Top 10 Data Center Stories for February 2022

Hyperscale computing, the Northern Virginia market and edge computing deployments were the big newsmakers in February at Data Center Frontier.

Our series of stories on growth in Loudoun County featured two of the top three reader favorites for the month, with the top story being Meta’s plans to build a nearly 1 million SF data center in Idaho. Development updates from Apple, AWS and Google also drew strong reader interest, as did Akamai’s acquisition of Linode to pursue a “cloud-to-edge” growth strategy.

Here are the 10 most popular stories on Data Center Frontier in February 2022, in order of article views:

• Meta is Building a Giant $800 Million Data Center in Idaho: Meta is building big and building everywhere. It will build a 960,000 SF data center in Kuna, Idaho as it continues adding infrastructure to support its future metaverse.
• New Data Center Developers Continue to Flock to Northern Virginia: At least seven new developers plan to enter the Northern Virginia data center market in the next several years. The influx of new players comes as the officials in the region are grappling with how to manage the continuing boom in cloud computing.
• Growing Plains: Loudoun County Debates the Future of its Data Centers:: Loudoun County officials say they will be more discriminating about allowing data centers in residential and retail corridors. The Loudoun debate merits the attention of the data center industry, foreshadowing future controversies in other major markets.
• Apple Files Plans for Long-Delayed Data Center Campus in Iowa: Apple hopes to build up to 2 million square feet of data center space at its future campus in Waukee, Iowa. The company has filed site plans for the project, which was announced in 2017.
• Akamai Buys Linode to Create ‘Cloud to Edge’ Computing Platform: In a bold move to expand into cloud services, content delivery specialist Akamai Technologies will acquire Linode for $900 million, calling it a “transformational” deal that will expand its global infrastructure platform from the cloud to the edge.
• The Future of Fire Protection for Battery Energy Storage Systems: There are technologies and techniques that can mitigate or avoid battery thermal runaway if threat warning signs are detected early. Steven Joseph of Viking Integrated Safety, explores options for reliable fire protection for battery energy storage systems.
• Corscale Will Launch its Data Center Platform with Northern Virginia Campus: Corscale Data Centers is entering the Northern Virginia data center market with big ambitions and a big campus. Gainesville Crossing will be a 300-megawatt, 2.3 million square foot project in Prince William County. Here’s a closer look at Corscale and its development plans.
• AWS Steps Up Edge Investment, Will Add 32 Local Zones Across the World: Amazon Web Services will deploy edge computing infrastructure in 32 cities around the world, building upon the 16 existing zones in the United States. The huge expansion is a sign that investment in edge computing infrastructure is beginning to accelerate.
• Sabey Data Centers Plans 70 Megawatt Expansion in Quincy Cloud Cluster: Sabey Data Centers has broken ground on a 70-megawatt expansion of its SDC Quincy campus in central Washington, with a “major service provider” serving as the anchor tenant.
• Google Has Invested $5 Billion in its Iowa Data Centers: Google has completed the latest phase of construction at its data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, bringing its total investment in its Iowa campus to $5 billion. The milestone is the latest sign of the extraordinary growth of the data center industry in Iowa,

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:

• The Future of Fire Protection for Battery Energy Storage Systems (Viking Integrated Safety): There are technologies and techniques that can mitigate or avoid battery thermal runaway if threat warning signs are detected early. Steven Joseph of Viking Integrated Safety, explores options for reliable fire protection for battery energy storage systems.
• 4 Reasons Colocation Providers Must Put Sustainability Plans to Action (Schneider Electric): The new challenge of meeting data demands while improving sustainability metrics puts data center managers in a challenging position. Ivonne Valdes of Schneider Electric, shares four reasons why sustainability is a business imperative for colocation providers.
• Powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Eliminating GHG (Switch): How do we power the Fourth Industrial Revolution to ensure a more sustainable future? And, how do we ensure that we begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions measurably? Bill Kleyman of Switch discusses why sustainable data centers are key to the success of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• The Future of Adaptive Computing: The Composable Data Center (Xilinx): Currently, most data centers have racks with fixed sets of resources, combining SSDs, CPUs, and Accelerators in a single server. Salil Raje of Xilinx explores how composable infrastructures are making dramatic improvement in data center resource utilization.

Be sure to check out all of our Voices columns, including insights from Service Express and Park Place Technologies.

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