its acclaimed Critical Environments Risk Management programme to better identify and reduce human-related risks, underpinning Kao Data’s reputation for 100% customer uptime. Pete Judson, COO, Kao Data, comments, "Our data centres are home to some of the industry’s most mission critical computing environments, from global financial services to hyperscale cloud deployments, and GPU-powered AI research and development workloads. To ensure we continue to deliver best-in-class service and resiliency across these systems, appointing CBRE was the obvious choice. “CBRE’s reputation for continuous improvement and attention to detail, coupled with its consistently high standards of performance, make it the perfect FM ally – especially as we grow our data centre portfolio into new locations and markets across Europe.” Craig Bristow, Managing Director, CBRE Data Center Solutions UK, adds, "We are thrilled to partner with Kao Data on its UK data centre portfolio and look forward to the future supporting them as they expand into new markets across Europe. We share a joint commitment to operational excellence and are dedicated to delivering a best-in-class service. Our team's relentless focus on innovation and performance ensures that we are well-equipped to meet Kao Data's evolving needs as they continue delivering their exciting growth strategy.” CBRE begins its tenure as Kao Data’s new facilities management provider on the 1 December 2024. For more from Kao Data, click here.

Interstates and XYZ to revolutionise DC construction processes

Interstates, an electrical contractor, has announced a new partnership with XYZ Reality, a pioneer in construction technology solutions, to revolutionise the construction of an 80-megawatt data centre in Nebraska. This state-of-the-art project is set to transform construction methodologies and enhance data centre project delivery. Through this strategic collaboration, Interstates has advanced layout procedures in ways never seen before, marking a significant milestone in the construction industry. In fact, XYZ Reality’s technology has accelerated laying out by an impressive 500% (five times), achieving unparalleled productivity enhancements. Together, Interstates and XYZ have set a new benchmark in construction, reducing laying out time by 20 days. With instant on-site access to design models, 956 Unistrut markups were completed in just 15 days, dramatically improving both productivity and accuracy. This partnership has enabled Interstates to proactively eliminate potential sources of error, thereby enhancing both efficiency and precision in their projects. The cornerstone of this collaboration is XYZ Reality's construction delivery platform, which combines real-time project controls and engineering grade augmented reality (AR), renowned for its millimetre accuracy. This precision has enabled meticulous installations, addressing a longstanding challenge in construction: the reactive detection of errors after they occur, often resulting in costly rework. By implementing AR technology, Interstates has prevented potential delays and disruptions to subsequent work, safeguarding critical project timelines and budgets. John Molgaard, Senior Project Manager – Mission Critical at Interstates, says, "The impact of this partnership is a game-changer, marking a significant advancement in construction efficiency and accuracy. Partnering with XYZ Reality and leveraging its cutting-edge AR technology pushes the boundaries of what's possible in data centre construction. This collaboration has already yielded incredible results, enhancing our precision and efficiency while significantly reducing rework and delays. We look forward to future collaborations and helping drive the data centre industry towards a more efficient future." Interstates has experienced a significant increase in productivity and efficiency through the partnership, expediting processes and increasing the accuracy that hyperscale data centre projects critically depend on. David Mitchell, Founder and CEO of XYZ Reality, comments, "Our partnership is a game-changer for the data centre industry. By bringing together Interstates' know-how and our cutting-edge tech, we're not just making things run smoother; we're showing everyone how effective construction can really be. Together, we're pushing the envelope and unlocking a future where building it right, first time and working efficiently are standard practice.” For more from XYZ Reality, click here.