News

CtrlS announces 40-acre Datacenter Park near Hyderabad

CtrlS Datacenters has announced plans to set up a new Datacenter Park on a 40-acre land parcel at the upcoming Chandanvelly Industrial Park near Hyderabad in India. This expansion will significantly enhance the company's capacity and capabilities in the region.  The 40-acre campus, with a potential IT load capacity of over 600MW, represents a substantial investment in Hyderabad's data centre landscape, which presently has an estimated 52MW operational capacity.  According to various analyst reports, India's data centre industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, with capacity expected to cross 1,300MW by the end of 2024 and reach 1,800MW by 2026. This growth is driven by rapid digital transformation, AI and cloud adoption, and data localisation requirements.   The CtrlS Chandanvelly Datacenter Park will feature multiple high density, ultra-high density along with AI-ready, interconnected data centre buildings with a potential capacity of over 600MW IT load when fully developed. The buildings will be engineered for flexible ultra-high density rack configurations supporting up to 135KW per rack and immersion cooling up to 300KW per rack and equipped with state-of-the-art cooling technologies.   In phase-1, the facility has secured 250MW of sanctioned power capacity and plans to have a dedicated Gas Insulated Substation (GIS), expandable up to 900MW, ensuring redundant power availability for uninterrupted operations. The facility will also house mission-critical operation centres, administrative offices and collaboration spaces for customers.   The facility will utilise advanced cooling systems like free air-cooling, direct liquid cooling, immersion cooling for achieving an annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) between 1.12 and 1.32, with potential for even greater efficiency through free cooling solutions. The buildings will feature solar module facades on both western and southern elevations, offering multiple benefits including thermal regulation, generating green power and aesthetic appeal.  Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Chairman, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd, says, "Telangana is rapidly emerging as an economic powerhouse in India, making it strategic for CtrlS Datacenters' expansion. Our new data centre park will catalyse the growth of data-driven and technology businesses in the region.   He further adds, "Given the government's strong support for the ICT sector and accelerating digital transformation, CtrlS Datacenters is proud to contribute to Hyderabad's digital ecosystem through this state-of-the-art facility. We are grateful to the Telangana government for their support and for fostering an environment conducive to establishing our Datacenter Park."  

Palo Alto Networks partners with air transport expert

SITA, a specialist in air transport technology, has reached a significant agreement to partner with Palo Alto Networks, a global cyber security expert, to deliver comprehensive cyber security protection for mission-critical airports applications. As part of the agreement, Palo Alto Networks’ AI-powered cyber security platforms will be added into SITA’s CyberSecurity portfolio. SITA will provide the management and operation from its CyberSOC. The platform will safeguard access from remote sites, mobile workforce and airport assets such as check-in workstations, self-service kiosks, tablets, smartphones and baggage scanners, enabling smooth passenger flows whilst also avoiding downtimes and reducing turnaround times where efficiency of operations is a key priority. The partnership will focus on delivering advanced cyber security solutions (including Palo Alto Networks' Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Prisma SD-WAN Instant-On Network (ION) Devices, and Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access) to provide comprehensive network security, connectivity and cloud-based protection, all managed by SITA. This innovative development, called SITA Managed Security Service Edge (SSE) and consisting of Palo Alto Networks technologies, offers a complete suite of network security services (such as Secure Web Gateways, intrusion detection, threat intelligence, next generation antivirus or WildFire, DNS protection, SSL decryption and data loss prevention), all seamlessly delivered from Palo Alto Networks’ dedicated cloud platform. As a specialised subset within SITA’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework, SSE delivers robust and innovative world-leading security measures to protect digital infrastructure and implements the kind of advanced protection demanded by all CISOs and compliance authorities - including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and ISO 27000. Martin Smillie, SITA Senior Vice President for Communications and Data Exchange (CDE), says, “The need to protect vital digital applications within the transportation industry has never been more acute, given the ever-evolving threat from cyber attacks. This agreement delivers industry-leading cyber security protection for our airport, airline and other customers, in mission critical areas of their operation. Managed by SITA CyberSOC, this combines Palo Alto Networks' best-in-class AI-powered, cloud native endpoint and application protection, all optimised and future-proofed to combat cyber threats.” Patricia Murphy, VP EMEA & LATAM Ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks, adds, “SITA has provided innovative answers for communications and data exchange to the aviation industry for the past 75 years, and is now expanding into other areas of transportation also. This partnership will begin a transformation of cyber security in the air transport industry, helping ensure that critical systems are protected with the most advanced cyber security platforms available - fostering a safer and more efficient environment for air travel worldwide.” Palo Alto Networks will help to provide the current and next generation of cyber security protection and software for SITA Secure Service Edge at mission-critical areas of aviation and other areas of transport. Palo Alto Networks leverages its Precision AI proprietary AI system to detect and outpace potential cyber threats, providing next-generation cyber security to thousands of customers globally across all industry sectors. Its platforms and services are supported by cutting-edge threat intelligence and state-of-the-art automation. For more from Palo Alto Networks, click here.

EXA Infrastructure to acquire Aqua Comms

EXA Infrastructure has announced that it has signed binding agreements to acquire Aqua Comms – a specialist operator of transatlantic and intra-European subsea infrastructure. EXA Infrastructure, a London-based portfolio company of I Squared Capital - an independent global infrastructure investment manager - operates over 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide critical connectivity to subsea systems. Aqua Comms is an Ireland-based service provider specialising in operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier and enterprise markets. It is the owner/operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) and is part of a consortium that owns and operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3). Speaking on the deal, Jim Fagan, Chief Executive of EXA Infrastructure, comments, “The acquisition of Aqua Comms demonstrates EXA Infrastructure’s commitment to build a modern and diverse transatlantic platform to fully serve AI, cloud and content demand, now and in the future. The combination will offer our customers more routes, more capacity and increased diversity, all on a scaled platform.” The planned transaction is expected to complete in approximately 12 months, subject to customary closing conditions. Akur Capital and RBC Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors to EXA Infrastructure in connection with the transaction and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is serving as legal M&A advisor to EXA Infrastructure. Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to D9 in connection with the transaction and Shoosmiths is serving as legal advisor to D9. For more from EXA Infrastructure, click here.

Feature - Driving Hard Disk Drive innovation

When it comes to capacity and density, Western Digital’s latest hard disk drives (HDDs) are setting new standards. Peter Hayles, Product Marketing Manager HDD at Western Digital, explains why. The increased digitalisation of business operations and the proliferation of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has led to an explosive data growth in recent times. Hyperscalers, cloud service providers, and data centres now require enormous storage capacities to keep up with this data deluge, with factors like performance, power consumption, total cost of ownership and storage density all playing a decisive role in creating an efficient storage infrastructure. With its decades of industry experience, Western Digital is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to data centre storage, and its latest HDDs are here to help address the challenge of balancing capacity and density needs. The Ultrastar DC HC690 UltraSMR HDD has up to 32 TB of storage, with a sequential transfer rate of up to 257 MiB/s. And the Ultrastar DC HC590 HDD, which uses the traditional CMR recording technology, enables a continuous increase in capacity with 26 TB and sustained transfer rates of up to 288 MiB/s. Storage capacity and density now go hand in hand What is remarkable about these HDDs is that, despite their higher capacities, they are not physically larger than their predecessor models. This makes them a great solution for data centres and is something primarily made possible by innovative technologies, like the Energy-Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (ePMR). The PMR process requires a certain minimum energy to ensure stable magnetisation of the bits. With ePMR, electricity is used to generate an additional magnetic field to support the magnetisation process of data bits. The field creates a preferred path for ‘switching’ the bits, i.e. rewriting the data, and this means that less magnetic energy is required from the write head itself. The additional magnetic field ensures a more stable and uniformed magnetisation of the bits, which minimises so-called ‘jitter’ effects. This is where unwanted irregularities can lead to inefficient use of storage space. By reducing jitter, the bits can be placed closer together, and therefore the storage density of the hard disk increases. Why SMR and ePMR complement each other perfectly ePMR has a particularly positive effect in combination with Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), the storage recording format with overlapping tracks. With SMR, more data can be written to the same space and like ePMR, it is therefore great for increasing the storage capacity on a hard drive without increasing its physical space requirements. SMR hard drives are best suited for long sequential writes where the system is continuously writing data to the medium, such as for data backup or archiving. In combination with ePMR, these two technologies enable an increase in tracks-per-inch (TPI), allowing more storage capacity so data centre operators can maximise their storage efficiency. This results in benefits such as increased computing power in minimal space, improved energy efficiency, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), scalability and flexibility. Shaping the future of HDD technology With data centres growing in importance and prominence – especially hyperscalers and cloud providers – there is an increasing need to look for optimised storage solutions that can keep up with the vast amounts of data at scale while lowering TCO to ensure storage efficiency and economic viability. By combining field-proven designs with the latest innovative technologies, such as UltraSMR and Western Digital’s propriety OptiNAND technology, which leverages integrated iNAND embedded flash for housekeeping functions, data centres will address the different needs of various applications and enable higher capacity storage without having to compromise on density. Data centres and organisations interested in learning more about Western Digital’s HDD offerings can start their journey here. - This article first appeared in the Winter 2024 edition of DCNN. For more from Western Digital, click here.

Smart Spatial announces partnership with Hyperview

Smart Spatial has announced a new strategic partnership with Hyperview, a prominent cloud-based DCIM platform. The companies state that the collaboration represents a major advancement in digital twin technology, combining Smart Spatial's innovative platform with Hyperview’s expertise in optimising data centre operations, reducing energy consumption, and preventing outages. Together, the companies aim to redefine how businesses manage and optimise their physical environments. Through this partnership, Smart Spatial and Hyperview will introduce cutting-edge visualisation capabilities to data centres, pushing the boundaries of transparency and risk mitigation. Hyperview’s advanced cloud platform captures and manages live telemetry from servers, networks, storage, and IT infrastructure to optimise asset tracking, capacity planning, energy usage, and carbon footprint reduction. By integrating Smart Spatial's 3D visualisation capabilities, Hyperview can transform this data into an intuitive, layered 3D interface, empowering data centre teams with actionable insights for precision and efficiency. Together, the companies are not just reducing costs and errors, but driving sustainability and seeking to set new standards for operational excellence. Dan Lesovodski, Chief Partner Officer of Smart Spatial, comments, "This partnership marks another significant step in delivering unparalleled value to data centre customers. We are thrilled to welcome Hyperview to our ecosystem and look forward to the exciting possibilities this collaboration will unlock." Jad Jebara, President and CEO of Hyperview, adds, “Our collaboration with Smart Spatial marks a pivotal moment in data centre innovation. By merging Hyperview’s advanced DCIM capabilities with Smart Spatial’s cutting-edge 3D visualisation technology, we are empowering data centre operators to achieve new heights in operational efficiency, sustainability, and risk mitigation. Together, we’re transforming how data centres are managed, setting a new standard for transparency and precision in the industry.” For more from Hyperview, click here.

Europe’s full fibre frontrunners revealed

Portugal, Spain and Sweden are ahead of the pack when it comes to phasing out legacy copper networks in Europe, a new study from the FTTH Council Europe has revealed. Launched at the FTTH Council Europe’s Policy Dialogue event, the Copper Switch-Off Tracker has been created in cooperation with independent regulatory intelligence provider, Cullen International, to show the progress 27 EU member states (and the UK) are making toward adopting full-fibre broadband infrastructure. While the report praises operators in Portugal, Spain and Sweden, who have mostly discontinued their copper networks, the report also reveals that other member states, including Germany, Greece and Czech Republic, still rely heavily on old copper infrastructure. “We believe that fibre networks are fundamental to the digital transformation of Europe,” says FTTH Council Europe President, Roshene McCool. “Phasing out copper networks for fibre infrastructure will lower energy consumption and reduce overall operating costs, therefore making a great contribution to the achievement of the EU’s Digital Decade objectives”. FTTH Council Europe believes that the tracker and report will become a vital evidence-base for policymakers, regulators, operators and investors as they grapple with the policy and market implications of transitioning from copper to fibre. It also highlights that in only 12 countries do the incumbent operators have a plan for complete copper switch-off. In eight of these 12 countries the plans are publicly available, while in others (e.g. Portugal) the plan is confidential. “As European institutions shape their policy agenda for the 2024-2029 cycle, this new and comprehensive analysis will support the digital transformation of Europe’s economy and aid the development of an efficient and sustainable high-performance connectivity ecosystem”, notes Vincent Garnier, Director General at the FTTH Council Europe. Following a presentation from the FTTH Council Europe on the Copper Switch-Off findings, a panel discussion from Kamila Kloc (European Commission), Konstantenos Masselos (Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission), Timm Degenhardt (Omers Infrastructure), Francesco Nonno (Open Fiber Spa), and Pascal Rogard (Orange Group) examined the broader political, economic, and technical implications of the Copper Switch-Off, especially within the context of recent political initiatives in Europe aimed at fostering sustainable infrastructure. By providing regular updates, the Copper Switch-Off tracker will offer an up-to-date snapshot of the in-roads made by countries in their copper-to-fibre transition. The FTTH Council Europe is looking forward to monitoring this progression in aid of a future competitive European fibre market. To view the full report and accompanying one-pager by Cullen International, click here. For more from FTTH Council Europe, click here.

Sabey Data Centers announces new President

Sabey Data Centers, a designer, builder and operator of multi-tenant data centres, has announced the details of a significant leadership transition. After eight years of dedicated service, Rob Rockwood stepped down from his role as President, effective 31 December 2024, and Tim Mirick (pictured), who has served as Chief Revenue Officer since 2012, is set to succeed Rob as President. Tim officially took over as President on 1 January 2025. "I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved at Sabey Data Centers over the past eight years,” says Rob Rockwood. “As I step down, I am confident that Tim Mirick’s exceptional leadership and vision will continue to drive Sabey Data Centers forward. I look forward to supporting Tim and the entire Sabey team in their future endeavours." Jeffrey Kanne, President and CEO of National Real Estate Advisors, comments, “We extend our gratitude to Rob Rockwood for his exceptional leadership and the significant impact he has made at Sabey Data Centers during his tenure. As we welcome Tim Mirick into this pivotal role, we look forward to working closely with him to drive continued growth and success for Sabey Data Centers.” Tim Mirick, the new President, notes, "I am honoured to take on the role of President at Sabey Data Centers and am grateful for the trust placed in me by the company. Rob Rockwood has been an outstanding leader and built a strong foundation for continued growth. I am excited to lead the team in this new chapter and to continue expanding our capabilities to meet the growing needs of our clients." For more from Sabey Data Centers, click here.

CapitaLand India Trust signs agreement with global hyperscaler

CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) has signed a long-term agreement with a leading global hyperscaler for one of CLINT’s data centres under development. With this, CLINT is likely to pre-lease about half of its total gross power capacity under development of around 250 MW. Gauri Shankar Nagabhushanam, CEO of CapitaLand India Trust Management, says, "CLINT's decision to diversify into critical infrastructure such as data centres is validated by the strong interest shown by hyperscale and enterprise customers and positions us well to capitalise on India’s burgeoning digitalisation needs and drive long-term value for our unitholders. We are on track to complete the development of our data centres in India, accelerate leasing momentum, and unlock value through divestments of partial stakes to strategic investors. With the support of our sponsor, CapitaLand Investment (CLI), we are well-poised to meet the fast-growing demand for data centre capacity in India." Manohar Khiatani, Senior Executive Director of CLI, who oversees the group’s data centre business and is Chairman of the Trustee-Manager, adds, “India is a core market for CLI and we see strong growth potential across the asset classes that CLINT is active in, including data centres. This agreement with a leading hyperscaler is a milestone and demonstrates our ability to deliver world-class data centre solutions. It underscores our deep in-country expertise and strong vertically-integrated capabilities in acquiring greenfield land; designing, developing and completing construction on schedule; as well as leasing and operating data centres. "Digitalisation is the global megatrend of our times and CLI has significantly expanded its data centre business and capabilities worldwide in the last few years. With our 27 data centres across the globe offering more than 800 MW in gross power on a completed basis, we are well-positioned to cater to the expansion needs of hyperscalers and enterprises. “India is seeing a surge in demand for data storage and processing given the significant scale and growth of mobile and internet users and businesses widely adopting technologies such as AI and Internet of Things. The rapid pace of digital transformation, increased adoption of cloud computing and the need for data localisation will continue to drive demand for data centres. With 30 years of experience in India, strong technical capabilities and a global customer network, CLI is fully equipped to support CLINT’s growth in India.” CLINT is developing four state-of-the-art facilities in all the key data centre corridors of India (Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore). The company says that this strategic diversification strengthens its portfolio in India, enabling it to deliver quality risk adjusted returns to unitholders.

NorthC appoints new Managing Director for DACH region

NorthC Group, based in the Netherlands, has appointed Donald Badoux as the company's new Managing Director for the DACH region. Donald assumed the new role on 1 January 2025 and will head up the regional data centre operator's business operations in Germany and Switzerland. Germany and Switzerland are key markets in Europe given the importance of data centres and fibre-optic networks as the basis for digital and critical infrastructures. Donald has held senior management positions at companies in the German data centre market for several years and will help shape NorthC’s growth and expansion. In December 2024, NorthC announced its plan to continue expanding with two new data centre locations in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany. Donald will serve as the Managing Director for the DACH region, playing a crucial role in the company's strategy. Both the German and Swiss markets have significant growth opportunities, as the economy increasingly requires commercial data centres to support key technology developments such as digitalisation, AI, data security, and low latency. The demand for outsourcing, connectivity services, and hybrid cloud solutions is steadily rising among companies across various industries. Donald Badoux, Managing Director DACH at NorthC, comments, "I’ve been really impressed from the very start by how everyone at NorthC embraces the company's values and the fantastic sense of teamwork that reflects our people-centered culture. It’s great to see how this shows in our interactions with our customers as well." Referring to the economy, Donald adds, "The important overarching task of making a contribution to the development of digital infrastructure with distributed regional data centres and a committed team at my side motivates me to be back at the helm of a data centre operator and to expand NorthC's good and solid market position in the DACH region." A key part of the company's mission is to advocate for and implement sustainability in every country in which NorthC operates and builds new data centres. Investments in green energy solutions such as hydrogen-powered emergency systems in the Netherlands, the use of propane as a refrigerant in data centres in Germany and the reuse of waste heat are part of the strategy. NorthC wants to take a leadership role in the Benelux and DACH region in terms of sustainable data centre operations. With its innovative solution for the use of hydrogen, NorthC is a pioneer. Last year in Germany, NorthC received the ‘Data centre Award’ in the category of green data centre operations in platinum, from Vogel IT Verlag. "Sustainability is in NorthC's DNA”, states Alexandra Schless, NorthC Group's CEO. “Donald Badoux is ideally qualified to take on this leadership role and to help constructively shape this strategically relevant area. NorthC will benefit from his experience and expertise in renewable energies and their distribution which he gained in his previous management position at an energy supplier in Hesse. With a network of more than 20 regional data centres and the international expertise of our management team, we are well positioned in Europe to provide our customers with personal support and the opportunity to participate in the NorthC Digital Ecosystem.” For more from NorthC Group, click here.

SiTime product launch boosts efficiency of AI data centres

SiTime Corporation, a precision timing company, has announced the differential-ended SiT5977 Super-TCXO, the newest member of the SiTime Elite RF family. The company states that this is the only single-chip timing product that delivers the most resilient performance for AI compute-nodes with high bandwidth and network synchronisation. Applications include smart network interface cards (Smart NICs), acceleration cards, switches and compute nodes in the $200 billion data centre infrastructure market. According to a recent IDC press release, “IDC expects the surging demand for AI workloads will lead to a significant increase in data centre capacity, energy consumption and carbon emissions, with AI data centre capacity projected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.5% through to 2027.” Dave Altavilla, President and Principal Analyst at HotTech Vision & Analysis, comments, “Improving AI workload efficiency to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is an industry-wide challenge. SiTime is the only semiconductor company fully dedicated to developing innovative timing solutions required for the complex scaling of today’s AI data centres.” An AI cluster’s efficiency results in lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and energy consumption. Efficient clusters require high-bandwidth interconnects and tightly synchronised orchestration to minimise AI accelerator idle time. Tighter synchronisation also provides precise network telemetry for AI operations. This network telemetry improves performance and reliability by identifying and mitigating underperforming hardware before it fails. The SiT5977 replaces multiple timing components. It optimises the efficiency of AI compute clusters with three times tighter synchronisation for data transmission and communications in real-world environments. In addition, its four times smaller size, compared to competing architectures, enables larger processors in compact systems. This allows system architects to fully leverage high-speed 800G bandwidth network connectivity and maximise utilisation of the AI cluster. “AI training and inference are fundamentally distributed computing applications, which require accurate timing to synchronise activities,” adds Piyush Sevalia, Executive Vice President of Marketing at SiTime. “By enabling a new, more efficient architecture, the Elite RF timing solution uniquely supports more efficient AI workload processing, which may lead to higher revenue and lower TCO for data centres.” The SiT5977 Super-TCXO streamlines AI system architecture. This new timing chip is an ultra-stable, low-jitter TCXO with the industry’s highest frequency differential output. This chip further integrates digital control to provide additional system-level programmability. Key features: • Environmentally robust with ±1 ppb/°C frequency slope (dF/dT) for optimum performance under airflow, thermal shock.• Capable of driving 800G and higher links via 80 fs phase jitter and LVDS outputs.• Enables embedded control loops with precise digital tuning of output frequency (DCTCXO), ±400 ppm pull range and 0.05 ppt (5e-14) resolution via I2C/SPI.• Eliminates link flaps from quartz timing activity dips or micro jumps.• Resistant to shock, vibration and board bending.• Eliminates external LDOs via on-chip voltage regulators.• 156.25 MHz output frequency enabling high-speed SerDes and 800G links. The SiT5977 Super-TCXO is in production and samples are available now. For more from SiTime, click here.