AI workloads are reshaping data center infrastructure at an unprecedented scale. Rack densities exceeding 50 kW are becoming increasingly common. AI training clusters often operate near their peak power envelope for extended periods, placing sustained demand on facility infrastructure. At the same time, AI inference workloads exhibit different characteristics, often behaving more like traditional compute […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Capacity_allocation_next_gen_AI-era_KPIs-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.com2026-05-20 15:00:002026-05-19 11:45:06Capacity allocation and the next generation of AI-era KPIs
In January 2026, more than 230 US-based advocacy groups signed a letter urging the US Congress to impose a complete moratorium on data center construction, pending tight regulations. This coordinated effort bears little resemblance to the data center resistance of the past. Opposition to data centers is scaling from local disputes into a national movement […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Project-approval-hinge-local-benefit-guarantees-featured.jpg5401030Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.com2026-04-29 15:00:002026-04-28 10:30:13Project approval will hinge on local benefit guarantees
Deployment of direct liquid cooling (DLC, as cold plate or immersion systems) remains overwhelmingly concentrated in applications where air cooling is no longer a practical alternative. As a wave of AI infrastructure was being built, DLC manufacturers invested their engineering resources in maximizing cooling performance for high-performance IT — namely AI training hardware. By comparison, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Liquid-cooling-not-outgrow-high-density-niche-featured.jpg5401030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2026-04-15 15:00:002026-04-14 15:06:46Liquid cooling will not outgrow its high-density niche
During 2024 and 2025, a new trend emerged: many large data center builders and operators reported increases in their Scope 2, location- and market-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories, reversing their efforts toward net-zero commitments. While this shift does not indicate a loss of commitment to those goals, it is an inevitable result of the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/As-emissions-soar-operators-look-to-carbon-capture-featured.jpg5401030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2026-03-25 15:00:002026-03-24 15:44:38As emissions soar, operators look to carbon capture
Many people do not use the term artificial intelligence correctly: vendors, investors, and even some operators label everything from basic automation scripts to deep learning controllers as AI. This inflation of the term has commercial and strategic motives. AI branding helps attract funding, creates differentiation in the market, and positions traditional analytics as cutting-edge solutions. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/AI-in-data-sorting-reality-from-hallucination-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.com2026-02-20 15:00:002026-02-19 12:13:09AI in data: sorting reality from hallucination
AI is increasingly steering the data center industry toward new operational practices, where automation, analytics and adaptive control are paving the way for “dark” — or lights-out, unstaffed — facilities. Cooling systems, in particular, are leading this shift. Yet despite AI’s positive track record in facility operations, one persistent challenge remains: trust. In some ways, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AI-and-cooling-toward-more-automation-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.com2026-01-29 15:00:002026-01-28 09:58:29AI and cooling: toward more automation
The digital infrastructure industry is under pressure to measure and improve the energy efficiency of the computing work that underpins digital services. Enterprises seek to maximize returns on cost outlay and operating expenses for IT hardware, and regulators and local communities need reassurance that the energy devoted to data centers is used efficiently. These objectives […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AIs-growth-calls-for-useful-IT-efficiency-metrics-featured.jpg5401030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2026-01-15 15:00:002026-01-14 11:41:16AI’s growth calls for useful IT efficiency metrics
AI training at scale introduces power consumption patterns that can strain both server hardware and supporting power systems, shortening equipment lifespans and increasing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for operators. These workloads can cause GPU power draw to spike briefly, even for only a few milliseconds, pushing them past their nominal thermal design power […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AI-power-fluctuations-strain-budgets-hardware-featured.jpg5401030Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDouglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.com2025-12-17 15:00:002025-12-16 15:00:30AI power fluctuations strain both budgets and hardware
Colocation providers may offer two pricing and packaging models to sell similar products and capabilities. In both models, customers purchase space, power and services. However, the method of purchase differs. In a retail model, customers purchase a small quantity of space and power, usually by the rack or a fraction of a rack. The colocation […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Retail-vs-wholesale-right-colo-pricing-model-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-12-03 12:00:002025-12-03 09:52:17Retail vs wholesale: finding the right colo pricing model
The training of large generative AI models is a special case of high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. This is not simply due to the reliance on GPUs — numerous engineering and scientific research computations already use GPUs as standard. Neither is it about the power density or the liquid cooling of AI hardware, as large HPC […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Electrical-considerations-with-large-AI-compute-featured.jpg5401030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2025-11-19 15:00:002025-11-18 10:08:46Electrical considerations with large AI compute
When the PUE metric was first proposed and adopted at a Green Grid meeting in California in 2008, few could have forecast how important this simple ratio — despite its limitations — would become. Few would have expected, too, that the industry would make so little progress on another metric proposed at those same early […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Is-this-the-data-center-metric-for-the-2030s-featured.jpg5401030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2025-11-05 12:00:002025-11-04 10:40:36Is this the data center metric for the 2030s?
The pursuit of training ever-larger generative AI models has necessitated the creation of a new class of specialized data centers — facilities that have more in common with high-performance computing (HPC) environments than traditional enterprise IT. These data centers support very high rack densities (130 kW and above with current Nvidia rack-scale systems), direct-to-chip liquid […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Crypto-mines-are-turning-into-AI-factories-featured.jpg5401030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2025-10-22 15:00:002025-10-20 16:20:24Crypto mines are turning into AI factories
Cyber incidents are increasing rapidly. In 2024, the number of outages caused by cyber incidents was twice the average of the previous four years, according to Uptime Institute’s annual report on data center outages (see Annual outage analysis 2025). More operational technology (OT) vendors are experiencing significant increases in cyberattacks on their systems. Data center […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Cybersecurity-and-the-cost-of-human-error-featured.jpg5401030John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJohn O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.com2025-10-08 15:00:002025-10-07 16:08:48Cybersecurity and the cost of human error
In recent years, the environmental sustainability of IT has become a significant concern for investors and customers, as well as regulatory, legislative and environmental stakeholders. This concern is expected to intensify as the impact of climate change on health, safety and the global economy becomes more pronounced. It has given rise to an assortment of […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Cloud-when-high-availability-hurts-sustainability-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-09-24 15:00:002025-09-23 13:02:36Cloud: when high availability hurts sustainability
Each new generation of server silicon is pushing traditional data center air cooling closer to its operational limits. In 2025, the thermal design power (TDP) of top-bin CPUs reached 500 W, and server chip product roadmaps indicate further escalation in pursuit of higher performance. To handle these high-powered chips, more IT organizations are considering direct […]
While much has been written, said and taught about data center sustainability, there is still limited consensus on the definition and scope of an ideal data center sustainability strategy. This lack of clarity has created much confusion, encouraged many operators to pursue strategies with limited results, and enabled some to make claims that are ultimately […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/The-two-sides-of-a-sustainability-strategy-featured.jpg5401030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2025-08-22 15:00:002025-08-22 10:01:09The two sides of a sustainability strategy
“Reasoning” models — and their offshoots, such as “deep research” — have emerged as a major trend in generative AI, helping improve the accuracy and reliability of responses to complex problems. However, this approach significantly increases the computational costs of generating responses. The imitation of reasoning means a higher consumption of server capacity, requiring additional […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Reasoning-will-increase-the-infrastructure-footprint-of-AI-featured.jpg5401030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2025-08-04 15:00:002025-07-30 14:52:49‘Reasoning’ will increase the infrastructure footprint of AI
Many grid operators are struggling to meet customer power demands — in both volume and quality. As demand rises, utilities must also monitor and account for customer usage patterns that can degrade power quality (and add costs) for others on the grid. A 2024 Bloomberg analysis revealed a concentration of residential power issues occurring near […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Are_data_centers_to_blame_for_power_quality_issues-blog_hero_image_1030x540px-1.jpg5401030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2025-07-16 15:00:002025-07-16 13:59:26Are data centers to blame for power quality issues?
Major publicly reported outages in 2024 were longer and, therefore, more impactful than in previous years because of the growing number of ransomware attacks, according to data compiled by Uptime Intelligence. The data also shows an increase in the proportion of outages that were caused deliberately. The latest data relating to major publicly reported outages […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Publicly-reported-outages-see-increase-in-deliberate-attacks-featured.jpg5401030Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.com2025-06-11 15:00:002025-06-09 15:58:47Publicly reported outages see increase in deliberate attacks
Water use has become a benchmark metric for data center operational efficiency and sustainability, as well as a frequent target of community criticism. Operators should track and optimize their water use to protect the environment and secure the facility cooling’s autonomy when its capacity relies on water. However, water use does not fit into a […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Water-is-local-generalities-do-not-apply-featured.jpg5401030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2025-05-28 15:00:002025-05-27 14:03:14Water is local: generalities do not apply
Over the past year, data center operators have reduced formal mentorship programs and workforce initiatives, but this seems to have had little impact on the number of successfully recruited new hires, according to findings from the Uptime Institute Data Center Staffing and Recruitment Survey 2024. While such programs are generally regarded as effective in attracting […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Are-data-center-workforce-initiatives-effective-featured.jpg5401030Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.com2025-05-14 15:00:002025-05-14 13:56:51Are data center workforce initiatives effective?
The enthusiasm for generative AI is attracting serious investment, and the associated power and cooling requirements will pose a significant challenge for the data centers that house it. Upcoming AI training clusters will escalate silicon power and rack density to unprecedented heights, upending infrastructure design conventions and accelerating the adoption of cold plate and immersion […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AI-embraces-liquid-cooling-but-enterprise-IT-slow-to-follow-featured.jpg5401030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2025-04-23 15:00:002025-04-23 09:45:53AI embraces liquid cooling, but enterprise IT is slow to follow
One of the most significant differences between cloud and traditional (i.e., non-cloud) software is how resiliency is built into the applications. When architecting a cloud application, the onus is on software developers to architect resiliency in their application architecture. Conversely, in a more traditional application, data center teams, infrastructure engineers and software developers work together […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Outage-data-cloud-apps-designed-failure-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-04-09 15:00:002025-04-09 11:03:19Outage data shows cloud apps must be designed for failure
Generative AI has created a surge in demand for large-scale clusters of GPUs. AI models need training, and this is vastly accelerated by using GPUs. These clusters parallel process many mathematical functions within the neural network software architectures that enable generative AI to classify and predict. However, clusters of this size are expensive and require […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Cloud-viable-choice-amidst-uncertain-AI-returns-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-03-26 15:00:002025-03-26 10:52:34Cloud a viable choice amidst uncertain AI returns
Projections of data center capacity growth have exploded with the emergence of AI infrastructure and the continuing expansion and integration of standard IT functionality into the global economy. Electricity demand is growing in developed markets for the first time in more than a decade, led by proposed data center expansions and efforts to electrify the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IT-efficiency-untapped-power-resource-featured.jpg5401030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2025-03-12 15:00:002025-03-11 14:01:18IT efficiency: an untapped power resource
Over the past decade, three tech giants have solidified their dominance in the cloud computing market: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Estimates suggest that by the end of 2023, these companies collectively controlled around two-thirds of global cloud spending, a notable increase from 47% in 2016. As AI became a key […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Neoclouds-a-cost-effective-AI-infrastructure-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-02-26 15:00:002025-02-25 14:15:16Neoclouds: a cost-effective AI infrastructure alternative
Amazon Web Services (AWS) was the world’s first hyperscale cloud provider, and it remains the largest today. It represents around one-third of the global market, offering more than 200 infrastructure, platform and software services across 34 regions. To efficiently deliver so many services at such a scale, AWS designs and builds much of its own […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AWS-silicon-software-cloud-scalability-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-02-12 15:00:002025-02-12 10:02:45How AWS’s own silicon and software deliver cloud scalability
Over the past year, demand for GPUs to train generative AI models has soared. Some organizations have invested in GPU clusters costing millions of dollars for this purpose. Cloud services offered by the major hyperscalers and a new wave of GPU-focused cloud providers deliver an alternative to dedicated infrastructure for those unwilling, or unable, to […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Sweat-Dedicated-GPU-Clusters-featured.jpg5401030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2025-01-30 15:00:002025-01-29 14:46:41Sweat dedicated GPU clusters to beat cloud on cost
The advent of AI training and inference applications, combined with the continued expansion of the digital world and electrification of the economy, raises two questions about electricity generation capacity: where will the new energy be sourced from, and how can it be decarbonized? Groups, such as the International Energy Agency and the Electric Power Research […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Grid-growth-decarbonization-featured.jpg5401030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2025-01-08 12:00:002025-01-07 10:49:39Grid growth and decarbonization: An unhappy couple
Many employees approach AI-based systems in the workplace with a level of mistrust. This lack of trust can slow the implementation of new tools and systems, alienate staff and reduce productivity. Data center managers can avoid this outcome by understanding the factors that drive mistrust in AI and devising a strategy to minimize them. Perceived […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Building-trust-working-with-AI-based-tools-featured.jpg5401030Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.com2024-12-19 17:00:002024-12-19 14:33:06Building trust: working with AI-based tools
Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software is an important class of software that, despite some false starts, many operators regard as essential to running modern, flexible and efficient data centers. It has had a difficult history — many suppliers have struggled to meet customer requirements and adoption remains patchy. Critics argue that, because of the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/DCIM-past-and-present-whats-changed-featured.jpg5401030John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJohn O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.com2024-11-13 15:00:002024-11-13 10:14:33DCIM past and present: what’s changed?
Direct liquid cooling (DLC), including cold plate and immersion systems, is becoming more common in data centers — but so far this transition has been gradual and unevenly distributed with some data centers using it widely, others not at all. The use of DLC in 2024 still accounts for only a small minority of the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Water-cold-plates-lead-in-the-small-but-growing-world-of-DLC-featured.jpg5401030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2024-10-30 15:00:002024-11-13 10:21:48Water cold plates lead in the small, but growing, world of DLC
Cyberattacks on operational technology (OT) were virtually unknown until five years ago, but their volume has been doubling since 2009. This threat is distinct from IT-focused vulnerabilities that cybersecurity measures regularly address. The risk associated with OT compromise is substantial: power or cooling failures can cripple an entire facility, potentially for weeks or months. Many […]
An earlier Uptime Intelligence report discussed the characteristics of processor power management (known as C-states) and explained how they can reduce server energy consumption to make substantial contributions to the overall energy performance and sustainability of data center infrastructure (see Understanding how server power management works). During periods of low activity, such features can potentially […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Managing-server-performance-for-power-a-missed-opportunity-featured.jpg5401030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2024-09-18 15:00:002024-09-17 15:35:54Managing server performance for power: a missed opportunity
Research has shown that while data center owners and operators are mostly in favor of sustainability regulation, they have a low opinion of the regulators’ expertise. Some operators have cited Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act as evidence: the law lays down a set of extremely challenging power usage effectiveness (PUE) requirements that will likely force some […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Resiliency-v-low-PUE-regulators-a-catalyst-for-innovation-featured.jpg5401030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2024-09-04 12:00:002024-09-06 14:47:55Resiliency v low PUE: regulators a catalyst for innovation?
Despite their role as enablers of technological progress, data center operators have been slow to take advantage of developments in software, connectivity and sensor technologies that can help optimize and automate the running of critical infrastructure. Most data center owners and operators currently use building management systems (BMS) and / or data center infrastructure management […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Data-center-management-software-is-evolving-at-last-featured.jpg5401030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2024-08-21 15:00:002024-08-19 15:24:23Data center management software is evolving — at last
In the past year, Uptime Intelligence has been asked more questions about generative AI and its impact on the data center sector than any other topic. The questions come from enterprise and colocation operators, suppliers of a wide variety of equipment and services, regulators and the media. Most of the questions concern power consumption. The […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Generative-AI-and-global-power-consumption-high-but-not-that-high-featured.jpg5401030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2024-07-31 12:00:002024-07-31 10:03:53Generative AI and global power consumption: high, but not that high
Uptime Intelligence regularly addresses IT infrastructure efficiency, particularly servers, in our reports on data center energy performance and sustainability. Without active contribution from IT operations, facility operations alone will not be able to meet future energy and sustainability demands on data center infrastructure. Purchases of renewable energy and renewable energy certificates will become increasingly — […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Understanding-how-server-power-management-works-featured.jpg5401030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2024-07-10 15:00:002025-10-28 12:50:13Understanding how server power management works
The European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives approved in 2020, aims for a sustainable and competitive economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Along with the legislation driving this transition, such as the Energy Efficiency Directive recast (see EED comes into force, creating an enormous task for the industry), the strategy will […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EU-battery-regulations-what-do-the-new-rules-mean-featured.jpg5401030Rosa Lawrence, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rlawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRosa Lawrence, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rlawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2024-06-20 15:00:002024-06-20 09:40:06EU battery regulations: what do the new rules mean?
The colocation and public cloud sectors of the digital infrastructure industry continue to make headlines, with many organizations planning large-scale capacity expansion to meet rising demand. However, there is also a less public expansion underway — enterprises operators, for the third successive year, say they are going to invest in more data center capacity in […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Colocation-and-public-cloud-growth-masks-enterprise-expansion-featured.jpg5401030Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDouglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.com2024-06-05 15:00:002024-06-03 17:19:21Colocation and public cloud growth masks enterprise expansion
Human error has been — and remains to be — a major cause of outages in data centers. Uptime Intelligence’s research shows that about four in 10 operators have had a major outage in the past three years in which human error played a role (Annual outage analysis 2023). Half of these respondents said errors […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Long-shifts-in-data-centers-time-to-reconsider-featured.jpg5391030Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.com2024-05-22 15:00:002024-05-21 14:17:51Long shifts in data centers — time to reconsider?
Due to regulatory mandates and expanded stakeholder expectations, a growing share of operators are quantifying and publicly reporting a complete carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions inventory for their data center infrastructure. An organization’s direct on-site emissions (classified as Scope 1 according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and emissions from purchased energy sources (classified as Scope […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/What-does-embedded-carbon-really-represent-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2024-05-08 15:00:002024-05-07 10:02:05What does embedded carbon of IT really represent?
A growing number of data center operators and equipment vendors are anticipating the proliferation of direct liquid cooling systems (DLC) over the next few years. As far as projections go, Uptime Institute’s surveys agree: the industry consensus for the mainstream adoption of liquid-cooled IT converges on the latter half of the 2020s. DLC systems, such […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DLC-will-not-come-to-the-rescue-of-data-center-sustainability-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2024-04-25 15:00:002024-04-24 13:58:20DLC will not come to the rescue of data center sustainability
Rising concerns about cryptocurrency mining energy use have led the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to launch a six-month emergency data reporting mandate (on January 26, 2024) to obtain information from 82 cryptocurrency mining companies. The emergency order which was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires cryptocurrency miners to provide information […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/US-mandates-crypto-energy-reporting-will-data-centers-be-next-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2024-04-08 15:00:002024-04-08 10:32:51US mandates crypto energy reporting: will data centers be next?
The idea of using liquids to cool IT hardware, exemplified by technologies such as cold plates and immersion cooling, is frequently hailed as the ultimate solution to the data center’s energy efficiency and sustainability challenges. If a data center replaces air cooling with direct liquid cooling (DLC), chilled water systems can operate at higher supply […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Performance-expectations-of-liquid-cooling-need-a-reality-check-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2024-03-20 15:00:002025-10-28 12:47:56Performance expectations of liquid cooling need a reality check
Cloud workloads are continuing to grow — sometimes adding to traditional on-premises workloads, sometimes replacing them. The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 shows that organizations expect the public cloud to account for 15% of their workloads by 2025. When private cloud hosting and software as a service (SaaS) are included, this share rises […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FinOps-gives-hope-with-cloud-costs-featured.jpg5391030John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJohn O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.com2024-03-06 15:00:002025-10-28 12:43:41FinOps gives hope to those struggling with cloud costs
Corporate data centers have been the backbone of enterprise IT since the 1960s and continue to play an essential role in supporting critical business and financial functions for much of the global economy. Yet, while their importance remains, their prominence as part of an enterprise’s digital infrastructure appears to be fading. Today, businesses have more […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-majority-of-enterprise-IT-is-now-off-premises-featured.jpg5391030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2024-02-21 15:00:002024-02-20 11:34:43The majority of enterprise IT is now off-premises
Uptime Institute calculates an industry average power usage effectiveness (PUE), which is a ratio of total site power to IT power, each year using data from the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey. This PUE data is pulled from a large sample over the course of 15 years and provides a reliable view of progress […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Large-data-centers-are-mostly-more-efficient-analysis-confirms-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2024-02-07 15:00:002024-02-09 09:32:16Large data centers are mostly more efficient, analysis confirms
For more than a decade, the data center industry — and the wider digital infrastructure that relies on it — has lived with the threat of much greater sustainability legislation or other forms of mandatory or semi-mandatory controls. But in a period of boom, it has mostly been a background worry, with legislators more concerned […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/When-net-zero-goals-meet-harsh-realities-featured.jpg5391030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2024-01-24 15:00:002024-01-24 10:05:58When net-zero goals meet harsh realities
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/What-role-might-generative-AI-play-in-the-data-center-featured.jpg5391030John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJohn O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.com2024-01-10 15:00:002024-01-08 11:35:25What role might generative AI play in the data center?
The suitability of a data center environment is primarily judged by its effect on the long-term health of IT hardware. Facility operators define their temperature and humidity set points with a view to balancing hardware failure rates against the associated capital and operational expenditures, with the former historically prioritized. Over the past decade, this balance […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Looking-for-the-x-factor-in-data-center-efficiency-v2-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-12-13 15:00:002024-01-24 09:18:10Looking for the x-factor in data center efficiency
Regular readers of Uptime Institute’s annual data center survey, the longest running of its kind, already know that the industry average power usage effectiveness (PUE, a ratio of total site power and IT power) has trended sideways in recent years. Since 2020, it has been stuck in the 1.55 to 1.59 band. Even going back […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Global-PUEs-going-anywhere-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-12-04 15:00:002023-12-01 14:58:53Global PUEs — are they going anywhere?
Over the past 12 months, Uptime Institute Intelligence has been closely following regulatory developments in the area of sustainability. These include mandates based on the Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure standard, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the UK’s Climate-related Financial Disclosure Regulations, and the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive. These legal […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Emerging-regulatory-requirements-tactics-for-riding-the-tsunami-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-11-16 15:00:002023-11-15 13:55:30Emerging regulatory requirements: tactics for riding the tsunami
Two persistent trends in data center staffing are in apparent tension. The 2023 Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey confirmed, once again, that operations teams are struggling to attract and retain qualified staff. The severity of this shortage should justify aggressive hiring from all available labor sources — yet data centers still employ shockingly few […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Data-Center-Are-Short-Staffed-Boys-Clubs-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2023-11-01 12:00:002023-10-31 11:10:50Data centers are short-staffed boys’ clubs
In recent reports, Uptime Institute Intelligence has warned that a wave of resiliency, security and sustainability legislation is making its way toward the statute books. Governments around the world — aware that digital infrastructure is increasingly critical to economic and national security (and consumes a lot of power) — have decided the sector cannot be […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Consensus-on-regulatory-goals-hides-national-differences-featured.jpg5391030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2023-10-18 15:00:002023-10-16 12:07:26Consensus on regulatory goals hides national differences
Legislative requirements for data center resiliency, operational transparency and energy performance are tightening worldwide — putting data centers under greater regulatory scrutiny. In response, organizations are either starting or stepping up their efforts to achieve compliance in these areas, and findings from the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 reveal that most are prioritizing […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Regulations-drive-investments-in-cybersecurity-and-efficiency-featured.jpg5391030Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDouglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.com2023-10-04 13:00:002023-10-02 16:38:42Regulations drive investments in cybersecurity and efficiency
The testing of backup power systems is crucial for ensuring that data center operations remain available through power interruptions. By cutting all power to the facility and replicating a real-world electrical grid failure, pull-the-plug testing provides the most comprehensive assessment of these systems. However, there are some differing opinions on the best way to perform […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Utility-companies-pull-plug-testing-featured.jpg5391030Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDouglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.com2023-09-20 15:00:002023-09-19 15:14:28Are utility companies needed for pull-the-plug testing?
The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public’s imaginations, and now barely a week goes by without reports of another breakthrough. Among the many, sometimes dramatic predictions made by experts and non-experts alike is the potential elimination of some, or even many, jobs. These expectations are partly — but only partly — mirrored […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AI-limited-role-for-now-featured.jpg5391030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2023-09-06 15:00:002023-09-06 09:22:08AI will have a limited role in data centers — for now
ANALYST OPINION In a recent report on server energy efficiency, Uptime Intelligence’s Dr. Tomas Rahkonen analyzed data from 429 servers and identified five key insights (see Server energy efficiency: five key insights). All were valuable observations for better managing (and reducing) IT power consumption, but one area of his analysis stood out: the efficiency benefits […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-strong-case-for-power-management-featured.jpg5391030Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2023-08-23 15:00:002023-08-22 09:25:21The strong case for power management
The European Commission (EC) continues to grapple with the challenges of implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting and metrics mandates. The publication of the Task B report Labelling and minimum performance standards schemes for data centres and the Task C report EU repository for the reporting obligation of data centres on June 7, 2023 […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/EED-requirements-come-into-focus-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-08-10 15:00:002023-08-09 16:06:51The Energy Efficiency Directive: requirements come into focus
Public cloud infrastructures have come a long way over the past 16 years to slowly earn the trust of enterprises in running their most important applications and storing sensitive data. In the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2022, more than a third of enterprises that operate their own IT infrastructure said they also placed […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Lifting-and-shifting-apps-to-the-cloud-a-source-of-risk-creep-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-07-26 15:00:002023-07-24 15:06:01Lifting and shifting apps to the cloud: a source of risk creep?
The public cloud’s on-demand pricing model is vital in enabling application scalability — the key benefit of cloud computing. Resources need to be readily available for a cloud application to scale when required without the customer having to give advance notification. Cloud providers can offer such flexibility by allowing customers to pay their bills in […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Use-tools-to-control-cloud-costs-before-its-too-late-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-07-19 15:00:002023-07-18 11:22:59Use tools to control cloud costs before it’s too late
Digital infrastructure operators have started to refocus their sustainability objectives on 100% 24×7 carbon-free energy (CFE) consumption: using carbon-free energy for every hour of operation. To establish a 24×7 CFE strategy, operators must track and control CFE assets and the delivery of energy to their data centers and use procurement contracts designed to manage the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/24x7-CFE-part-2-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-07-12 15:00:002023-07-10 15:45:0824×7 carbon-free energy (part two): getting to 100%
Low latency is the main reason cloud providers offer edge services. Only a few years ago, the same providers argued that the public cloud (hosted in hyperscale data centers) was suitable for most workloads. But as organizations have remained steadfast in their need for low latency and better data control, providers have softened their resistance […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Where-the-cloud-meets-the-edge-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-07-05 15:00:002023-07-05 10:36:06Where the cloud meets the edge
The energy crisis of 2022, resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious problems for data center operators in Europe. Energy prices leapt up and are likely to stay high. This has resulted in ongoing concerns that utilities in some European countries, which have a mismatch of supply and demand, will have to shed loads. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DC-Operators-Face-Grid-Disturbances-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2023-06-28 15:00:002023-06-26 09:54:19Data center operators will face more grid disturbances
Data center operators that set net-zero goals will ultimately have to transition to 100% 24×7 carbon-free energy. But current technological limitations mean it is not economically feasible in most grid regions. In the past decade, the digital infrastructure industry has embraced a definition of renewable energy use that combines the use of renewable energy credits […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/24x7-CFE-part-1-featured.png5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-06-21 15:00:002023-06-20 16:56:2424×7 carbon-free energy (part one): expectations and realities
Cloud providers divide the technologies that underpin their services into two ”planes”, each with a different architecture and availability goal. The control plane manages resources in the cloud; the data plane runs the cloud buyer’s application. In this Update, Uptime Institute Intelligence presents research that shows control planes have poorer availability than data planes. This […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Cloud-resiliency-plan-to-lose-control-of-your-planes-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-06-14 15:00:002023-06-13 17:26:33Cloud resiliency: plan to lose control of your planes
Early in 2022, Uptime Intelligence observed that the return of Moore’s law in the data center (or, more accurately, the performance and energy efficiency gains associated with it) would come with major caveats (see Moore’s law resumes — but not for all). Next-generation server technologies’ potential to improve energy efficiency, Uptime Intelligence surmised at the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Server-efficiency-and-caveats-increases-again-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-06-07 15:00:002023-06-06 16:14:48Server efficiency increases again — but so do the caveats
Hyperscale cloud providers have opened numerous operating regions in all corners of the world over the past decade. The three most prominent — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure — now have 105 distinct regions (excluding government and edge locations) for customers to choose from to locate their applications and data. Over […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Data-shows-the-cloud-goes-where-the-money-is-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-05-31 14:00:002023-05-31 09:03:56Data shows the cloud goes where the money is
Data center operators and IT tenants have traditionally adopted a binary view of cooling performance: it either meets service level commitments, or it does not. The relationship is also coldly transactional: as long as sufficient volumes of air of the right temperature and quality (in accordance with service-level agreements that typically follow ASHRAE’s guidance) reach […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Cooling-to-play-a-more-active-role-in-IT-performance-and-efficiency-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-05-24 15:00:002023-05-22 14:23:53Cooling to play a more active role in IT performance and efficiency
European countries narrowly avoided an energy crisis in the past winter months, as a shortfall in fossil fuel supplies from Russia threatened to destabilize power grids across the region. This elevated level of risk to the normally robust European grid has not been seen for decades. A combination of unseasonably mild weather, energy saving initiatives […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Failing-Power-Grid-South-Africa-featured.jpg5391030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2023-05-17 15:00:002023-05-16 09:41:26The effects of a failing power grid in South Africa
In the struggle to reduce carbon emissions and increase renewable energy, the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in August 2022, is a landmark development. The misleadingly named Act, which is lauded by environmental experts and castigated by foreign leaders, is intended to rapidly accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s largest economy by introducing nearly […]
Data centers have become victims of their own success. Ever-larger data centers have mushroomed across the globe in line with an apparently insatiable demand for computing and storage capacity. The associated energy use is not only expensive (and generating massive carbon emissions) but is also putting pressure on the grid. Most data center developments tend […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Energy-efficiency-focus-to-shift-to-IT-at-last-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-05-03 15:00:002023-05-02 11:33:58Energy-efficiency focus to shift to IT — at last
The past decade has seen numerous reports of so-called cloud “repatriations” — the migration of applications back to on-premises venues following negative experiences with, or unsuccessful migrations to, the public cloud. A recent Uptime Update (High costs drive cloud repatriation, but impact is overstated) examined why these migrations might occur. The Update revealed that unexpected […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Asset-utilization-drives-cloud-repatriation-economics-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-04-26 15:00:002023-04-25 10:08:53Asset utilization drives cloud repatriation economics
A proposed permanent network of electromagnetic monitoring stations across the continental US, operating in tandem with a machine learning (ML) algorithm, could facilitate accurate predictions of geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs). If realized, this predictive system could help grid operators avert disruption and reduce the likelihood of damage to their — and their customers’ — infrastructure, including […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Forecasting-the-Solar-Storm-Threat-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2023-04-19 15:00:002023-04-18 10:29:17Forecasting the solar storm threat
Big public-cloud operators have often had to compete against each other — sometimes ferociously. Only rarely have they had to compete against alternative platforms for corporate IT, however. More often than not, chief information officers (CIOs) responsible for mission-critical IT have seen a move to the public cloud as low-risk, flexible, forward-looking and, ultimately, inexpensive. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Cloud-migrations-to-face-closer-scrutiny-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-04-12 15:00:002023-04-11 09:48:33Cloud migrations to face closer scrutiny
A host of regulations worldwide have introduced (or will introduce) legal mandates forcing data center operators to report specific operational data and metrics. Key examples include the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD); the European Commission’s proposed Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast; the draft US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate disclosure proposal and […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Accounting-for-digital-infrastructure-GHG-emissions-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-04-05 15:00:002023-03-30 14:00:14Accounting for digital infrastructure GHG emissions
Up until two years ago, the cost of building and operating data centers had been falling reasonably steeply. Improving technology, greater production volumes as the industry expanded and consolidated, large-scale builds, prefabricated and modular construction techniques, stable energy prices and the low costs of capital have all played a part. While labor costs have risen […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Data-center-costs-set-to-rise-and-rise-featured.jpg5391030Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2023-03-29 15:00:002023-03-27 12:20:19Data center costs set to rise and rise
Unexpected costs are driving some data-heavy and legacy applications back from public-cloud to on-premises locations. However, very few organizations are moving away from the public cloud strategically — let alone altogether. The past decade has seen numerous reports of so-called cloud “repatriations” — the migration of applications back to on-premises venues following negative experiences with, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/High-costs-drive-cloud-repatriation-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-03-22 15:00:002023-03-21 11:00:17High costs drive cloud repatriation, but impact is overstated
Standard IT hardware was a boon for data centers: for almost two decades, mainstream servers have had relatively constant power and cooling requirements. This technical stability moored the planning and design of facilities (for both new builds and retrofits) and has helped attract investment in data center capacity and technical innovation. Furthermore, many organizations are […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Too-hot-to-handle-Operators-to-struggle-with-new-chips-featured.jpg5391030Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2023-03-15 15:00:002023-03-14 09:42:37Too hot to handle? Operators to struggle with new chips
The COVID-19 pandemic — and the subsequent disruption to supply chains — demonstrated the data center industry’s reliance on interdependent global markets and the components they produce. Although the data center sector was just one of many industries affected, the extensive variety of the often complex electrical and mechanical equipment involved exacerbated supply chain problems. […]
Attracting and retaining qualified data center staff has been a major industry challenge for years — and continues to cause substantial problems for operators worldwide. Uptime Institute’s 2022 Management and Operations Survey shows staffing and organization (54%) is the leading requirement cited by operators (see Figure 1). In an environment where rapid growth in data […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Data-center-staffing-an-ongoing-struggle-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Paul Carton, Research Vice President, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Paul Carton, Research Vice President, Uptime Institute2023-03-01 13:00:002023-03-01 11:52:50Data center staffing — an ongoing struggle
Many digital infrastructure operators have set themselves carbon-neutral or net-zero emissions goals: some large hyperscale operators claim net-zero emissions for their current operating year. Signatories to the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, a European organization for owners and operators, aim to be using 100% clean energy by 2030. All these proclamations appear laudable and seem […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Unraveling-net-zero-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-02-22 13:00:002023-02-22 09:48:39Unravelling net zero
Google was an underdog when it launched its infrastructure cloud in 2013. Amazon had already made a name for itself as a disruptive technology provider, having launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) seven years prior. Microsoft, a household name in commercial software, launched Azure in 2010. What chance did Google, a company known primarily for its […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Is-Google-a-credible-enterprise-cloud-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-02-15 13:00:002023-02-22 09:51:07Is Google a credible enterprise cloud?
A debate has been raging since cloud computing entered the mainstream: which is the cheaper venue for enterprise customers — cloud or on-premises data centers? This debate has proved futile for two reasons. First, the characteristics of any specific application will dictate which venue is more expensive — there is no simple, unequivocal answer. Second […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Higher-data-center-costs-unlikely-to-cause-exodus-to-public-cloud-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-02-08 13:00:002023-02-06 11:34:16Higher data center costs unlikely to cause exodus to public cloud
The past year (2022) has seen regulators in many countries develop or mandate requirements to report data centers’ operating information and environmental performance metrics. The first of these, the European Commission (EC) Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast is currently under review by the European Parliament and is expected to become law in 2023. This directive […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/First-signs-of-federal-data-center-reporting-mandates-appear-in-US-featured.jpg5391030Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2023-02-01 13:00:002023-01-30 10:51:42First signs of federal data center reporting mandates appear in US
Recent geopolitical concerns, predictions of a looming recession, and continued supply chain difficulties are unlikely to dampen growth in digital bandwidth on private networks according to Equinix’s 2022 Global Interconnection Index (GXI). Global interconnection bandwidth (the volume of data exchanged between companies directly, bypassing the public internet) is a barometer for digital infrastructure and sheds […]
Cloud providers have experienced unprecedented growth over the past few years. CIOs the world over, often prompted by CFOs and CEOs, have been favoring the cloud over on-premises IT for new and major projects — with the result that the largest cloud provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has seen revenue increase by 30% to 40% […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Reports-of-cloud-decline-exaggerated-featured.jpg5391030Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2023-01-18 15:00:002023-01-18 12:23:29Reports of cloud decline have been greatly exaggerated
Uptime Institute’s outages database suggests data center fires are infrequent, and rarely have a significant impact on operations. Uptime has identified 14 publicly reported, high-profile data center outages caused by fire or fire suppression systems since 2020. The frequency of fires is not increasing relative to the IT load or number of data centers but, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Major-data-center-fire-highlights-criticality-of-IT-services-featured.jpg5391030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2023-01-11 13:00:002023-01-10 15:40:40Major data center fire highlights criticality of IT services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made a minor change to its private-cloud appliance, AWS Outposts, that could significantly impact resiliency. The cloud provider has enabled local access to cloud administration, removing the appliance’s reliance on the public cloud. In the event of a network failure between the public cloud and the user’s data center, the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Cloud-Autonomy-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-12-07 08:00:002022-11-14 15:25:40Tweak to AWS Outposts reflects demand for greater cloud autonomy
In any market, fewer sellers or providers typically results in less choice for buyers. Where the number of sellers is very low this could, theoretically, lead to exploitation, through higher prices or lower-quality goods and services — with buyers having no choice but to accept such terms. Three hyperscale cloud providers — Amazon Web Services, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Cloud-Competition-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-11-30 08:00:002025-10-28 12:38:50Why are governments investigating cloud competitiveness?
Organizations are becoming more confident in using the cloud for mission-critical workloads — partly due to a perception of improved visibility into operational resiliency. But many users aren’t taking basic steps to ensure their mission-critical applications can endure relatively frequent availability zone outages. Data from the 2022 Uptime Institute annual survey reflects this growing confidence in […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Cloud-Outage-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-11-23 08:00:002022-11-08 15:40:46Users unprepared for inevitable cloud outages
The data center industry and other large power-consuming industries continue to feel pressure from skyrocketing electricity prices. In Germany and France, wholesale energy prices this August increased six-fold compared to prices from 2021. The US has fared better, but wholesale electricity prices have doubled this summer compared with last year’s prices. While leased data center […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Rising-Energy-Prices-featured.jpg6281200Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngLenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute2022-11-16 08:00:002022-11-08 15:09:24Will high energy prices push operators to direct liquid cooling?
A serverless platform is an abstracted cloud computing service that executes a user’s code without the user needing to provision the underlying server or operating environment. The physical server, resources and operating environment used to execute the user’s code are managed by the cloud provider and are not accessible to the user (hence “serverless”). In […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/AWS-Price-Cut-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-11-02 08:00:002022-10-17 10:49:19AWS price cuts: is serverless gaining momentum?
The European Commission’s (EC’s) proposed recast of its Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) sets out new and strict reporting requirements for data centers operating in the EU. If passed, data centers with 100 kilowatts or more total installed IT power demand (from server, storage and network equipment) will have to report their energy performance every year, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Frustrated-Reporting-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-26 08:00:002022-10-06 14:09:52EU’s EED recast set to create reporting challenges
Halloween brings joy to many in the form of tricks and treats. But to IT managers, Halloween is a stark reminder of the evil spirits that hide out of sight in data center cabinets and public cloud applications. Vampires, zombies and ghosts haunt the infrastructure, sucking valuable energy, space and resources. IT managers need to […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Halloween-featured.jpg6281200Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-24 17:00:002022-10-21 16:44:32This Halloween, beware the vampire server
The US Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued multiple geomagnetic storm watches throughout August and September 2022. Geomagnetic storms occur when solar storms interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, risking disruption to satellites, radio communications and the power grid. The strongest predicted storm earned the agency’s rating of G3 (“strong”) on a five-level […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Solar-Storms-featured.jpg6281200Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-19 08:00:002022-10-05 16:14:07Data centers weather solar storms
New findings from research by Uptime Institute Intelligence reveals that organizations can cut both their cloud carbon emissions and costs by moving workloads to different regions. However, the trade off with this migration is an increase in latency. Cloud users choose regions based primarily on two factors: Locating the application close to end users improves […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Cloud-Carbon-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-17 09:00:002025-10-28 12:34:32Sacrifice speed to cut cloud carbon and costs
IT hardware vendors, such as Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), are pivoting their revenue models away from product sales toward service-based subscriptions. The objective is to make hardware appear more flexible and cloud-like so buyers can retain servers in their choice of data center while receiving the critical benefit of the cloud: scalability. Much […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Server-leasing-models-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-12 08:00:002022-09-15 10:59:16New server leasing models promise cloud-like flexibility
Quantum computing promises a revolution in scientific discovery. Quantum computing’s main advantage over digital computing is in quickly solving highly complex problems that require significant time or resources to process. Currently, solutions to many complex problems can be estimated using supercomputers or pools of servers over days or weeks. Other problems are so complex that […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Quantum-Computing-featuring.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-10-05 08:00:002022-09-14 14:25:39Quantum computing is not a panacea yet
Although big-name hyperscalers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft dominate the cloud arena, other companies also believe they have a role to play. Vultr, OVHcloud, Linode, DigitalOcean, Bluehost and Scaleway, for example, don’t offer huge portfolios of cutting-edge products but their products focus on simplicity and low cost for smaller businesses with relatively straightforward requirements. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Cloud-Alternative-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-09-28 08:00:002022-08-29 11:53:33Alternative clouds are vulnerable to demanding buyers
The value, role and safety of nuclear power has strongly divided opinion, both in favor of and against, since the 1950s. This debate has now, in 2022, reached a critical point again as energy security and prices cause increasing concern globally (particularly in geographies such as Europe) and as the climate crisis requires energy producers […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nuclear-2-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-09-21 08:30:002022-09-14 09:51:51Data center operators cautiously support nuclear
The thousands of gallons of diesel that data centers store on-site to fuel backup generators in the event of a grid outage are hard to ignore — and do little to assist operators’ drive toward tougher sustainability goals. In the past two years, an alternative to diesel made from renewable materials has found support among […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/HVO-hydrotreated-vegatable-oil-featured.jpg6281200Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMax Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com2022-09-14 08:00:002022-09-12 15:46:56Vegetable oil promises a sustainable alternative to diesel
Last month 7,000 developers traveled to Valencia to attend the combined KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Europe 2022 conference, the event for Kubernetes and cloud-native software development. A further 10,000 developers joined the conference online. The event is organized by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), part of the non-profit Linux Foundation. The CNCF supports and promotes […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Navigating-Cloud-Complexity-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-09-07 08:00:002022-08-16 10:21:59Is navigating cloud-native complexity worth the hassle?
Nearly 15 years ago – in 2008 – Uptime Institute presented a paper titled “The gathering storm.” The paper was about the inevitability of a struggle against climate change and how this might play out for the power-hungry data center and IT sector. The issues were explored in more detail in the 2020 Uptime Institute […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Sustainability-Laws-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-08-31 03:00:002022-08-22 10:20:36Sustainability laws set to drive real change
When Uptime Institute Intelligence surveyed data center infrastructure operators about supply chain issues in August 2021, more than two-thirds of respondents had experienced some shortages in the previous 18 months. Larger operations bore the brunt of disruptions, largely due to shortages or delays in sourcing major electrical equipment (such as switchgear, engine generators and uninterruptible […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Weak-Demand-featured.jpg6281200Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2022-08-24 08:00:002022-08-15 14:09:19Equipment shortages may ease soon — but not for good reasons
Technology giants such as Microsoft or IBM didn’t view Amazon as a threat when it launched its cloud business unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006. As a result, AWS has a significant first to market advantage with more services, more variations in more regions and more cloud revenue than any other cloud provider. Today, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Cloud-Wars-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-08-17 08:00:002022-08-15 09:06:08Who will win the cloud wars?
Cloud providers tend to adopt the latest server technologies early, often many months ahead of enterprise buyers, to stay competitive. Providers regularly launch new generations of virtual machines with identical quantities of resources (such as core counts, memory capacity, network and storage bandwidths) as the previous generation but powered by the latest technology. Usually, the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cloud-Price-Lock-in-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-08-10 08:00:002022-07-28 16:21:15Costlier new cloud generations increase lock-in risk
An extreme heat wave swept across much of Western Europe on July 18 and 19, hitting some of the largest metropolitan areas such as Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris — which are also global data center hubs with hundreds of megawatts of capacity each. In the London area, temperatures at Heathrow Airport surpassed 40°C / […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Extreme-heat-featured.jpg6281200Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2022-07-27 20:37:472022-07-28 10:23:38Extreme heat stress-tests European data centers – again
A single tweet in May 2021 brought unprecedented public attention to a relatively unknown issue. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that because of the large energy consumption associated with the use of Bitcoin, Tesla would no longer accept it as currency. Instead, Tesla would favor other cryptocurrencies that use less than 1% of Bitcoin’s energy […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Crypto-data-centers-featured.jpg6281200Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngLenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute2022-07-27 08:00:002022-07-18 14:09:06Crypto data centers: The good, the bad and the electric
In recent years, Uptime Institute has published regular reports examining both the rate and causes of data center and IT service outages. The reports, which have been widely read and reported in the media, paint a picture of an industry that is struggling with resiliency and reliability — and one where operators regularly suffer downtime, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Outage-Data-features.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-07-20 07:00:002022-06-28 14:43:50Making sense of the outage numbers
In general, the prices of cloud services either remain level or decrease. There are occasional price increases, but these are typically restricted to specific features; blanket price increases across product families are rare. Price cuts are often the result of improved operating efficiencies. Through automation, slicker processes, Moore’s law improvements in hardware and economies of […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Cloud-Costs-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-07-13 07:00:002022-06-28 10:34:51Cloud price increases damage trust
Direct liquid cooling (DLC) is a collection of techniques that removes heat by circulating a coolant to IT electronics. Even though the process is far more efficient than using air, the move to liquid cooling has been largely confined to select applications in high-performance computing to cool extreme high-density IT systems. There are a few […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Direct-liquid-cooling-pressure-is-rising-but-constraints-remain-featured.jpg6281200Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2022-07-06 08:00:002025-10-28 12:25:48Direct liquid cooling: pressure is rising but constraints remain
Uptime Institute’s data on power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a testament to the progress the data center industry has made in energy efficiency over the past 10 years. However, global average PUEs have been largely stalling at close to 1.6 since 2018, with only marginal gains. This makes sense: for the average figure to show […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ultimate-liquid-cooling-featured.jpg6281200Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2022-06-29 07:00:002022-06-17 15:22:44The ultimate liquid cooling: heat rejection into water
A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a cloud provider and a user. The SLA describes the provider’s minimum level of service, specified by performance metrics, and the compensation due to the user should the provider fail to deliver this service. In practice, however, this compensation is punitive. It seems designed to punish […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/SLAs_Compensation-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-06-15 07:00:002022-06-02 16:01:24Cloud SLAs punish, not compensate
Analyzing human error — with a view to preventing it — has always been challenging for data center operators. The cause of a failure can lie in how well a process was taught, how tired, well trained or resourced the staff are, or whether the equipment itself was unnecessarily difficult to operate. There are also […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Human-Error-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-06-08 08:00:002022-06-03 11:30:20Outages: understanding the human factor
As a result of some high-profile outages and the growing interest in running critical services in a public cloud, the reliability — and transparency — of public cloud services has come under scrutiny. Cloud services are designed to operate with low failure rates. Large (at-scale) cloud and IT service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Concern-over-cloud-and-third-party-outages-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-06-08 08:00:002022-06-03 11:53:08Is concern over cloud and third-party outages increasing?
Cloud providers offer services that are assembled by users into applications. An outage of any single cloud service can render an application unavailable. Importantly, cloud providers guarantee the availability of individual services, not of entire applications. Even if a whole application becomes unresponsive due to a provider outage, compensation is only due for the individual […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Weakest-Link-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-06-01 07:00:002022-05-17 16:57:39The weakest link dictates cloud outage compensation
How is the Ukraine conflict affecting digital infrastructure and the data sector? In response to multiple queries, Uptime Institute Intelligence identified six main areas where operators and customers of digital infrastructure are experiencing effects from the conflict or will do so soon, not just in Europe but globally. (In Russia and Ukraine there are over […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ukraine-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-05-18 07:00:002022-05-17 16:52:34The shock waves from Ukraine
Cloud providers need to deliver the newest capability to stay relevant. Few enterprises will accept working with outdated technology just because it’s consumable as a cloud service. However, existing cloud instances don’t migrate automatically. Similarly to on-premises server infrastructure, users need to refresh their cloud services regularly. Typically, cloud operators prefer product continuity between generations, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Cloud-generations-drive-down-prices-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-05-03 06:00:002022-04-30 14:08:45Cloud generations drive down prices
Pressed by a sense of urgency among scientists and the wider public, and by governments and investors who must fulfil promises made at COP (Conference of the Parties) summits, major businesses are facing ever more stringent sustainability reporting requirements. Big energy users, such as data centers, are in the firing line. Many of the reporting […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Industry-Consensus-on-Sustainability-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-04-19 06:00:002025-10-28 12:22:45Industry consensus on sustainability looks fragile
The cloud model was designed to be simple and nimble. Simple and nimble doesn’t necessarily mean fit for purpose. Over the past decade, new layers of capability have been added to cloud to address its shortcomings. While this has created more options and greater functionality, it has also meant greater complexity in its management. Today, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Cloud-Complexity-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-04-12 06:00:002022-04-07 09:44:57Why cloud is a kludge of complexity
Conditions will soon be ripe for widespread use of direct liquid cooling (DLC) — a collection of techniques that uses fluid to remove heat from IT electronics instead of air — and it may even become essential. Currently, air cooling is still dominant with DLC remaining a niche option — around 85% of enterprise IT […]
As major businesses feel a growing sense of urgency to dramatically cut carbon emissions, opinions are starting to shift in favor of nuclear power, which is not classed as clean, but is a near-zero carbon energy source. The digital infrastructure industry, a major global consumer of energy, has a role to play in rehabilitating nuclear, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Nuclear-Option-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2022-03-15 06:00:002022-03-11 11:00:58Data center operators ponder the nuclear option
Vendor lock-in is regularly levied as a criticism of cloud services. But the reality of IT is, there has always been lock-in. Even before cloud, enterprises were locked into hardware, operating systems, database platforms, data centers and network providers. Practically, the lock-in challenge with cloud isn’t that moving from one location or platform is not […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Cloud-Lock-in-risk-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.com2022-03-01 06:00:002022-02-25 17:40:14Flexibility drives cloud lock-in risk
The global data center industry describes its own sustainability performance as average, compared with other industries — and most think efforts are not substantially reducing environmental impacts. A recent Uptime Institute global survey of over 400 data center owners and operators asked whether the industry’s environmental commitments are effective in curbing data center energy use, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Sustainability-Fail-featured.jpg6281200Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngLenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute2022-02-22 06:00:002022-02-19 17:35:49Data center operators give themselves a “Fail” for sustainability
Control over critical digital infrastructure is increasingly in the hands of a small number of major providers. While a public cloud provides a flexible, stable and distributed IT environment, there are growing concerns around its operational resiliency.
To track changing attitudes and responses to climate change and the related threats to infrastructure, Uptime Institute Intelligence concluded two global surveys in the fourth quarters of 2020 and 2021, respectively.
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Climate-Change-featured.jpg6281200Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2021-12-16 08:00:002021-12-20 11:29:18Climate change: More operators prepare to weather the storms
Many analysts have forecast an explosion in demand for edge data centers. After a long, slow start, demand is beginning to build, with small, prefabricated and mostly remotely operated data centers ready to be deployed to support a varying array of applications.
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Mixed-Resiliency-Edge-featured.jpg6281200Dr. Tomas Rahkonen, Research Director of Distributed Data Centers, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDr. Tomas Rahkonen, Research Director of Distributed Data Centers, Uptime Institute2021-11-17 08:00:002021-11-16 09:07:48Mixed resiliency at the edge
The power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric is predominant thanks to its universal applicability and its simplicity: energy used by the entire data center, divided by energy used by the IT equipment.
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/DLC-featured.jpg6281200Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.com2021-11-05 08:30:002021-11-04 21:01:17Does the spread of direct liquid cooling make PUE less relevant?
Earlier in 2021, ASHRAE’s Technical Committee 9.9 published an update — the fifth edition — of its Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments.
Operators often say that data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software is a necessary evil. Modern facilities need centralized, real-time management and analytics, but DCIM is notoriously difficult to deploy.
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Startups-brew-new-chemistries-for-fresh-battery-types.jpg4801030Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2021-09-01 07:00:002021-09-01 07:04:03Startups brew new chemistries for fresh battery types
A recent outage at content delivery network Fastly took down thousands of websites in different countries, including big names, such as Amazon, Twitter and Spotify, for nearly an hour. It is the latest large outage highlighting the downside of a key trend in digital infrastructure: The growth in dependency on digital service providers can undermine […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fastly-blog-featured-diagram.jpg4661024Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngDaniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.com2021-06-11 15:15:072021-06-11 15:17:15Fastly outage underscores slow creep of digital services risk
As the pandemic began to make an impact in early 2020, it became clear that data center operators were going to have to invest more if they were to provide the services on which their customers were increasingly reliant. Short-term needs included protective equipment, deep cleaning and, it seemed likely, more spending to support extended […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DC-Costs.jpg7342391Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2021-05-03 06:30:002025-10-30 14:02:59Pandemic has driven up data center costs
Across the world, data center owners and managers are striving to buy more renewable energy and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. The global internet giants and the largest colocation companies have led the way with huge green energy purchases. But the impact of renewable energy on the grid operator’s economics, and on the critical […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/renew-2.jpg7842660Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngJay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com2021-04-26 06:10:062025-10-30 13:58:51Renewable energy and data centers: Buyer, be aware
Uptime Institute Members say one of their most vexing security concerns is the insider threat — authorized staff, vendors or visitors acting with malicious intent. In extreme examples, trusted individuals could power down servers and other equipment, damage network equipment, cut fiber paths, or steal data from servers or wipe the associated storage. Unfortunately, data […]
In early March 2021, a hacker group publicly exposed the username and password of an administrative account of a security camera vendor. The credentials enabled them to access 150,000 commercial security systems and, potentially, set up subsequent attacks on other critical equipment. A few weeks earlier, leaked credentials for the collaboration software TeamViewer gave hackers […]
The catastrophic fire that occurred at OVHcloud’s SBG2 data center in Strasbourg, France (see last week’s blog about it) has led many operators to question their vulnerability to fires. Fires at data centers are a constant concern, but are rare. In almost all cases of data center fire, the source is quickly located, the equipment isolated, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/fire3.jpg6921932Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2021-04-05 08:26:002025-10-30 13:30:46Datacenter Fire Frequency
Recent extreme weather-related events in the US (the big freeze in Texas, fires on the west coast) have once again highlighted the need for data center operators to reassess their risks in the face of climate change. The topic is discussed in depth in the Uptime Institute report (available to Uptime Institute members) entitled, The gathering […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gw.jpg7481941Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2021-03-15 06:07:002025-10-30 14:35:19Extreme weather affects nearly half of data centers
In Uptime Institute’s recent report on preparing for the extreme effects of climate change, there were over a dozen references to the dangers of extremely hot weather, which can overwhelm cooling systems and trigger regional fires that disrupt power, connectivity and staff access. But the effects of extreme cold were discussed only in passing. The […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cold2.jpg10521938Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2021-03-01 05:34:002021-03-01 08:52:22Extreme cold — a neglected threat to availability?
The pandemic has led to a renewed interest by data center managers in remote monitoring, management and automation. Uptime Institute has fielded dozens of inquiries about these approaches in recent months, but one in particular stands out: What will operational automation and machine learning mean for on-site staff requirements? With greater automation, the expectation is […]
Outsourcing the requirement to own and operate data center capacity is the cornerstone of many digital transformation strategies, with almost every large enterprise spreading their workloads across their own data centers, colocation sites and public cloud. But ask any regulator, any chief executive, any customer: You can’t outsource responsibility — for incidents, outages, security breaches […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/resp-sm.jpg6801100Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-12-21 05:15:002025-10-30 14:27:18Accountability – the “new” imperative
What we can expect for mission-critical digital infrastructure in 2021? Each autumn Uptime Institute, like many other organizations, puts together a list of some of the big trends and themes for the year ahead. This time, we have focused on five big trends that might not have been so obvious 12 months ago. Heading into […]
When the PUE (power usage effectiveness) metric was first discussed at a meeting of The Green Grid in Santa Clara, back in 2007, a microphone stand was placed in each aisle of the auditorium. The importance of the initiative was understood even then: experts, including the founders of Uptime Institute, formed lines to give their […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PUE-Rusty.jpg380895Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-11-02 07:32:042020-10-26 12:18:10PUE: The golden metric is looking rusty
When Uptime Institute recently asked over 300 data center managers how the pandemic would change their operations, one answer stood out: Two-thirds expect to increase the resiliency of their core data center(s) in the years ahead. Many said they expected their costs to increase as a result. The reasoning is clear: the pandemic — or […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/type1a.jpg3551475Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-10-26 06:00:342025-10-30 14:25:59Why data center operators are investing in more redundancy
Data centers are built and sited to withstand all that Mother Nature can throw at them — or at least, is likely to throw at them — during their lifecycle. This has long been a given, practiced and understood by designers, planners and regulators. But climate change is changing everything. Recent weather events have led […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, many people have suggested that the business case for enterprises to move more workloads to the public cloud has been strengthened. Some have argued that the pandemic will accelerate the decline of the enterprise data center. Is this actually the case? And if so, why? This is one of […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/blog-cloud-sm.jpg7001890Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-09-21 06:00:272025-10-30 14:20:04Will the pandemic accelerate the move to public cloud?
As will be discussed in our upcoming note about managing data center with the severe weather caused by climate change, we continue to highlight the need for data center managers to not only review existing emergency plans but also anticipate previously unforeseen challenges. The need to understand the new ‘Normal’ Which brings us to wildfires… […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pexels-sippakorn-yamkasikorn-3552472-blogsm.jpg13943764Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-09-16 06:00:542020-09-14 09:43:03Data Centers and Wildfires
Data center managers, on both the facilities and the IT side of operations, are known for their preparedness. Even so, the pandemic caught most by surprise. Few had an effective pandemic plan in place, and most had to react and adapt on the fly, as best as they could. A small but significant number suffered […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/chess-blog-sm.jpg10002700Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-09-14 06:50:202025-10-30 14:23:01Pandemics: Operators plan to be ready next time
Increasingly, data centers cannot find qualified candidates for open jobs. Companies that commit to diverse and inclusive workplaces are more likely to have better financial performance; greater innovation and productivity; and higher employee-ambassador recruitment, employee retention and employee job satisfaction rates.
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/blog-infographic-aug2020sm.jpg7502025Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institute2020-08-31 05:00:132020-10-22 14:27:22Data center workforce diversity makes good business sense
When the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) metric for data centers was first agreed upon by the members of The Green Grid back in 2007, almost everyone in that crowded room in California agreed: This is not intended to be used as comparative metric across sites (as every situation is different) but it would be an […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/energy-Efficiency2.jpg8702500Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-08-24 06:00:242025-10-30 14:13:25Which regions have the most energy efficient data centers?
Data center managers have gone to some lengths to avoid transmission of the COVID-19 virus in their facilities. Fortunately, many factors help keep transmission rates low in data centers: few staff are required; most jobs do not require close physical interaction with colleagues; and air filtration may help to reduce, if not necessarily eliminate, airborne […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Humidity3.jpg4661261Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-08-17 06:00:332020-07-26 21:36:34Humidity and COVID-19 in data centers
Modern data centers are rarely dirty places, but even so, most are a lot cleaner now than they were before COVID-19 became a concern. A recent Uptime Institute survey, conducted in response to the pandemic, found that about two-thirds (68%) of data center owners/operators recently deep cleaned their facilities, and more than 80% recently sanitized […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DIY-sm.jpg10002700Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2020-06-29 06:00:402025-10-28 12:35:44Cleaning a data center: Contractors vs. DIY
What will be the long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the digital critical infrastructure industry? It may be too soon to ask the question given that, at the time of writing, the virus is taking its toll at scale across the world. But Uptime Institute has been asked this question many times, and it’s […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/COVID-LEGACY-sm.jpg10002700Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-06-22 06:00:552025-10-30 14:09:48COVID-19: Critical impact and legacy
Fear of the coronavirus or confirmed exposure has caused about half (49%) of data center owners to increase the frequency of regular cleanings, according to a recent Uptime Institute flash survey. Even more (66%) have increased the frequency of sanitization (disinfection) to eliminate (however transitorily) any possible presence of the novel coronavirus in their facilities. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/GettyImages-1222181804blog.jpg9252486Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2020-06-01 06:00:082020-06-04 12:06:45Data Center cleaning and sanitization: detail, cost and effectiveness
To date, the critical infrastructure industry has mostly managed effectively with reduced staff, deferred maintenance, social distancing and new patterns of demand. While there have been some serious incidents and outages directly related to the pandemic, these have been few. But what worries operators for the months ahead? Clearly, the situation is changing all the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GettyImages-1134312106-blog.jpg7402003Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-05-11 06:00:502025-10-30 14:50:32COVID-19: What worries data center management the most?
To date, media coverage of the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns has been largely laudatory. There have been few high profile or serious outages (perhaps fewer than normal) and for the most part, internet traffic flow analysis shows that a sudden jump in demand, along with a shift toward the residential edge and busy […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GettyImages-1171885110-blog.jpg9602592Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-05-04 06:00:242025-10-30 14:51:52Pandemic is causing some outages and slowdowns
The average power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio for a data center in 2020 is 1.58, only marginally better than 7 years ago, according to the latest annual Uptime Institute survey (findings to be published shortly). PUE, an international standard first developed by The Green Grid and others in 2007, is the most widely accepted way […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GettyImages-1193108294blog.jpg10002700Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-04-27 11:50:272025-10-30 14:46:08Data center PUEs flat since 2013
The final installment of our Q&A regarding digital infrastructure considerations during the COVID19 crisis includes Deferred Maintenance, Remote Word, Supply Chain, Tier Standard and Long-Term Outlook Below is Part 3 of the Q&A responses brought up during our recent series of webinars about managing operational risk during the COVID19 crisis. (Part 1 dealt with Staffing and […]
Here is Part 2 of our Q&A regarding digital infrastructure considerations during the COVID19 crisis. Keep in mind that we are all handling this crisis in varied ways, and learning from each other along the way. In that process, we really ARE all finding our own “New Normal” and ultimately we will come out of […]
We are all in this together. We are all finding our own “New Normal”. We are all learning from each other and will come out of this crisis stronger due to the renewed focus on operational effectiveness, risk avoidance and contingency planning. To this end, Uptime Institute has been creating many types of guidance and […]
One of the findings of Uptime Institute’s recently published report Annual outage analysis 2020 is that the most serious categories of outages — those that cause a significant disruption in services — are becoming more severe and more costly. This isn’t entirely surprising: individuals and businesses alike are becoming ever more dependent on IT, and it is […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/GettyImages-1202490579-blog.jpg10002700Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-03-30 06:00:592025-10-30 15:14:44Are IT Infrastructure Outages Getting Longer?
Over the past few weeks, Uptime Institute held multiple customer roundtables to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 virus on data center operations and potential operational responses to its spread. We gathered our communities insights and best practices, we combined with our own 25 years worth of infrastructure operational management knowledge and we are now […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1212420405-blog.jpg10672667Sandra Vailhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngSandra Vail2020-03-17 06:00:572020-03-17 09:44:54COVID-19: IT organizations move from planning to implementation
As enterprises continue to move from a focus on capital expenditures to operating expenditures, more data center components will also be consumed on a pay-as-you-go, “as a service” basis. “-aaS” goes mainstream The trend toward everything “as a service” (XaaS) is now mainstream in IT, ranging from cloud (infrastructure-aaS) and software-aaS (SaaS) to newer offerings, […]
Despite years of discussion, warnings and strict regulations in some countries, data center hot work remains a contentious issue in the data center industry. Hot work is the practice of working on energized electrical circuits (voltage limits differ regionally) — and it is usually done, in spite of the risks, to reduce the possibility of […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Energized-hot-work-cropped-blog.jpg11983242Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2020-02-24 05:30:402020-02-14 15:34:41Phasing Out Data Center Hot Work
Uptime Institute Intelligence plans to release its 2019/2020 outages report shortly. This report will examine the types, causes and impacts of public outages, as well as further analyze the results of a recent Uptime survey on outages and impacts. The data will once again show that serious IT service interruptions are common and costly, with […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/GettyImages-1142860861-blog.jpg4461221Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2020-02-10 05:46:282020-01-30 14:56:41The spectre of ransomware
Hardware refresh is the process of replacing older, less efficient servers with newer, more efficient ones with more compute capacity. However, there is a complication to the refresh cycle that is relatively recent: the slowing down of Moore’s law. There is still a very strong case for savings in energy when replacing servers that are […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GettyImages-1017644632-50.jpg9952591Rabih Bashroushhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRabih Bashroush2020-01-27 05:45:542025-10-30 15:33:39Optimizing server refresh cycles with an aging Moore’s law
Energy use by data centers and IT will continue to rise, putting pressure on energy infrastructure and raising questions about carbon emissions. The drivers for more energy use are simply too great to be offset by efficiency gains. Drivers Demand for digital services has seen sustained, exceptional growth over the past few years — and […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GettyImages-1096717338-blog.jpg17624775Rabih Bashroushhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRabih Bashroush2020-01-06 06:00:422025-10-30 15:42:30Data center energy use goes up and up and up
In her book “Surveillance Capitalism,” the Harvard scholar Shoshana Zuboff describes how some software and service providers have been collecting vast amounts of data, with the goal of tracking, anticipating, shaping and even controlling the behavior of individuals. She sees it as a threat to individual freedom, to business and to democracy. Zuboff outlines the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GettyImages-912023604-sm.jpg16884655Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-12-09 06:44:592019-11-27 11:32:34Surveillance Capitalism and DCIM
Separating production and non-production assets should be an operational requirement for most organizations. By definition, production assets support high-priority IT loads — servers that are critical to a business or business unit. In most organizations, IT will have sufficient discretion to place these assets where they have redundant power supplies, sufficient cooling and high levels of […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Separationj.jpg12403387Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2019-11-04 06:00:082019-10-21 10:23:36Non-production IT can hinder mission-critical operations
One of the most widely cited metrics in the IT industry is for availability, expressed in the form of a number of nines: three nines for 99.9% availability (minutes of downtime per year), extending to six nines — 99.9999% — or even, very rarely, seven nines. What this should mean in practice is show in […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Red-Clock-aspect27.jpg13423523Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-10-28 06:05:072025-11-12 11:22:3999 Red Flags
Regulation of Internet giants has focused so far mostly on data privacy, where concerns are relatively well understood by lawmakers and the general public. At the same time, the threat of antitrust action is growing. Congressional hearings in the US with Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have begun, and governments in Europe, India and elsewhere […]
In the movie “Mary Poppins,” Mr. Banks sings that a British bank must be run with precision, and that “Tradition, discipline and rules must be the tools.” Otherwise, he warns, “Disorder! Chaos!” will ensue. One rule, introduced by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2018, suggests that disorder and chaos might be quite common […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/GettyImages-1023248390cropped.jpg18535000Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-10-14 06:00:392025-11-12 11:38:20Outage Reporting in Financial Services
A previous Uptime Intelligence Note suggested that avoiding data center outages might be as simple as trying harder. The Note suggested that management failures are the main reason that enterprises continue to experience downtime incidents, even in fault tolerant facilities. “The Intelligence Trap,” a new book by David Robson, sheds light on why management mistakes continue to […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Blog-Part-Deux.jpg9802643Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2019-10-07 06:15:142019-09-23 10:16:41How to Avoid Outages – Part Deux
Uptime Institute has spent years analyzing the roots causes for data center and service outages, surveying thousands of IT professionals throughout the year on this topic. According to the data, the vast majority of data center failures are caused by human error. Some industry experts report numbers as high as 75%, but Uptime Institute generally reports […]
In the recently published 2019 Uptime Institute supplier survey, participants told us they are witnessing higher than normal data center spending patterns. This is in line with general market trends, driven by the demand for data and digital services. It is also a welcome sign for those suppliers who witnessed a downturn two to three […]
Uptime Institute has long argued that, although it may take many years, the long-term trend is toward a high level of automation in the data center, covering many functions that most managers currently would not trust to machines or outside programmers. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have made this seem more likely. (For more […]
Today, the role that the physical data center plays in software-defined data centers, particularly facility design and operational management, is often overlooked. However, this is likely to change. As more networking and compute becomes virtualized and flexible, so too must data center resources, in order to achieve maximum agility and efficiency. To virtualize only IT […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DCIM-BLOG.jpg6931874Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institute2019-08-26 09:00:482025-11-12 11:59:38DCIM as a Hub: Integrations Make all the difference
Uptime Institute’s Annual outage analysis, published early this year, called attention to the persistent problem of IT service and data center outages. Coupled with our annual survey data on outages, the analysis explains, to a degree, why investments to date have not greatly reduced the outage problem — at least from an end-to-end service view. Gathering […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GOA-chart-2.7aspect.jpg10002700Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2019-08-19 09:00:032025-11-12 12:04:45IT Outages in the Airline Industry, A New Report by the GAO
An artificial intelligence (AI) strategy for data center management and operation requires more than just data and some very smart humans. Selecting specific use cases and understanding the types of data that influence AI outcomes — and then validating those outcomes — will be key if the needs of the business are to be met. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GettyImages-1135342603-blog.jpg18414928Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngRhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime Institute2019-08-12 08:00:442025-11-12 12:07:42Data center AI: Start with the end in mind
In our October 2018 report, A mission-critical industry unprepared for climate change, Uptime Institute Intelligence urged data center operators and owners to plan for the effects of climate change. We specifically encouraged data center owners and operators to meet with government officials and utility executives to learn about local and regional disaster preparation and response plans. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/carr-fire-gty-er-180731_hpMain-999x375.png373989Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2019-07-29 08:00:292019-07-07 06:18:23PG&E Turns Power Off (a.k.a. Climate Change and the Data Center)
It is still very early days, but it is clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the way data centers are designed, managed and operated — eventually. There has been a lot of misrepresentation and hype around AI, and it’s not always clear how it will be applied, and when. The Uptime Institute […]
Recently I attended the Data Center Dynamics (DCD) Smart Energy conference in Stockholm. During a panel discussion on energy, data centers and innovation, David Hall (Senior Director of Technology Innovation for Equinix) made two observations, almost in passing, about metrics and monitoring. Both were intriguing and, to my ears, suggested that operators’ thinking about sustainability […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/RECOVERY2.jpg4451256Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-07-08 09:00:282019-05-10 15:05:26Recover heat, re-charge power
Sometimes it can be hard to get people to talk about their issues — other times, it can be hard to keep them quiet. A recent Uptime Institute Network member’s meeting began as an open discussion but was soon dominated by one issue: data center staffing. The members’ concerns reflect the growing disquiet in the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/SKILLS-SHORTAGE.jpg9762375Sandra Vailhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngSandra Vail2019-05-22 09:00:482025-11-12 12:30:00The Data Center Staffing and Skills Shortage is here NOW!
One of the more intriguing results of the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2019 concerned energy efficiency. For years, data centers have become ever more efficient, with power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratings across the industry (apparently) falling. Big operators, such as hyperscale cloud companies and big colos, regularly claim annual or design PUE figures […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PUE-line.jpg7181582Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-05-15 11:30:352019-05-17 10:43:52Is PUE actually going UP?
Avoiding IT service outages is a big concern for any operator or service provider, especially one providing a business-critical service. But when an outage does occur, the business impact can vary from “barely noticeable” to “huge and expensive.” Anticipating and modeling the impact of a service interruption should be a part of incident planning and is key […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Outage-red-image.jpg5201371Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngAndy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.com2019-05-08 09:00:322025-11-12 12:32:12Comparing the severity of IT service outages: Uptime Institute’s Outage Severity Rating
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in data centers to drive up efficiencies and drive down risks and costs. But it also creates new types of risks. This is one of the findings from a recent Uptime Intelligence research report #25, “Very smart data centers: How artificial intelligence will power operational decisions”, published in April […]
The 1970s-era environmental phrase “Think globally, act locally,” is an apt way for data center operators to consider the best approach to understand and address the effects of climate change on their facilities and IT operations TODAY. Globally, we all hear that climate change threatens to bring warmer temperatures, stronger storms, rising sea levels, and […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Flooding-Hurricane-ClimateChange-851x360.jpg390851Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2019-01-16 15:13:322019-01-16 15:13:32“Think Globally, Act Locally”: Re-Evaluating Data Center Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change
This is a guest post written by Brett Ridley, Head of Central Operations and Facility Management for NEXTDC.NEXTDC is Australia’s leading independent data centre operator with a nationwide network of Uptime Institute certified Tier III and Tier IV facilities. NEXTDC provides enterprise-class colocation services to local and international organisations. If you are interested in participating in […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/NextDC-B2-night_851x360.jpg360851Brett Ridleyhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngBrett Ridley2018-09-27 13:58:492019-04-22 10:54:43NEXTDC: Obsessed with the details so our customers’ business is always available
We’ve entered an era where our IT infrastructures are now becoming a compilation of capacity that is spread out and running upon a wide range of platforms; some we completely control, some we control partially and some we don’t control at all. No longer should our IT services discussions start with ‘And in the data center […]
On April 24th, Uptime Institute CTO, Chris Brown, participated in an “Ask the Expert” session on Data Center Infrastructure Management with BrightTALK senior content manager Kelly Harris. The 45-minute session covered topics ranging from best practices of a well-run data center to a list of the most common data center issues Uptime Institute’s global consultant […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ask-the-expert2.png360851Chris Brown, Chief Technical Officer, Uptime Institutehttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngChris Brown, Chief Technical Officer, Uptime Institute2018-05-11 16:53:162025-10-28 13:06:30“Ask the Expert”: Data Center Management Q&A with Uptime Institute CTO, Chris Brown
Hazards include server damage from loud noise during discharge of inert gas fire suppression systems By Kevin Heslin, with contributions from Scott Good and Pitt Turner A downtime incident in Europe has rekindled interest in a topic that never seems more than a spark away from becoming a heated discussion. In that incident, the accidental […]
Uptime Institute recently published “Top Considerations for Addressing Data Center Facilities Management Risks,” a guide for reducing data center risks in enterprise IT organizations . The guide comprises 14 top considerations useful for designing and running an enterprise-grade data center facilities management program. The full guide is available for download on the Uptime Institute website. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Uptime_Institute_Top_Considerations_for_Addressing_Facility_.gif241600Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2017-06-13 08:22:012017-06-13 08:22:01Top Considerations for Addressing Data Center Facilities Management Risks
Nearly perfect M&O Stamp of Approval scores prove that NRI’s data centers operations are world class By Kevin Heslin Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI), a ¥18 billion ($US169 million) company that provides consulting, financial IT solutions, industrial IT solutions, and IT platform services mainly to a global financial marketplace, has earned Uptime Institute Management and […]
New diesel formulations put your generators at risk By Bernard Oegema, Pat Smyth, Brian Ponstein, William “Bill” Klein, and Martin Wesolowski The increased use of biodiesel has increased the risk to the diesel infrastructure of data centers and other facilities first noted with the adoption of ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) in 2006. The U.S. Environmental […]
Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability enhances ENTEL’s services to customers By Kevin Heslin ENTEL began operations in 1964 as a provider of national and international long distance telephone services to companies in Chile. Today it is a consolidated provider of integrated telecommunication services and information technologies services, meeting the needs of corporations and large companies […]
Senior facility manager calls achieving Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability “a dream” By Kevin Heslin The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI) is a government service provider and regulator for the southeastern Australian state. DFSI supports many government functions, including sustainable government finances, major public works and maintenance programs, government […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Unknown.jpeg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2017-01-03 09:29:212017-01-03 09:30:32When an Australian Government Department Required Operational Sustainability, Metronode Delivered
Uptime Institute recently awarded its Efficient IT (EIT) Stamp of Approval to LinkedIn for its new data center in Infomart Portland, signaling that the modern new facility had exceeded extremely high standards for enterprise leadership, operations, and computing infrastructure. These standards are designed to help organizations lower costs and increase efficiency, and leverage technology for […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/linkedinfinal.jpg4751200Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-12-08 08:12:292018-07-12 08:56:17LinkedIn’s Oregon Data Center Goes Live, Gains EIT Stamp of Approval
Uptime Institute has prepared this brief airline outages FAQ to help the industry, media, and general public understand the reasons that data centers fail. The failure of a power control module on Monday, August 8, 2016, at a Delta Airlines data center caused hundreds of flight cancellations, inconvenienced thousands of customers, and cost the airline […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/delta1.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-11-28 12:44:412016-11-28 12:44:41Airline Outages FAQ: How to Keep Your Company Out of the Headlines
Wearable technology and digitized operating procedures ensure compliance with standardized practices and provide quick access to critical information By Jose Ruiz No one in the data center industry questions that data center outages are extremely costly. Numerous vendors report that the average data center outage costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, with losses in some […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wearables.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-10-24 10:25:162016-10-25 11:16:16Bulky Binders and Operations “Experts” Put Your Data Center at Risk
After commercial DCIM offerings failed to meet RELX Group’s requirements, the team built its own DCIM tool based on the existing IT Services Management Suite By Stephanie Singer What is DCIM? Most people might respond “data center infrastructure management.” However, simply defining the acronym is not enough. The meaning of DCIM is greatly different for […]
In July 2016, Yuval Bachar, principal engineer, Global Infrastructure Architecture and Strategy at LinkedIn announced Open19, a project spearheaded by the social networking service to develop a new specification for server hardware based on a common form factor. The project aims to standardize the physical characteristics of IT equipment, with the goal of cutting costs […]
FORTRUST regards management and operations as a core competency that helps it win new clients and control capital and operating expenses Shortly after receiving word that FORTRUST had earned Uptime Institute’s Tier Certification for Operational Sustainability (Gold) for Phase 7 of its Denver data center, Rob McClary, the company’s executive vice president and general manager, […]
Oil exploration and drilling require HPC By Issa A. Riyani and Nacianceno L. Mendoza Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Computer Center (ECC) is a three-story data center built in 1982. It is located in Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provides computing capability to the company’s geologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers to enable them […]
Operations teams use the Uptime Institute Network’s Abnormal Incident Reports (AIRs) database to enrich site knowledge, enhance preventative maintenance, and improve preparedness By Ron Davis The AIRs system is one of the most valuable resources available to Uptime Institute Network members. It comprises more than 5,000 data center incidents and errors spanning two decades of […]
Peer-based critiques drive continuous improvement, identify lurking data center vulnerabilities By Kevin Heslin Shared information is one of the distinctive features of the Uptime Institute Network and its activities. Under non-disclosure agreements, Network members not only share information, but they also collaborate on projects of mutual interest. Uptime Institute facilitates the information sharing and helps […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/lurkingtop.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-06-30 07:23:422016-07-01 08:24:59Identifying Lurking Vulnerabilities in the World’s Best-Run Data Centers
The team approach helped the Bank earn Uptime Institute’s M&O Stamp of Approval By Matt Stansberry The Bank of Canada is the nation’s central bank. The Bank acts as the fiscal agent of the Canadian government, managing its public debt programs and foreign exchange reserves and setting its monetary policy. It also designs, issues, and […]
How insights from Tier Certification of Constructed Facilities avoids unforeseen costs and errors for all new projects By Kevin Heslin Uptime Institute’s Tier Classification System has been a part of the data center industry lexicon for 20 years. Since its creation in the mid-1990s, the system has evolved into the global standard for third-party validation […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/head.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-05-11 13:44:582016-05-11 13:53:25Avoid Failure and Delay on Capital Projects: Lessons from Tier Certification
Vantage Data Centers certifies design, facility, and operational sustainability at its Quincy, WA site By Mark Johnson In February 2015, Vantage Data Centers earned Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability (TCOS) from Uptime Institute for its first build at its 68-acre Quincy, WA campus. This project is a bespoke design for a customer that […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/vantagecover.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2016-01-19 08:30:402016-01-19 08:30:40Achieving Uptime Institute Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability
Meeting OSHA and NFPA 70E arc flash safety requirements while balancing prevention and production demands By Ed Rafter Uninterruptible uptime, 24 x 7, zero downtime…these are some of the terms that characterize data center business goals for IT clients. Given these demands, facility managers and technicians in the industry are skilled at managing the infrastructure that supports […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/arc.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2015-12-01 11:03:522015-12-01 11:03:52Arc Flash Mitigation in the Data Center
A statistical justification for 24×7 coverage By Richard Van Loo As a result of performing numerous operational assessments at data centers around the world, Uptime Institute has observed that staffing levels at data centers vary greatly from site to site. This observation is discouraging, but not surprising, because while staffing is an important function for […]
By Kevin Heslin and Lee Kirby Driving operational excellence across multiple data centers is exponentially more difficult than managing just one. Technical complexity multiplies as you move to different sites, regions, and countries where codes, cultures, climates, and other factors are different. Organizational complexity further complicates matters when the data centers in your portfolio have […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/herb.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2015-07-20 09:52:582015-07-22 12:42:34AIG Tells How It Raised Its Level of Operations Excellence
By Matt Stansberry and Lee Kirby Driving operational excellence across multiple data centers is exponentially more difficult than managing just one. Technical complexity multiplies as you move to different sites, regions, and countries where codes, cultures, climates and other factors are different. Organizational complexity further complicates matters when the data centers in your portfolio have […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/mo.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2015-06-18 09:54:552015-09-02 21:13:42Meeting the M&O Challenge of Managing a Diverse Data Center Footprint: John Sheputis and Don Jenkins, Infomart
Better information leads to better decisions By Jose Ruiz New tools have dramatically enhanced the ability of data center operators to base decisions regarding capacity planning and operational performance like move, adds, and changes on actual data. The combined use of modeling technologies to effectively calibrate the data center during the commissioning process and the […]
These small devices prevent accidental disconnection of mission critical gear By Scott Good Today IEC plugs are used at the rack-level PDU and the IT device. IEC plugs backing out of sockets create a significant concern, since these plugs feed UPS power to the device. In the past, twist-lock cord caps were used, but these did […]
On March 13, 2015, Data Center Knowledge published an article “ViaWest Accused of Misleading Customers in Las Vegas”. The following is excerpted from the article. ViaWest, the Shaw Communications-owned data center service provider, is being accused of misleading customers about reliability of its Las Vegas data center. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office has asked […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2015-03-17 11:56:222015-03-17 12:43:12Data center design goals and certification of proven achievement are not the same
Good MOPs (method of procedure) help humans manage the complexity inherent in data centers By Alfonso Aranda with Lee Kirby Data centers are complex techno–human systems. The number of interrelated and interdependent elements (including the human element) that interact in the normal operation of a data center and the large number of interactions that take […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/aranda.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2015-02-25 12:31:562015-03-11 09:41:04The Making of a Good Method of Procedure
An imminent return of service causes a top-to-bottom examination of data center facilities and operations By Rocco Alonzi and Paolo Piro When Sun Life Financial completed a return of service for its data center operations in 2011, the Enterprise Infrastructure (IE) and Corporate Real Estate (CRE) teams immediately saw an opportunity to improve service stability, […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/sunlife7.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2015-02-03 09:46:082015-02-11 14:16:59Sun Life Plots Data Center Facilities and Operations Roadmap to Meet Application Demands
Examining the scope of the challenge By David Schirmacher Digital Realty’s 127 properties cover around 24 million square feet of mission-critical data center space in over 30 markets across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and it continues to grow and expand its data center footprint. As senior VP of operations, it’s my job to […]
The fourth annual Uptime Institute Data Center Industry Survey provides an overview of global industry trends by surveying 1,000 data center operators and IT practitioners. Uptime Institute collected responses via email February through April 2014 and presented preliminary results in May 2014 at the 9th Uptime Institute Symposium: Empowering the Data Center Professional. To immediately […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-header.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-11-21 15:56:262015-07-24 08:54:12Annual Data Center Industry Survey 2014
Pharmaceutical installs economizers in a live site to improve energy efficiency By Wayne Everett, Dean Scharffenberg, and Coleman Jones McKesson Corporation, the oldest and largest health-care services company in the United States, plays an integral role in meeting the nation’s health-care needs. McKesson is the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America, delivering one-third of all […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-10-07 11:03:142014-10-07 13:23:49McKesson Retrofits Economizers in Live DC Environment
Removing heat is more effective than adding cooling By Steve Press, with Pitt Turner, IV According to Wikipedia, the term target fixation was used in World War II fighter-bomber pilot training to describe why pilots would sometimes fly into targets during a strafing or bombing run. Since then, others have adopted the term. The phenomenon […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/kaisertop.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-10-07 06:28:102014-10-07 07:48:17Avoid Target Fixation in the Data Center
The lack of transparency can be seen as a root cause of outages and incidents By Jason Weckworth I recently began a keynote speech at Uptime Institute Symposium 2013 by making a bold statement. As data center operators, we simply don’t share enough of our critical facilities incidents with each other. Yet Uptime Institute maintains […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/07.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-09-24 07:54:372014-09-24 07:54:37Data Center Outages, Incidents, and Industry Transparency
Using relevant technologies and techniques to develop an optimized system for addressing data center PQ concerns By Kuochuan Chu For years, engineers and data centers operators have implemented various strategies to improve power quality in mission-critical facilities. We have found, however, that good power quality requires a solid grounding system. By efficiently utilizing the essential […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/17.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-09-08 13:00:062014-09-15 11:17:12New System Combats Data Center PQ Concerns
RoHS-compliant products exacerbate the problem By Christopher Muller, Dr. Prabjit Singh, G. Henry White, and Paul Finch End users have worried about the reliability of electronic gear almost since the introduction of the circuit board. Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS), or lead-free, manufacturing regulations for electronic equipment that went into effect in 2006 only served […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/11.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-09-08 10:01:192014-09-15 13:48:21Solving Air Contaminant Problems in Data Centers
Details of dual-corded power change, but the theme remains the same. Uptime Institute has worked with owners and operators of data centers since the early 1990s. At the time, data center owners used single-corded IT devices for even their most critical IT assets. Figure 1 shows a selection of the many potential sources of outage […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dual-Corded-Power.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-08-18 12:25:402016-10-24 10:27:14Dual-Corded Power and Fault Tolerance: Past, Present, and Future
At Symposium 2013, Erik Ko of Twitter, Hewlett-Packard’s Ken Jackson, and James Pryor of Regions Bank discussed the experience of selecting and implementing DCIM solutions from the end user perspective. The panel was moderated by Uptime Institute’s Kevin Heslin. Earlier that week, Symposium 2013 attendees heard presentations that focused on the potential for DCIM and […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dcim.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-07-23 08:16:432014-07-24 06:12:59Putting DCIM to Work for You
No longer “the best kept secret” the Uptime Institute Network has gone international These interviews with Uptime Institute Network directors Rob Costa, Sylvie Le Roy, and Mozart Mello highlight the qualifications of the Uptime Institute staff working with Network members across the globe and also portray the opportunities for growth and need for the Network […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/network.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-07-21 06:15:142014-07-21 06:15:14Uptime Institute Network Activities Around the Globe
Step-by-step guide to data center cooling best practices will help data center managers take greater advantage of the energy savings opportunities available while providing improved cooling of IT systems The nature of data center temperature management underwent a dramatic evolution when American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) adopted new operating temperature guidelines. […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/04.jpg4751201Kevin Heslinhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngKevin Heslin2014-06-25 11:45:592014-06-25 11:45:59Implementing Data Center Cooling Best Practices
Data center operations and management are increasingly the target of codes that impact safety, communications, and economic systems. Going well beyond the guidelines laid out by NFPA 75 and 76, the new 2011 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70) actually provides for regulatory oversight of mission-critical facility management. This video will provide a history of codes […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/elie2.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2014-06-24 08:57:392015-07-13 13:11:23Code mandates for data center operations
In 2013, Barclays removed 9,124 physical servers from its data centers globally, winning Uptime Institute’s Server Roundup competition for the second year running. This effort is part of a server footprint reduction across the entire company. The organization reaped significant cost benefits, but this project has also reduced risk and complexity, providing Barclays’ internal IT […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/25.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2014-06-18 13:40:172014-06-18 13:40:17Server Decommissioning as a Discipline: Paul Nally, Barclays
Cleaning up your act: A guide to exhaust standards By Lamont Fortune, PE, United Health Group Are your diesel generators used strictly for emergency or non-emergency purposes? Your answer to this question will tell you just how clean your diesel exhaust has to be by 2015 (and as early as 2014) as far as the […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/011.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2014-05-19 10:54:402014-06-18 10:28:20Diesel exhaust after treatment for data centers
Don’t pit man against machine By Charles Selkirk, ATD While data centers in Southern Africa utilize world-class designs and construction techniques, ongoing operational sustainability models struggle to attract and retain sufficient qualified and motivated personnel, in part due to the lack of recognition of the importance of their work (unless something goes wrong!). The Uptime […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/31.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2014-05-16 04:10:222014-06-27 07:37:06How business practices can impair data center availability
Excel is the basis of a surprisingly simple visual tool to document underfloor conditions By Chad Beery, ATD Engineers regularly employ pictures and drawings to communicate design ideas. They sketch on whiteboards during a meeting, talk with their hands and sometimes even sketch on the back of napkins. In fact, the deliverables produced by design […]
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/29.jpg4751201Matt Stansberryhttps://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/uptime-institute-logo-r_240x88_v2023-with-space.pngMatt Stansberry2014-05-08 08:12:112017-12-13 08:36:58Documenting Underfloor Conditions in an Operational Data Center
Capacity allocation and the next generation of AI-era KPIs
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comAI workloads are reshaping data center infrastructure at an unprecedented scale. Rack densities exceeding 50 kW are becoming increasingly common. AI training clusters often operate near their peak power envelope for extended periods, placing sustained demand on facility infrastructure. At the same time, AI inference workloads exhibit different characteristics, often behaving more like traditional compute […]
Project approval will hinge on local benefit guarantees
/in Executive, Operations/by Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comIn January 2026, more than 230 US-based advocacy groups signed a letter urging the US Congress to impose a complete moratorium on data center construction, pending tight regulations. This coordinated effort bears little resemblance to the data center resistance of the past. Opposition to data centers is scaling from local disputes into a national movement […]
Liquid cooling will not outgrow its high-density niche
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comDeployment of direct liquid cooling (DLC, as cold plate or immersion systems) remains overwhelmingly concentrated in applications where air cooling is no longer a practical alternative. As a wave of AI infrastructure was being built, DLC manufacturers invested their engineering resources in maximizing cooling performance for high-performance IT — namely AI training hardware. By comparison, […]
As emissions soar, operators look to carbon capture
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comDuring 2024 and 2025, a new trend emerged: many large data center builders and operators reported increases in their Scope 2, location- and market-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories, reversing their efforts toward net-zero commitments. While this shift does not indicate a loss of commitment to those goals, it is an inevitable result of the […]
AI in data: sorting reality from hallucination
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comMany people do not use the term artificial intelligence correctly: vendors, investors, and even some operators label everything from basic automation scripts to deep learning controllers as AI. This inflation of the term has commercial and strategic motives. AI branding helps attract funding, creates differentiation in the market, and positions traditional analytics as cutting-edge solutions. […]
AI and cooling: toward more automation
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, rtalib@uptimeinstitute.comAI is increasingly steering the data center industry toward new operational practices, where automation, analytics and adaptive control are paving the way for “dark” — or lights-out, unstaffed — facilities. Cooling systems, in particular, are leading this shift. Yet despite AI’s positive track record in facility operations, one persistent challenge remains: trust. In some ways, […]
AI’s growth calls for useful IT efficiency metrics
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comThe digital infrastructure industry is under pressure to measure and improve the energy efficiency of the computing work that underpins digital services. Enterprises seek to maximize returns on cost outlay and operating expenses for IT hardware, and regulators and local communities need reassurance that the energy devoted to data centers is used efficiently. These objectives […]
AI power fluctuations strain both budgets and hardware
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comAI training at scale introduces power consumption patterns that can strain both server hardware and supporting power systems, shortening equipment lifespans and increasing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for operators. These workloads can cause GPU power draw to spike briefly, even for only a few milliseconds, pushing them past their nominal thermal design power […]
Retail vs wholesale: finding the right colo pricing model
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comColocation providers may offer two pricing and packaging models to sell similar products and capabilities. In both models, customers purchase space, power and services. However, the method of purchase differs. In a retail model, customers purchase a small quantity of space and power, usually by the rack or a fraction of a rack. The colocation […]
Electrical considerations with large AI compute
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comThe training of large generative AI models is a special case of high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. This is not simply due to the reliance on GPUs — numerous engineering and scientific research computations already use GPUs as standard. Neither is it about the power density or the liquid cooling of AI hardware, as large HPC […]
Is this the data center metric for the 2030s?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comWhen the PUE metric was first proposed and adopted at a Green Grid meeting in California in 2008, few could have forecast how important this simple ratio — despite its limitations — would become. Few would have expected, too, that the industry would make so little progress on another metric proposed at those same early […]
Crypto mines are turning into AI factories
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comThe pursuit of training ever-larger generative AI models has necessitated the creation of a new class of specialized data centers — facilities that have more in common with high-performance computing (HPC) environments than traditional enterprise IT. These data centers support very high rack densities (130 kW and above with current Nvidia rack-scale systems), direct-to-chip liquid […]
Cybersecurity and the cost of human error
/in Executive, Operations/by John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comCyber incidents are increasing rapidly. In 2024, the number of outages caused by cyber incidents was twice the average of the previous four years, according to Uptime Institute’s annual report on data center outages (see Annual outage analysis 2025). More operational technology (OT) vendors are experiencing significant increases in cyberattacks on their systems. Data center […]
Cloud: when high availability hurts sustainability
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comIn recent years, the environmental sustainability of IT has become a significant concern for investors and customers, as well as regulatory, legislative and environmental stakeholders. This concern is expected to intensify as the impact of climate change on health, safety and the global economy becomes more pronounced. It has given rise to an assortment of […]
Self-contained liquid cooling: the low-friction option
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comEach new generation of server silicon is pushing traditional data center air cooling closer to its operational limits. In 2025, the thermal design power (TDP) of top-bin CPUs reached 500 W, and server chip product roadmaps indicate further escalation in pursuit of higher performance. To handle these high-powered chips, more IT organizations are considering direct […]
The two sides of a sustainability strategy
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comWhile much has been written, said and taught about data center sustainability, there is still limited consensus on the definition and scope of an ideal data center sustainability strategy. This lack of clarity has created much confusion, encouraged many operators to pursue strategies with limited results, and enabled some to make claims that are ultimately […]
‘Reasoning’ will increase the infrastructure footprint of AI
/in Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.com“Reasoning” models — and their offshoots, such as “deep research” — have emerged as a major trend in generative AI, helping improve the accuracy and reliability of responses to complex problems. However, this approach significantly increases the computational costs of generating responses. The imitation of reasoning means a higher consumption of server capacity, requiring additional […]
Are data centers to blame for power quality issues?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comMany grid operators are struggling to meet customer power demands — in both volume and quality. As demand rises, utilities must also monitor and account for customer usage patterns that can degrade power quality (and add costs) for others on the grid. A 2024 Bloomberg analysis revealed a concentration of residential power issues occurring near […]
Publicly reported outages see increase in deliberate attacks
/in Executive, Operations/by Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comMajor publicly reported outages in 2024 were longer and, therefore, more impactful than in previous years because of the growing number of ransomware attacks, according to data compiled by Uptime Intelligence. The data also shows an increase in the proportion of outages that were caused deliberately. The latest data relating to major publicly reported outages […]
Water is local: generalities do not apply
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comWater use has become a benchmark metric for data center operational efficiency and sustainability, as well as a frequent target of community criticism. Operators should track and optimize their water use to protect the environment and secure the facility cooling’s autonomy when its capacity relies on water. However, water use does not fit into a […]
Are data center workforce initiatives effective?
/in Operations/by Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comOver the past year, data center operators have reduced formal mentorship programs and workforce initiatives, but this seems to have had little impact on the number of successfully recruited new hires, according to findings from the Uptime Institute Data Center Staffing and Recruitment Survey 2024. While such programs are generally regarded as effective in attracting […]
AI embraces liquid cooling, but enterprise IT is slow to follow
/in Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comThe enthusiasm for generative AI is attracting serious investment, and the associated power and cooling requirements will pose a significant challenge for the data centers that house it. Upcoming AI training clusters will escalate silicon power and rack density to unprecedented heights, upending infrastructure design conventions and accelerating the adoption of cold plate and immersion […]
Outage data shows cloud apps must be designed for failure
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comOne of the most significant differences between cloud and traditional (i.e., non-cloud) software is how resiliency is built into the applications. When architecting a cloud application, the onus is on software developers to architect resiliency in their application architecture. Conversely, in a more traditional application, data center teams, infrastructure engineers and software developers work together […]
Cloud a viable choice amidst uncertain AI returns
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comGenerative AI has created a surge in demand for large-scale clusters of GPUs. AI models need training, and this is vastly accelerated by using GPUs. These clusters parallel process many mathematical functions within the neural network software architectures that enable generative AI to classify and predict. However, clusters of this size are expensive and require […]
IT efficiency: an untapped power resource
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comProjections of data center capacity growth have exploded with the emergence of AI infrastructure and the continuing expansion and integration of standard IT functionality into the global economy. Electricity demand is growing in developed markets for the first time in more than a decade, led by proposed data center expansions and efforts to electrify the […]
Neoclouds: a cost-effective AI infrastructure alternative
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comOver the past decade, three tech giants have solidified their dominance in the cloud computing market: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Estimates suggest that by the end of 2023, these companies collectively controlled around two-thirds of global cloud spending, a notable increase from 47% in 2016. As AI became a key […]
How AWS’s own silicon and software deliver cloud scalability
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comAmazon Web Services (AWS) was the world’s first hyperscale cloud provider, and it remains the largest today. It represents around one-third of the global market, offering more than 200 infrastructure, platform and software services across 34 regions. To efficiently deliver so many services at such a scale, AWS designs and builds much of its own […]
Sweat dedicated GPU clusters to beat cloud on cost
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comOver the past year, demand for GPUs to train generative AI models has soared. Some organizations have invested in GPU clusters costing millions of dollars for this purpose. Cloud services offered by the major hyperscalers and a new wave of GPU-focused cloud providers deliver an alternative to dedicated infrastructure for those unwilling, or unable, to […]
Grid growth and decarbonization: An unhappy couple
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comThe advent of AI training and inference applications, combined with the continued expansion of the digital world and electrification of the economy, raises two questions about electricity generation capacity: where will the new energy be sourced from, and how can it be decarbonized? Groups, such as the International Energy Agency and the Electric Power Research […]
Building trust: working with AI-based tools
/in Executive, Operations/by Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comMany employees approach AI-based systems in the workplace with a level of mistrust. This lack of trust can slow the implementation of new tools and systems, alienate staff and reduce productivity. Data center managers can avoid this outcome by understanding the factors that drive mistrust in AI and devising a strategy to minimize them. Perceived […]
DCIM past and present: what’s changed?
/in Executive, Operations/by John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comData center infrastructure management (DCIM) software is an important class of software that, despite some false starts, many operators regard as essential to running modern, flexible and efficient data centers. It has had a difficult history — many suppliers have struggled to meet customer requirements and adoption remains patchy. Critics argue that, because of the […]
Water cold plates lead in the small, but growing, world of DLC
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comDirect liquid cooling (DLC), including cold plate and immersion systems, is becoming more common in data centers — but so far this transition has been gradual and unevenly distributed with some data centers using it widely, others not at all. The use of DLC in 2024 still accounts for only a small minority of the […]
OT protection: is air-gapping the answer?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Michael O’Neil, Consulting Analyst - Cybersecurity, Uptime Institute, moneil@uptimeinstitute.comCyberattacks on operational technology (OT) were virtually unknown until five years ago, but their volume has been doubling since 2009. This threat is distinct from IT-focused vulnerabilities that cybersecurity measures regularly address. The risk associated with OT compromise is substantial: power or cooling failures can cripple an entire facility, potentially for weeks or months. Many […]
Managing server performance for power: a missed opportunity
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comAn earlier Uptime Intelligence report discussed the characteristics of processor power management (known as C-states) and explained how they can reduce server energy consumption to make substantial contributions to the overall energy performance and sustainability of data center infrastructure (see Understanding how server power management works). During periods of low activity, such features can potentially […]
Resiliency v low PUE: regulators a catalyst for innovation?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comResearch has shown that while data center owners and operators are mostly in favor of sustainability regulation, they have a low opinion of the regulators’ expertise. Some operators have cited Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act as evidence: the law lays down a set of extremely challenging power usage effectiveness (PUE) requirements that will likely force some […]
Data center management software is evolving — at last
/in Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comDespite their role as enablers of technological progress, data center operators have been slow to take advantage of developments in software, connectivity and sensor technologies that can help optimize and automate the running of critical infrastructure. Most data center owners and operators currently use building management systems (BMS) and / or data center infrastructure management […]
Generative AI and global power consumption: high, but not that high
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn the past year, Uptime Intelligence has been asked more questions about generative AI and its impact on the data center sector than any other topic. The questions come from enterprise and colocation operators, suppliers of a wide variety of equipment and services, regulators and the media. Most of the questions concern power consumption. The […]
Understanding how server power management works
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comUptime Intelligence regularly addresses IT infrastructure efficiency, particularly servers, in our reports on data center energy performance and sustainability. Without active contribution from IT operations, facility operations alone will not be able to meet future energy and sustainability demands on data center infrastructure. Purchases of renewable energy and renewable energy certificates will become increasingly — […]
EU battery regulations: what do the new rules mean?
/in Executive, Operations/by Rosa Lawrence, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rlawrence@uptimeinstitute.comThe European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives approved in 2020, aims for a sustainable and competitive economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Along with the legislation driving this transition, such as the Energy Efficiency Directive recast (see EED comes into force, creating an enormous task for the industry), the strategy will […]
Colocation and public cloud growth masks enterprise expansion
/in Executive, Operations/by Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comThe colocation and public cloud sectors of the digital infrastructure industry continue to make headlines, with many organizations planning large-scale capacity expansion to meet rising demand. However, there is also a less public expansion underway — enterprises operators, for the third successive year, say they are going to invest in more data center capacity in […]
Long shifts in data centers — time to reconsider?
/in Executive, Operations/by Rose Weinschenk, Research Associate, Uptime Institute, rweinschenk@uptimeinstitute.comHuman error has been — and remains to be — a major cause of outages in data centers. Uptime Intelligence’s research shows that about four in 10 operators have had a major outage in the past three years in which human error played a role (Annual outage analysis 2023). Half of these respondents said errors […]
What does embedded carbon of IT really represent?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comDue to regulatory mandates and expanded stakeholder expectations, a growing share of operators are quantifying and publicly reporting a complete carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions inventory for their data center infrastructure. An organization’s direct on-site emissions (classified as Scope 1 according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and emissions from purchased energy sources (classified as Scope […]
DLC will not come to the rescue of data center sustainability
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comA growing number of data center operators and equipment vendors are anticipating the proliferation of direct liquid cooling systems (DLC) over the next few years. As far as projections go, Uptime Institute’s surveys agree: the industry consensus for the mainstream adoption of liquid-cooled IT converges on the latter half of the 2020s. DLC systems, such […]
US mandates crypto energy reporting: will data centers be next?
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comRising concerns about cryptocurrency mining energy use have led the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to launch a six-month emergency data reporting mandate (on January 26, 2024) to obtain information from 82 cryptocurrency mining companies. The emergency order which was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires cryptocurrency miners to provide information […]
Performance expectations of liquid cooling need a reality check
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comThe idea of using liquids to cool IT hardware, exemplified by technologies such as cold plates and immersion cooling, is frequently hailed as the ultimate solution to the data center’s energy efficiency and sustainability challenges. If a data center replaces air cooling with direct liquid cooling (DLC), chilled water systems can operate at higher supply […]
FinOps gives hope to those struggling with cloud costs
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comCloud workloads are continuing to grow — sometimes adding to traditional on-premises workloads, sometimes replacing them. The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 shows that organizations expect the public cloud to account for 15% of their workloads by 2025. When private cloud hosting and software as a service (SaaS) are included, this share rises […]
The majority of enterprise IT is now off-premises
/in Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comCorporate data centers have been the backbone of enterprise IT since the 1960s and continue to play an essential role in supporting critical business and financial functions for much of the global economy. Yet, while their importance remains, their prominence as part of an enterprise’s digital infrastructure appears to be fading. Today, businesses have more […]
Large data centers are mostly more efficient, analysis confirms
/in Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comUptime Institute calculates an industry average power usage effectiveness (PUE), which is a ratio of total site power to IT power, each year using data from the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey. This PUE data is pulled from a large sample over the course of 15 years and provides a reliable view of progress […]
When net-zero goals meet harsh realities
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comFor more than a decade, the data center industry — and the wider digital infrastructure that relies on it — has lived with the threat of much greater sustainability legislation or other forms of mandatory or semi-mandatory controls. But in a period of boom, it has mostly been a background worry, with legislators more concerned […]
What role might generative AI play in the data center?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by John O’Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jobrien@uptimeinstitute.comThis is the first in a series of reports on artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the data center sector.
Looking for the x-factor in data center efficiency
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comThe suitability of a data center environment is primarily judged by its effect on the long-term health of IT hardware. Facility operators define their temperature and humidity set points with a view to balancing hardware failure rates against the associated capital and operational expenditures, with the former historically prioritized. Over the past decade, this balance […]
Global PUEs — are they going anywhere?
/in Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comRegular readers of Uptime Institute’s annual data center survey, the longest running of its kind, already know that the industry average power usage effectiveness (PUE, a ratio of total site power and IT power) has trended sideways in recent years. Since 2020, it has been stuck in the 1.55 to 1.59 band. Even going back […]
Emerging regulatory requirements: tactics for riding the tsunami
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comOver the past 12 months, Uptime Institute Intelligence has been closely following regulatory developments in the area of sustainability. These include mandates based on the Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure standard, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the UK’s Climate-related Financial Disclosure Regulations, and the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive. These legal […]
Data centers are short-staffed boys’ clubs
/in Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comTwo persistent trends in data center staffing are in apparent tension. The 2023 Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey confirmed, once again, that operations teams are struggling to attract and retain qualified staff. The severity of this shortage should justify aggressive hiring from all available labor sources — yet data centers still employ shockingly few […]
Consensus on regulatory goals hides national differences
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn recent reports, Uptime Institute Intelligence has warned that a wave of resiliency, security and sustainability legislation is making its way toward the statute books. Governments around the world — aware that digital infrastructure is increasingly critical to economic and national security (and consumes a lot of power) — have decided the sector cannot be […]
Regulations drive investments in cybersecurity and efficiency
/in Executive, Operations/by Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comLegislative requirements for data center resiliency, operational transparency and energy performance are tightening worldwide — putting data centers under greater regulatory scrutiny. In response, organizations are either starting or stepping up their efforts to achieve compliance in these areas, and findings from the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 reveal that most are prioritizing […]
Are utility companies needed for pull-the-plug testing?
/in Executive, Operations/by Douglas Donnellan, Senior Research Associate, Uptime Institute, ddonnellan@uptimeinstitute.comThe testing of backup power systems is crucial for ensuring that data center operations remain available through power interruptions. By cutting all power to the facility and replicating a real-world electrical grid failure, pull-the-plug testing provides the most comprehensive assessment of these systems. However, there are some differing opinions on the best way to perform […]
AI will have a limited role in data centers — for now
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comThe topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public’s imaginations, and now barely a week goes by without reports of another breakthrough. Among the many, sometimes dramatic predictions made by experts and non-experts alike is the potential elimination of some, or even many, jobs. These expectations are partly — but only partly — mirrored […]
The strong case for power management
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comANALYST OPINION In a recent report on server energy efficiency, Uptime Intelligence’s Dr. Tomas Rahkonen analyzed data from 429 servers and identified five key insights (see Server energy efficiency: five key insights). All were valuable observations for better managing (and reducing) IT power consumption, but one area of his analysis stood out: the efficiency benefits […]
The Energy Efficiency Directive: requirements come into focus
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comThe European Commission (EC) continues to grapple with the challenges of implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting and metrics mandates. The publication of the Task B report Labelling and minimum performance standards schemes for data centres and the Task C report EU repository for the reporting obligation of data centres on June 7, 2023 […]
Lifting and shifting apps to the cloud: a source of risk creep?
/in Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comPublic cloud infrastructures have come a long way over the past 16 years to slowly earn the trust of enterprises in running their most important applications and storing sensitive data. In the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2022, more than a third of enterprises that operate their own IT infrastructure said they also placed […]
Use tools to control cloud costs before it’s too late
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comThe public cloud’s on-demand pricing model is vital in enabling application scalability — the key benefit of cloud computing. Resources need to be readily available for a cloud application to scale when required without the customer having to give advance notification. Cloud providers can offer such flexibility by allowing customers to pay their bills in […]
24×7 carbon-free energy (part two): getting to 100%
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comDigital infrastructure operators have started to refocus their sustainability objectives on 100% 24×7 carbon-free energy (CFE) consumption: using carbon-free energy for every hour of operation. To establish a 24×7 CFE strategy, operators must track and control CFE assets and the delivery of energy to their data centers and use procurement contracts designed to manage the […]
Where the cloud meets the edge
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comLow latency is the main reason cloud providers offer edge services. Only a few years ago, the same providers argued that the public cloud (hosted in hyperscale data centers) was suitable for most workloads. But as organizations have remained steadfast in their need for low latency and better data control, providers have softened their resistance […]
Data center operators will face more grid disturbances
/in Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comThe energy crisis of 2022, resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious problems for data center operators in Europe. Energy prices leapt up and are likely to stay high. This has resulted in ongoing concerns that utilities in some European countries, which have a mismatch of supply and demand, will have to shed loads. […]
24×7 carbon-free energy (part one): expectations and realities
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comData center operators that set net-zero goals will ultimately have to transition to 100% 24×7 carbon-free energy. But current technological limitations mean it is not economically feasible in most grid regions. In the past decade, the digital infrastructure industry has embraced a definition of renewable energy use that combines the use of renewable energy credits […]
Cloud resiliency: plan to lose control of your planes
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comCloud providers divide the technologies that underpin their services into two ”planes”, each with a different architecture and availability goal. The control plane manages resources in the cloud; the data plane runs the cloud buyer’s application. In this Update, Uptime Institute Intelligence presents research that shows control planes have poorer availability than data planes. This […]
Server efficiency increases again — but so do the caveats
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comEarly in 2022, Uptime Intelligence observed that the return of Moore’s law in the data center (or, more accurately, the performance and energy efficiency gains associated with it) would come with major caveats (see Moore’s law resumes — but not for all). Next-generation server technologies’ potential to improve energy efficiency, Uptime Intelligence surmised at the […]
Data shows the cloud goes where the money is
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comHyperscale cloud providers have opened numerous operating regions in all corners of the world over the past decade. The three most prominent — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure — now have 105 distinct regions (excluding government and edge locations) for customers to choose from to locate their applications and data. Over […]
Cooling to play a more active role in IT performance and efficiency
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comData center operators and IT tenants have traditionally adopted a binary view of cooling performance: it either meets service level commitments, or it does not. The relationship is also coldly transactional: as long as sufficient volumes of air of the right temperature and quality (in accordance with service-level agreements that typically follow ASHRAE’s guidance) reach […]
The effects of a failing power grid in South Africa
/in Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comEuropean countries narrowly avoided an energy crisis in the past winter months, as a shortfall in fossil fuel supplies from Russia threatened to destabilize power grids across the region. This elevated level of risk to the normally robust European grid has not been seen for decades. A combination of unseasonably mild weather, energy saving initiatives […]
US operators scour Inflation Reduction Act for incentives
/in Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteIn the struggle to reduce carbon emissions and increase renewable energy, the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in August 2022, is a landmark development. The misleadingly named Act, which is lauded by environmental experts and castigated by foreign leaders, is intended to rapidly accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s largest economy by introducing nearly […]
Energy-efficiency focus to shift to IT — at last
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comData centers have become victims of their own success. Ever-larger data centers have mushroomed across the globe in line with an apparently insatiable demand for computing and storage capacity. The associated energy use is not only expensive (and generating massive carbon emissions) but is also putting pressure on the grid. Most data center developments tend […]
Asset utilization drives cloud repatriation economics
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comThe past decade has seen numerous reports of so-called cloud “repatriations” — the migration of applications back to on-premises venues following negative experiences with, or unsuccessful migrations to, the public cloud. A recent Uptime Update (High costs drive cloud repatriation, but impact is overstated) examined why these migrations might occur. The Update revealed that unexpected […]
Forecasting the solar storm threat
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comA proposed permanent network of electromagnetic monitoring stations across the continental US, operating in tandem with a machine learning (ML) algorithm, could facilitate accurate predictions of geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs). If realized, this predictive system could help grid operators avert disruption and reduce the likelihood of damage to their — and their customers’ — infrastructure, including […]
Cloud migrations to face closer scrutiny
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comBig public-cloud operators have often had to compete against each other — sometimes ferociously. Only rarely have they had to compete against alternative platforms for corporate IT, however. More often than not, chief information officers (CIOs) responsible for mission-critical IT have seen a move to the public cloud as low-risk, flexible, forward-looking and, ultimately, inexpensive. […]
Accounting for digital infrastructure GHG emissions
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comA host of regulations worldwide have introduced (or will introduce) legal mandates forcing data center operators to report specific operational data and metrics. Key examples include the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD); the European Commission’s proposed Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast; the draft US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate disclosure proposal and […]
Data center costs set to rise and rise
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comUp until two years ago, the cost of building and operating data centers had been falling reasonably steeply. Improving technology, greater production volumes as the industry expanded and consolidated, large-scale builds, prefabricated and modular construction techniques, stable energy prices and the low costs of capital have all played a part. While labor costs have risen […]
High costs drive cloud repatriation, but impact is overstated
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comUnexpected costs are driving some data-heavy and legacy applications back from public-cloud to on-premises locations. However, very few organizations are moving away from the public cloud strategically — let alone altogether. The past decade has seen numerous reports of so-called cloud “repatriations” — the migration of applications back to on-premises venues following negative experiences with, […]
Too hot to handle? Operators to struggle with new chips
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comStandard IT hardware was a boon for data centers: for almost two decades, mainstream servers have had relatively constant power and cooling requirements. This technical stability moored the planning and design of facilities (for both new builds and retrofits) and has helped attract investment in data center capacity and technical innovation. Furthermore, many organizations are […]
Geopolitics deepens supply chain worries
/in Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comThe COVID-19 pandemic — and the subsequent disruption to supply chains — demonstrated the data center industry’s reliance on interdependent global markets and the components they produce. Although the data center sector was just one of many industries affected, the extensive variety of the often complex electrical and mechanical equipment involved exacerbated supply chain problems. […]
Data center staffing — an ongoing struggle
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Paul Carton, Research Vice President, Uptime InstituteAttracting and retaining qualified data center staff has been a major industry challenge for years — and continues to cause substantial problems for operators worldwide. Uptime Institute’s 2022 Management and Operations Survey shows staffing and organization (54%) is the leading requirement cited by operators (see Figure 1). In an environment where rapid growth in data […]
Unravelling net zero
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comMany digital infrastructure operators have set themselves carbon-neutral or net-zero emissions goals: some large hyperscale operators claim net-zero emissions for their current operating year. Signatories to the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, a European organization for owners and operators, aim to be using 100% clean energy by 2030. All these proclamations appear laudable and seem […]
Is Google a credible enterprise cloud?
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comGoogle was an underdog when it launched its infrastructure cloud in 2013. Amazon had already made a name for itself as a disruptive technology provider, having launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) seven years prior. Microsoft, a household name in commercial software, launched Azure in 2010. What chance did Google, a company known primarily for its […]
Higher data center costs unlikely to cause exodus to public cloud
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comA debate has been raging since cloud computing entered the mainstream: which is the cheaper venue for enterprise customers — cloud or on-premises data centers? This debate has proved futile for two reasons. First, the characteristics of any specific application will dictate which venue is more expensive — there is no simple, unequivocal answer. Second […]
First signs of federal data center reporting mandates appear in US
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comThe past year (2022) has seen regulators in many countries develop or mandate requirements to report data centers’ operating information and environmental performance metrics. The first of these, the European Commission (EC) Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast is currently under review by the European Parliament and is expected to become law in 2023. This directive […]
Rapid interconnectivity growth will add complexity and risk
/in Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteRecent geopolitical concerns, predictions of a looming recession, and continued supply chain difficulties are unlikely to dampen growth in digital bandwidth on private networks according to Equinix’s 2022 Global Interconnection Index (GXI). Global interconnection bandwidth (the volume of data exchanged between companies directly, bypassing the public internet) is a barometer for digital infrastructure and sheds […]
Reports of cloud decline have been greatly exaggerated
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comCloud providers have experienced unprecedented growth over the past few years. CIOs the world over, often prompted by CFOs and CEOs, have been favoring the cloud over on-premises IT for new and major projects — with the result that the largest cloud provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has seen revenue increase by 30% to 40% […]
Major data center fire highlights criticality of IT services
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comUptime Institute’s outages database suggests data center fires are infrequent, and rarely have a significant impact on operations. Uptime has identified 14 publicly reported, high-profile data center outages caused by fire or fire suppression systems since 2020. The frequency of fires is not increasing relative to the IT load or number of data centers but, […]
Tweak to AWS Outposts reflects demand for greater cloud autonomy
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comAmazon Web Services (AWS) has made a minor change to its private-cloud appliance, AWS Outposts, that could significantly impact resiliency. The cloud provider has enabled local access to cloud administration, removing the appliance’s reliance on the public cloud. In the event of a network failure between the public cloud and the user’s data center, the […]
Why are governments investigating cloud competitiveness?
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comIn any market, fewer sellers or providers typically results in less choice for buyers. Where the number of sellers is very low this could, theoretically, lead to exploitation, through higher prices or lower-quality goods and services — with buyers having no choice but to accept such terms. Three hyperscale cloud providers — Amazon Web Services, […]
Users unprepared for inevitable cloud outages
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comOrganizations are becoming more confident in using the cloud for mission-critical workloads — partly due to a perception of improved visibility into operational resiliency. But many users aren’t taking basic steps to ensure their mission-critical applications can endure relatively frequent availability zone outages. Data from the 2022 Uptime Institute annual survey reflects this growing confidence in […]
Will high energy prices push operators to direct liquid cooling?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteThe data center industry and other large power-consuming industries continue to feel pressure from skyrocketing electricity prices. In Germany and France, wholesale energy prices this August increased six-fold compared to prices from 2021. The US has fared better, but wholesale electricity prices have doubled this summer compared with last year’s prices. While leased data center […]
AWS price cuts: is serverless gaining momentum?
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comA serverless platform is an abstracted cloud computing service that executes a user’s code without the user needing to provision the underlying server or operating environment. The physical server, resources and operating environment used to execute the user’s code are managed by the cloud provider and are not accessible to the user (hence “serverless”). In […]
EU’s EED recast set to create reporting challenges
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comThe European Commission’s (EC’s) proposed recast of its Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) sets out new and strict reporting requirements for data centers operating in the EU. If passed, data centers with 100 kilowatts or more total installed IT power demand (from server, storage and network equipment) will have to report their energy performance every year, […]
This Halloween, beware the vampire server
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comHalloween brings joy to many in the form of tricks and treats. But to IT managers, Halloween is a stark reminder of the evil spirits that hide out of sight in data center cabinets and public cloud applications. Vampires, zombies and ghosts haunt the infrastructure, sucking valuable energy, space and resources. IT managers need to […]
Data centers weather solar storms
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comThe US Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued multiple geomagnetic storm watches throughout August and September 2022. Geomagnetic storms occur when solar storms interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, risking disruption to satellites, radio communications and the power grid. The strongest predicted storm earned the agency’s rating of G3 (“strong”) on a five-level […]
Sacrifice speed to cut cloud carbon and costs
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comNew findings from research by Uptime Institute Intelligence reveals that organizations can cut both their cloud carbon emissions and costs by moving workloads to different regions. However, the trade off with this migration is an increase in latency. Cloud users choose regions based primarily on two factors: Locating the application close to end users improves […]
New server leasing models promise cloud-like flexibility
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comIT hardware vendors, such as Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), are pivoting their revenue models away from product sales toward service-based subscriptions. The objective is to make hardware appear more flexible and cloud-like so buyers can retain servers in their choice of data center while receiving the critical benefit of the cloud: scalability. Much […]
Quantum computing is not a panacea yet
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comQuantum computing promises a revolution in scientific discovery. Quantum computing’s main advantage over digital computing is in quickly solving highly complex problems that require significant time or resources to process. Currently, solutions to many complex problems can be estimated using supercomputers or pools of servers over days or weeks. Other problems are so complex that […]
Alternative clouds are vulnerable to demanding buyers
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comAlthough big-name hyperscalers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft dominate the cloud arena, other companies also believe they have a role to play. Vultr, OVHcloud, Linode, DigitalOcean, Bluehost and Scaleway, for example, don’t offer huge portfolios of cutting-edge products but their products focus on simplicity and low cost for smaller businesses with relatively straightforward requirements. […]
Data center operators cautiously support nuclear
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comThe value, role and safety of nuclear power has strongly divided opinion, both in favor of and against, since the 1950s. This debate has now, in 2022, reached a critical point again as energy security and prices cause increasing concern globally (particularly in geographies such as Europe) and as the climate crisis requires energy producers […]
Vegetable oil promises a sustainable alternative to diesel
/in Design, Operations/by Max Smolaks, Research Analyst, msmolaks@uptimeinstitute.comThe thousands of gallons of diesel that data centers store on-site to fuel backup generators in the event of a grid outage are hard to ignore — and do little to assist operators’ drive toward tougher sustainability goals. In the past two years, an alternative to diesel made from renewable materials has found support among […]
Is navigating cloud-native complexity worth the hassle?
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comLast month 7,000 developers traveled to Valencia to attend the combined KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Europe 2022 conference, the event for Kubernetes and cloud-native software development. A further 10,000 developers joined the conference online. The event is organized by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), part of the non-profit Linux Foundation. The CNCF supports and promotes […]
Sustainability laws set to drive real change
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comNearly 15 years ago – in 2008 – Uptime Institute presented a paper titled “The gathering storm.” The paper was about the inevitability of a struggle against climate change and how this might play out for the power-hungry data center and IT sector. The issues were explored in more detail in the 2020 Uptime Institute […]
Equipment shortages may ease soon — but not for good reasons
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comWhen Uptime Institute Intelligence surveyed data center infrastructure operators about supply chain issues in August 2021, more than two-thirds of respondents had experienced some shortages in the previous 18 months. Larger operations bore the brunt of disruptions, largely due to shortages or delays in sourcing major electrical equipment (such as switchgear, engine generators and uninterruptible […]
Who will win the cloud wars?
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comTechnology giants such as Microsoft or IBM didn’t view Amazon as a threat when it launched its cloud business unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006. As a result, AWS has a significant first to market advantage with more services, more variations in more regions and more cloud revenue than any other cloud provider. Today, […]
Costlier new cloud generations increase lock-in risk
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comCloud providers tend to adopt the latest server technologies early, often many months ahead of enterprise buyers, to stay competitive. Providers regularly launch new generations of virtual machines with identical quantities of resources (such as core counts, memory capacity, network and storage bandwidths) as the previous generation but powered by the latest technology. Usually, the […]
Extreme heat stress-tests European data centers – again
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comAn extreme heat wave swept across much of Western Europe on July 18 and 19, hitting some of the largest metropolitan areas such as Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris — which are also global data center hubs with hundreds of megawatts of capacity each. In the London area, temperatures at Heathrow Airport surpassed 40°C / […]
Crypto data centers: The good, the bad and the electric
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteA single tweet in May 2021 brought unprecedented public attention to a relatively unknown issue. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that because of the large energy consumption associated with the use of Bitcoin, Tesla would no longer accept it as currency. Instead, Tesla would favor other cryptocurrencies that use less than 1% of Bitcoin’s energy […]
Making sense of the outage numbers
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn recent years, Uptime Institute has published regular reports examining both the rate and causes of data center and IT service outages. The reports, which have been widely read and reported in the media, paint a picture of an industry that is struggling with resiliency and reliability — and one where operators regularly suffer downtime, […]
Cloud price increases damage trust
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comIn general, the prices of cloud services either remain level or decrease. There are occasional price increases, but these are typically restricted to specific features; blanket price increases across product families are rare. Price cuts are often the result of improved operating efficiencies. Through automation, slicker processes, Moore’s law improvements in hardware and economies of […]
Direct liquid cooling: pressure is rising but constraints remain
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comDirect liquid cooling (DLC) is a collection of techniques that removes heat by circulating a coolant to IT electronics. Even though the process is far more efficient than using air, the move to liquid cooling has been largely confined to select applications in high-performance computing to cool extreme high-density IT systems. There are a few […]
The ultimate liquid cooling: heat rejection into water
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comUptime Institute’s data on power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a testament to the progress the data center industry has made in energy efficiency over the past 10 years. However, global average PUEs have been largely stalling at close to 1.6 since 2018, with only marginal gains. This makes sense: for the average figure to show […]
Cloud SLAs punish, not compensate
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comA service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a cloud provider and a user. The SLA describes the provider’s minimum level of service, specified by performance metrics, and the compensation due to the user should the provider fail to deliver this service. In practice, however, this compensation is punitive. It seems designed to punish […]
Outages: understanding the human factor
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAnalyzing human error — with a view to preventing it — has always been challenging for data center operators. The cause of a failure can lie in how well a process was taught, how tired, well trained or resourced the staff are, or whether the equipment itself was unnecessarily difficult to operate. There are also […]
Is concern over cloud and third-party outages increasing?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAs a result of some high-profile outages and the growing interest in running critical services in a public cloud, the reliability — and transparency — of public cloud services has come under scrutiny. Cloud services are designed to operate with low failure rates. Large (at-scale) cloud and IT service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, […]
The weakest link dictates cloud outage compensation
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comCloud providers offer services that are assembled by users into applications. An outage of any single cloud service can render an application unavailable. Importantly, cloud providers guarantee the availability of individual services, not of entire applications. Even if a whole application becomes unresponsive due to a provider outage, compensation is only due for the individual […]
The shock waves from Ukraine
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comHow is the Ukraine conflict affecting digital infrastructure and the data sector? In response to multiple queries, Uptime Institute Intelligence identified six main areas where operators and customers of digital infrastructure are experiencing effects from the conflict or will do so soon, not just in Europe but globally. (In Russia and Ukraine there are over […]
Cloud generations drive down prices
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comCloud providers need to deliver the newest capability to stay relevant. Few enterprises will accept working with outdated technology just because it’s consumable as a cloud service. However, existing cloud instances don’t migrate automatically. Similarly to on-premises server infrastructure, users need to refresh their cloud services regularly. Typically, cloud operators prefer product continuity between generations, […]
Industry consensus on sustainability looks fragile
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comPressed by a sense of urgency among scientists and the wider public, and by governments and investors who must fulfil promises made at COP (Conference of the Parties) summits, major businesses are facing ever more stringent sustainability reporting requirements. Big energy users, such as data centers, are in the firing line. Many of the reporting […]
Why cloud is a kludge of complexity
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comThe cloud model was designed to be simple and nimble. Simple and nimble doesn’t necessarily mean fit for purpose. Over the past decade, new layers of capability have been added to cloud to address its shortcomings. While this has created more options and greater functionality, it has also meant greater complexity in its management. Today, […]
Direct liquid cooling bubbles to the surface
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteConditions will soon be ripe for widespread use of direct liquid cooling (DLC) — a collection of techniques that uses fluid to remove heat from IT electronics instead of air — and it may even become essential. Currently, air cooling is still dominant with DLC remaining a niche option — around 85% of enterprise IT […]
Data center operators ponder the nuclear option
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAs major businesses feel a growing sense of urgency to dramatically cut carbon emissions, opinions are starting to shift in favor of nuclear power, which is not classed as clean, but is a near-zero carbon energy source. The digital infrastructure industry, a major global consumer of energy, has a role to play in rehabilitating nuclear, […]
Flexibility drives cloud lock-in risk
/in Executive, Operations/by Dr. Owen Rogers, Senior Research Director for Cloud Computing, Uptime Institute, orogers@uptimeinstitute.comVendor lock-in is regularly levied as a criticism of cloud services. But the reality of IT is, there has always been lock-in. Even before cloud, enterprises were locked into hardware, operating systems, database platforms, data centers and network providers. Practically, the lock-in challenge with cloud isn’t that moving from one location or platform is not […]
Data center operators give themselves a “Fail” for sustainability
/in Executive, Operations/by Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate, Uptime InstituteThe global data center industry describes its own sustainability performance as average, compared with other industries — and most think efforts are not substantially reducing environmental impacts. A recent Uptime Institute global survey of over 400 data center owners and operators asked whether the industry’s environmental commitments are effective in curbing data center energy use, […]
Concerns over cloud concentration risk grow
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteControl over critical digital infrastructure is increasingly in the hands of a small number of major providers. While a public cloud provides a flexible, stable and distributed IT environment, there are growing concerns around its operational resiliency.
Climate change: More operators prepare to weather the storms
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comTo track changing attitudes and responses to climate change and the related threats to infrastructure, Uptime Institute Intelligence concluded two global surveys in the fourth quarters of 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Mixed resiliency at the edge
/in Design, Operations/by Dr. Tomas Rahkonen, Research Director of Distributed Data Centers, Uptime InstituteMany analysts have forecast an explosion in demand for edge data centers. After a long, slow start, demand is beginning to build, with small, prefabricated and mostly remotely operated data centers ready to be deployed to support a varying array of applications.
Does the spread of direct liquid cooling make PUE less relevant?
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute, jdavis@uptimeinstitute.comThe power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric is predominant thanks to its universal applicability and its simplicity: energy used by the entire data center, divided by energy used by the IT equipment.
New ASHRAE guidelines challenge efficiency drive
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comEarlier in 2021, ASHRAE’s Technical Committee 9.9 published an update — the fifth edition — of its Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments.
Too big to fail? Facebook’s global outage
/in Executive, News, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteThe bigger the outage, the greater the need for explanations and, most importantly, for taking steps to avoid a repeat.
Vertiv’s DCIM ambitions wither on Trellis’ demise
/in Executive, News, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteOperators often say that data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software is a necessary evil. Modern facilities need centralized, real-time management and analytics, but DCIM is notoriously difficult to deploy.
Startups brew new chemistries for fresh battery types
/in Executive, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comWidespread net-zero carbon emission pledges are spurring innovative data center battery technologies.
Fastly outage underscores slow creep of digital services risk
/in Executive, News, Operations/by Daniel Bizo, Research Director, Uptime Institute Intelligence, dbizo@uptimeinstitute.comA recent outage at content delivery network Fastly took down thousands of websites in different countries, including big names, such as Amazon, Twitter and Spotify, for nearly an hour. It is the latest large outage highlighting the downside of a key trend in digital infrastructure: The growth in dependency on digital service providers can undermine […]
Pandemic has driven up data center costs
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAs the pandemic began to make an impact in early 2020, it became clear that data center operators were going to have to invest more if they were to provide the services on which their customers were increasingly reliant. Short-term needs included protective equipment, deep cleaning and, it seemed likely, more spending to support extended […]
Renewable energy and data centers: Buyer, be aware
/in Executive, Operations/by Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability, Uptime Institute, jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.comAcross the world, data center owners and managers are striving to buy more renewable energy and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. The global internet giants and the largest colocation companies have led the way with huge green energy purchases. But the impact of renewable energy on the grid operator’s economics, and on the critical […]
The insider threat: Social engineering is raising security risks
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteUptime Institute Members say one of their most vexing security concerns is the insider threat — authorized staff, vendors or visitors acting with malicious intent. In extreme examples, trusted individuals could power down servers and other equipment, damage network equipment, cut fiber paths, or steal data from servers or wipe the associated storage. Unfortunately, data […]
Data center insecurity: Online exposure threatens critical systems
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteIn early March 2021, a hacker group publicly exposed the username and password of an administrative account of a security camera vendor. The credentials enabled them to access 150,000 commercial security systems and, potentially, set up subsequent attacks on other critical equipment. A few weeks earlier, leaked credentials for the collaboration software TeamViewer gave hackers […]
Datacenter Fire Frequency
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comThe catastrophic fire that occurred at OVHcloud’s SBG2 data center in Strasbourg, France (see last week’s blog about it) has led many operators to question their vulnerability to fires. Fires at data centers are a constant concern, but are rare. In almost all cases of data center fire, the source is quickly located, the equipment isolated, […]
Extreme weather affects nearly half of data centers
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comRecent extreme weather-related events in the US (the big freeze in Texas, fires on the west coast) have once again highlighted the need for data center operators to reassess their risks in the face of climate change. The topic is discussed in depth in the Uptime Institute report (available to Uptime Institute members) entitled, The gathering […]
Extreme cold — a neglected threat to availability?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn Uptime Institute’s recent report on preparing for the extreme effects of climate change, there were over a dozen references to the dangers of extremely hot weather, which can overwhelm cooling systems and trigger regional fires that disrupt power, connectivity and staff access. But the effects of extreme cold were discussed only in passing. The […]
Data center staff on-site: engineering specialists or generalists?
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteThe pandemic has led to a renewed interest by data center managers in remote monitoring, management and automation. Uptime Institute has fielded dozens of inquiries about these approaches in recent months, but one in particular stands out: What will operational automation and machine learning mean for on-site staff requirements? With greater automation, the expectation is […]
Accountability – the “new” imperative
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comOutsourcing the requirement to own and operate data center capacity is the cornerstone of many digital transformation strategies, with almost every large enterprise spreading their workloads across their own data centers, colocation sites and public cloud. But ask any regulator, any chief executive, any customer: You can’t outsource responsibility — for incidents, outages, security breaches […]
Five Trends for 2021: accountability, automation, edge, sustainability, innovation
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteWhat we can expect for mission-critical digital infrastructure in 2021? Each autumn Uptime Institute, like many other organizations, puts together a list of some of the big trends and themes for the year ahead. This time, we have focused on five big trends that might not have been so obvious 12 months ago. Heading into […]
PUE: The golden metric is looking rusty
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comWhen the PUE (power usage effectiveness) metric was first discussed at a meeting of The Green Grid in Santa Clara, back in 2007, a microphone stand was placed in each aisle of the auditorium. The importance of the initiative was understood even then: experts, including the founders of Uptime Institute, formed lines to give their […]
Why data center operators are investing in more redundancy
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comWhen Uptime Institute recently asked over 300 data center managers how the pandemic would change their operations, one answer stood out: Two-thirds expect to increase the resiliency of their core data center(s) in the years ahead. Many said they expected their costs to increase as a result. The reasoning is clear: the pandemic — or […]
Infographic: Data Center Industry Staffing Shortage is Getting Worse
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteData Centers and Thunder, Lightning, Wind and Rain
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Chris Brown, Chief Technical Officer, Uptime InstituteData centers are built and sited to withstand all that Mother Nature can throw at them — or at least, is likely to throw at them — during their lifecycle. This has long been a given, practiced and understood by designers, planners and regulators. But climate change is changing everything. Recent weather events have led […]
Will the pandemic accelerate the move to public cloud?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAs the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, many people have suggested that the business case for enterprises to move more workloads to the public cloud has been strengthened. Some have argued that the pandemic will accelerate the decline of the enterprise data center. Is this actually the case? And if so, why? This is one of […]
Data Centers and Wildfires
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAs will be discussed in our upcoming note about managing data center with the severe weather caused by climate change, we continue to highlight the need for data center managers to not only review existing emergency plans but also anticipate previously unforeseen challenges. The need to understand the new ‘Normal’ Which brings us to wildfires… […]
Pandemics: Operators plan to be ready next time
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comData center managers, on both the facilities and the IT side of operations, are known for their preparedness. Even so, the pandemic caught most by surprise. Few had an effective pandemic plan in place, and most had to react and adapt on the fly, as best as they could. A small but significant number suffered […]
Data center workforce diversity makes good business sense
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteIncreasingly, data centers cannot find qualified candidates for open jobs. Companies that commit to diverse and inclusive workplaces are more likely to have better financial performance; greater innovation and productivity; and higher employee-ambassador recruitment, employee retention and employee job satisfaction rates.
Which regions have the most energy efficient data centers?
/in Design, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comWhen the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) metric for data centers was first agreed upon by the members of The Green Grid back in 2007, almost everyone in that crowded room in California agreed: This is not intended to be used as comparative metric across sites (as every situation is different) but it would be an […]
Humidity and COVID-19 in data centers
/in Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comData center managers have gone to some lengths to avoid transmission of the COVID-19 virus in their facilities. Fortunately, many factors help keep transmission rates low in data centers: few staff are required; most jobs do not require close physical interaction with colleagues; and air filtration may help to reduce, if not necessarily eliminate, airborne […]
Cleaning a data center: Contractors vs. DIY
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinModern data centers are rarely dirty places, but even so, most are a lot cleaner now than they were before COVID-19 became a concern. A recent Uptime Institute survey, conducted in response to the pandemic, found that about two-thirds (68%) of data center owners/operators recently deep cleaned their facilities, and more than 80% recently sanitized […]
COVID-19: Critical impact and legacy
/in Executive, News, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comWhat will be the long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the digital critical infrastructure industry? It may be too soon to ask the question given that, at the time of writing, the virus is taking its toll at scale across the world. But Uptime Institute has been asked this question many times, and it’s […]
Data Center cleaning and sanitization: detail, cost and effectiveness
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinFear of the coronavirus or confirmed exposure has caused about half (49%) of data center owners to increase the frequency of regular cleanings, according to a recent Uptime Institute flash survey. Even more (66%) have increased the frequency of sanitization (disinfection) to eliminate (however transitorily) any possible presence of the novel coronavirus in their facilities. […]
COVID-19: What worries data center management the most?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comTo date, the critical infrastructure industry has mostly managed effectively with reduced staff, deferred maintenance, social distancing and new patterns of demand. While there have been some serious incidents and outages directly related to the pandemic, these have been few. But what worries operators for the months ahead? Clearly, the situation is changing all the […]
Pandemic is causing some outages and slowdowns
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comTo date, media coverage of the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns has been largely laudatory. There have been few high profile or serious outages (perhaps fewer than normal) and for the most part, internet traffic flow analysis shows that a sudden jump in demand, along with a shift toward the residential edge and busy […]
Data center PUEs flat since 2013
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comThe average power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio for a data center in 2020 is 1.58, only marginally better than 7 years ago, according to the latest annual Uptime Institute survey (findings to be published shortly). PUE, an international standard first developed by The Green Grid and others in 2007, is the most widely accepted way […]
COVID-19: Q&A (Part 3): Deferred Maintenance, Remote Work, Supply Chain, Long-Term Outlook
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteThe final installment of our Q&A regarding digital infrastructure considerations during the COVID19 crisis includes Deferred Maintenance, Remote Word, Supply Chain, Tier Standard and Long-Term Outlook Below is Part 3 of the Q&A responses brought up during our recent series of webinars about managing operational risk during the COVID19 crisis. (Part 1 dealt with Staffing and […]
COVID-19: Q&A (Part 2): Site Sanitation and Security
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteHere is Part 2 of our Q&A regarding digital infrastructure considerations during the COVID19 crisis. Keep in mind that we are all handling this crisis in varied ways, and learning from each other along the way. In that process, we really ARE all finding our own “New Normal” and ultimately we will come out of […]
COVID-19: Q&A (Part 1): Staff Management
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteWe are all in this together. We are all finding our own “New Normal”. We are all learning from each other and will come out of this crisis stronger due to the renewed focus on operational effectiveness, risk avoidance and contingency planning. To this end, Uptime Institute has been creating many types of guidance and […]
Are IT Infrastructure Outages Getting Longer?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comOne of the findings of Uptime Institute’s recently published report Annual outage analysis 2020 is that the most serious categories of outages — those that cause a significant disruption in services — are becoming more severe and more costly. This isn’t entirely surprising: individuals and businesses alike are becoming ever more dependent on IT, and it is […]
COVID-19: IT organizations move from planning to implementation
/in Executive, News, Operations/by Sandra VailOver the past few weeks, Uptime Institute held multiple customer roundtables to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 virus on data center operations and potential operational responses to its spread. We gathered our communities insights and best practices, we combined with our own 25 years worth of infrastructure operational management knowledge and we are now […]
Pay-as-you-go model spreads to critical components
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteAs enterprises continue to move from a focus on capital expenditures to operating expenditures, more data center components will also be consumed on a pay-as-you-go, “as a service” basis. “-aaS” goes mainstream The trend toward everything “as a service” (XaaS) is now mainstream in IT, ranging from cloud (infrastructure-aaS) and software-aaS (SaaS) to newer offerings, […]
Phasing Out Data Center Hot Work
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinDespite years of discussion, warnings and strict regulations in some countries, data center hot work remains a contentious issue in the data center industry. Hot work is the practice of working on energized electrical circuits (voltage limits differ regionally) — and it is usually done, in spite of the risks, to reduce the possibility of […]
The spectre of ransomware
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comUptime Institute Intelligence plans to release its 2019/2020 outages report shortly. This report will examine the types, causes and impacts of public outages, as well as further analyze the results of a recent Uptime survey on outages and impacts. The data will once again show that serious IT service interruptions are common and costly, with […]
Optimizing server refresh cycles with an aging Moore’s law
/in Executive, Operations/by Rabih BashroushHardware refresh is the process of replacing older, less efficient servers with newer, more efficient ones with more compute capacity. However, there is a complication to the refresh cycle that is relatively recent: the slowing down of Moore’s law. There is still a very strong case for savings in energy when replacing servers that are […]
Data center energy use goes up and up and up
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Rabih BashroushEnergy use by data centers and IT will continue to rise, putting pressure on energy infrastructure and raising questions about carbon emissions. The drivers for more energy use are simply too great to be offset by efficiency gains. Drivers Demand for digital services has seen sustained, exceptional growth over the past few years — and […]
Surveillance Capitalism and DCIM
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn her book “Surveillance Capitalism,” the Harvard scholar Shoshana Zuboff describes how some software and service providers have been collecting vast amounts of data, with the goal of tracking, anticipating, shaping and even controlling the behavior of individuals. She sees it as a threat to individual freedom, to business and to democracy. Zuboff outlines the […]
Non-production IT can hinder mission-critical operations
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinSeparating production and non-production assets should be an operational requirement for most organizations. By definition, production assets support high-priority IT loads — servers that are critical to a business or business unit. In most organizations, IT will have sufficient discretion to place these assets where they have redundant power supplies, sufficient cooling and high levels of […]
99 Red Flags
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comOne of the most widely cited metrics in the IT industry is for availability, expressed in the form of a number of nines: three nines for 99.9% availability (minutes of downtime per year), extending to six nines — 99.9999% — or even, very rarely, seven nines. What this should mean in practice is show in […]
Big Tech Regulations: an UPSIDE for Cloud customers?
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteRegulation of Internet giants has focused so far mostly on data privacy, where concerns are relatively well understood by lawmakers and the general public. At the same time, the threat of antitrust action is growing. Congressional hearings in the US with Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have begun, and governments in Europe, India and elsewhere […]
Outage Reporting in Financial Services
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comIn the movie “Mary Poppins,” Mr. Banks sings that a British bank must be run with precision, and that “Tradition, discipline and rules must be the tools.” Otherwise, he warns, “Disorder! Chaos!” will ensue. One rule, introduced by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2018, suggests that disorder and chaos might be quite common […]
How to Avoid Outages – Part Deux
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinA previous Uptime Intelligence Note suggested that avoiding data center outages might be as simple as trying harder. The Note suggested that management failures are the main reason that enterprises continue to experience downtime incidents, even in fault tolerant facilities. “The Intelligence Trap,” a new book by David Robson, sheds light on why management mistakes continue to […]
How to avoid outages: Try harder!
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinUptime Institute has spent years analyzing the roots causes for data center and service outages, surveying thousands of IT professionals throughout the year on this topic. According to the data, the vast majority of data center failures are caused by human error. Some industry experts report numbers as high as 75%, but Uptime Institute generally reports […]
Troubling for operators: Capacity forecasting and maintaining cost competitiveness
/in Executive, Operations/by Rabih BashroushIn the recently published 2019 Uptime Institute supplier survey, participants told us they are witnessing higher than normal data center spending patterns. This is in line with general market trends, driven by the demand for data and digital services. It is also a welcome sign for those suppliers who witnessed a downturn two to three […]
The Evolving Data Center Management Maturity Model, A Quick Update
/in Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteUptime Institute has long argued that, although it may take many years, the long-term trend is toward a high level of automation in the data center, covering many functions that most managers currently would not trust to machines or outside programmers. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have made this seem more likely. (For more […]
DCIM as a Hub: Integrations Make all the difference
/in Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteToday, the role that the physical data center plays in software-defined data centers, particularly facility design and operational management, is often overlooked. However, this is likely to change. As more networking and compute becomes virtualized and flexible, so too must data center resources, in order to achieve maximum agility and efficiency. To virtualize only IT […]
IT Outages in the Airline Industry, A New Report by the GAO
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinUptime Institute’s Annual outage analysis, published early this year, called attention to the persistent problem of IT service and data center outages. Coupled with our annual survey data on outages, the analysis explains, to a degree, why investments to date have not greatly reduced the outage problem — at least from an end-to-end service view. Gathering […]
Data center AI: Start with the end in mind
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteAn artificial intelligence (AI) strategy for data center management and operation requires more than just data and some very smart humans. Selecting specific use cases and understanding the types of data that influence AI outcomes — and then validating those outcomes — will be key if the needs of the business are to be met. […]
PG&E Turns Power Off (a.k.a. Climate Change and the Data Center)
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinIn our October 2018 report, A mission-critical industry unprepared for climate change, Uptime Institute Intelligence urged data center operators and owners to plan for the effects of climate change. We specifically encouraged data center owners and operators to meet with government officials and utility executives to learn about local and regional disaster preparation and response plans. […]
Artificial Intelligence in the Data Center: Myth versus Reality
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteIt is still very early days, but it is clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the way data centers are designed, managed and operated — eventually. There has been a lot of misrepresentation and hype around AI, and it’s not always clear how it will be applied, and when. The Uptime Institute […]
Recover heat, re-charge power
/in Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comRecently I attended the Data Center Dynamics (DCD) Smart Energy conference in Stockholm. During a panel discussion on energy, data centers and innovation, David Hall (Senior Director of Technology Innovation for Equinix) made two observations, almost in passing, about metrics and monitoring. Both were intriguing and, to my ears, suggested that operators’ thinking about sustainability […]
The Data Center Staffing and Skills Shortage is here NOW!
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Sandra VailSometimes it can be hard to get people to talk about their issues — other times, it can be hard to keep them quiet. A recent Uptime Institute Network member’s meeting began as an open discussion but was soon dominated by one issue: data center staffing. The members’ concerns reflect the growing disquiet in the […]
Is PUE actually going UP?
/in Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comOne of the more intriguing results of the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2019 concerned energy efficiency. For years, data centers have become ever more efficient, with power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratings across the industry (apparently) falling. Big operators, such as hyperscale cloud companies and big colos, regularly claim annual or design PUE figures […]
Comparing the severity of IT service outages: Uptime Institute’s Outage Severity Rating
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute, alawrence@uptimeinstitute.comAvoiding IT service outages is a big concern for any operator or service provider, especially one providing a business-critical service. But when an outage does occur, the business impact can vary from “barely noticeable” to “huge and expensive.” Anticipating and modeling the impact of a service interruption should be a part of incident planning and is key […]
Data Center AI (Artificial Intelligence) Creates New Risks
/in Executive, Operations/by Rhonda Ascierto, Vice President, Research, Uptime InstituteArtificial intelligence (AI) is being used in data centers to drive up efficiencies and drive down risks and costs. But it also creates new types of risks. This is one of the findings from a recent Uptime Intelligence research report #25, “Very smart data centers: How artificial intelligence will power operational decisions”, published in April […]
“Think Globally, Act Locally”: Re-Evaluating Data Center Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinThe 1970s-era environmental phrase “Think globally, act locally,” is an apt way for data center operators to consider the best approach to understand and address the effects of climate change on their facilities and IT operations TODAY. Globally, we all hear that climate change threatens to bring warmer temperatures, stronger storms, rising sea levels, and […]
NEXTDC: Obsessed with the details so our customers’ business is always available
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Brett RidleyThis is a guest post written by Brett Ridley, Head of Central Operations and Facility Management for NEXTDC.NEXTDC is Australia’s leading independent data centre operator with a nationwide network of Uptime Institute certified Tier III and Tier IV facilities. NEXTDC provides enterprise-class colocation services to local and international organisations. If you are interested in participating in […]
Mission Critical Computing Fabric
/in Executive, Operations/by Mark HarrisWe’ve entered an era where our IT infrastructures are now becoming a compilation of capacity that is spread out and running upon a wide range of platforms; some we completely control, some we control partially and some we don’t control at all. No longer should our IT services discussions start with ‘And in the data center […]
“Ask the Expert”: Data Center Management Q&A with Uptime Institute CTO, Chris Brown
/in Operations/by Chris Brown, Chief Technical Officer, Uptime InstituteOn April 24th, Uptime Institute CTO, Chris Brown, participated in an “Ask the Expert” session on Data Center Infrastructure Management with BrightTALK senior content manager Kelly Harris. The 45-minute session covered topics ranging from best practices of a well-run data center to a list of the most common data center issues Uptime Institute’s global consultant […]
Fire Suppression Systems Bring Unexpected Risk
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinHazards include server damage from loud noise during discharge of inert gas fire suppression systems By Kevin Heslin, with contributions from Scott Good and Pitt Turner A downtime incident in Europe has rekindled interest in a topic that never seems more than a spark away from becoming a heated discussion. In that incident, the accidental […]
Top Considerations for Addressing Data Center Facilities Management Risks
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinUptime Institute recently published “Top Considerations for Addressing Data Center Facilities Management Risks,” a guide for reducing data center risks in enterprise IT organizations . The guide comprises 14 top considerations useful for designing and running an enterprise-grade data center facilities management program. The full guide is available for download on the Uptime Institute website. […]
Japan’s Biggest Provider of Critical IT Services Earns M&O Stamp of Approval
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinNearly perfect M&O Stamp of Approval scores prove that NRI’s data centers operations are world class By Kevin Heslin Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI), a ¥18 billion ($US169 million) company that provides consulting, financial IT solutions, industrial IT solutions, and IT platform services mainly to a global financial marketplace, has earned Uptime Institute Management and […]
Reconsider Your Diesel Fuel Supply
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinNew diesel formulations put your generators at risk By Bernard Oegema, Pat Smyth, Brian Ponstein, William “Bill” Klein, and Martin Wesolowski The increased use of biodiesel has increased the risk to the diesel infrastructure of data centers and other facilities first noted with the adoption of ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) in 2006. The U.S. Environmental […]
ENTEL Achieves Uptime Institute Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinTier Certification of Operational Sustainability enhances ENTEL’s services to customers By Kevin Heslin ENTEL began operations in 1964 as a provider of national and international long distance telephone services to companies in Chile. Today it is a consolidated provider of integrated telecommunication services and information technologies services, meeting the needs of corporations and large companies […]
When an Australian Government Department Required Operational Sustainability, Metronode Delivered
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinSenior facility manager calls achieving Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability “a dream” By Kevin Heslin The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI) is a government service provider and regulator for the southeastern Australian state. DFSI supports many government functions, including sustainable government finances, major public works and maintenance programs, government […]
LinkedIn’s Oregon Data Center Goes Live, Gains EIT Stamp of Approval
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinUptime Institute recently awarded its Efficient IT (EIT) Stamp of Approval to LinkedIn for its new data center in Infomart Portland, signaling that the modern new facility had exceeded extremely high standards for enterprise leadership, operations, and computing infrastructure. These standards are designed to help organizations lower costs and increase efficiency, and leverage technology for […]
Airline Outages FAQ: How to Keep Your Company Out of the Headlines
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinUptime Institute has prepared this brief airline outages FAQ to help the industry, media, and general public understand the reasons that data centers fail. The failure of a power control module on Monday, August 8, 2016, at a Delta Airlines data center caused hundreds of flight cancellations, inconvenienced thousands of customers, and cost the airline […]
Bulky Binders and Operations “Experts” Put Your Data Center at Risk
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinWearable technology and digitized operating procedures ensure compliance with standardized practices and provide quick access to critical information By Jose Ruiz No one in the data center industry questions that data center outages are extremely costly. Numerous vendors report that the average data center outage costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, with losses in some […]
If You Can’t Buy Effective DCIM, Build It
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinAfter commercial DCIM offerings failed to meet RELX Group’s requirements, the team built its own DCIM tool based on the existing IT Services Management Suite By Stephanie Singer What is DCIM? Most people might respond “data center infrastructure management.” However, simply defining the acronym is not enough. The meaning of DCIM is greatly different for […]
Open19 is About Improving Hardware Choices, Standardizing Deployment
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryIn July 2016, Yuval Bachar, principal engineer, Global Infrastructure Architecture and Strategy at LinkedIn announced Open19, a project spearheaded by the social networking service to develop a new specification for server hardware based on a common form factor. The project aims to standardize the physical characteristics of IT equipment, with the goal of cutting costs […]
FORTRUST Gains Competitive Advantage from Management and Operations
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinFORTRUST regards management and operations as a core competency that helps it win new clients and control capital and operating expenses Shortly after receiving word that FORTRUST had earned Uptime Institute’s Tier Certification for Operational Sustainability (Gold) for Phase 7 of its Denver data center, Rob McClary, the company’s executive vice president and general manager, […]
Saudi Aramco’s Cold Aisle Containment Saves Energy
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinOil exploration and drilling require HPC By Issa A. Riyani and Nacianceno L. Mendoza Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Computer Center (ECC) is a three-story data center built in 1982. It is located in Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provides computing capability to the company’s geologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers to enable them […]
Data-Driven Approach to Reduce Failures
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinOperations teams use the Uptime Institute Network’s Abnormal Incident Reports (AIRs) database to enrich site knowledge, enhance preventative maintenance, and improve preparedness By Ron Davis The AIRs system is one of the most valuable resources available to Uptime Institute Network members. It comprises more than 5,000 data center incidents and errors spanning two decades of […]
Identifying Lurking Vulnerabilities in the World’s Best-Run Data Centers
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinPeer-based critiques drive continuous improvement, identify lurking data center vulnerabilities By Kevin Heslin Shared information is one of the distinctive features of the Uptime Institute Network and its activities. Under non-disclosure agreements, Network members not only share information, but they also collaborate on projects of mutual interest. Uptime Institute facilitates the information sharing and helps […]
Bank of Canada Achieves Operational Excellence
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinThe team approach helped the Bank earn Uptime Institute’s M&O Stamp of Approval By Matt Stansberry The Bank of Canada is the nation’s central bank. The Bank acts as the fiscal agent of the Canadian government, managing its public debt programs and foreign exchange reserves and setting its monetary policy. It also designs, issues, and […]
Avoid Failure and Delay on Capital Projects: Lessons from Tier Certification
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinHow insights from Tier Certification of Constructed Facilities avoids unforeseen costs and errors for all new projects By Kevin Heslin Uptime Institute’s Tier Classification System has been a part of the data center industry lexicon for 20 years. Since its creation in the mid-1990s, the system has evolved into the global standard for third-party validation […]
Achieving Uptime Institute Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinVantage Data Centers certifies design, facility, and operational sustainability at its Quincy, WA site By Mark Johnson In February 2015, Vantage Data Centers earned Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability (TCOS) from Uptime Institute for its first build at its 68-acre Quincy, WA campus. This project is a bespoke design for a customer that […]
Arc Flash Mitigation in the Data Center
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinMeeting OSHA and NFPA 70E arc flash safety requirements while balancing prevention and production demands By Ed Rafter Uninterruptible uptime, 24 x 7, zero downtime…these are some of the terms that characterize data center business goals for IT clients. Given these demands, facility managers and technicians in the industry are skilled at managing the infrastructure that supports […]
Failure Doesn’t Keep Business Hours: 24×7 Coverage
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinA statistical justification for 24×7 coverage By Richard Van Loo As a result of performing numerous operational assessments at data centers around the world, Uptime Institute has observed that staffing levels at data centers vary greatly from site to site. This observation is discouraging, but not surprising, because while staffing is an important function for […]
AIG Tells How It Raised Its Level of Operations Excellence
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinBy Kevin Heslin and Lee Kirby Driving operational excellence across multiple data centers is exponentially more difficult than managing just one. Technical complexity multiplies as you move to different sites, regions, and countries where codes, cultures, climates, and other factors are different. Organizational complexity further complicates matters when the data centers in your portfolio have […]
Meeting the M&O Challenge of Managing a Diverse Data Center Footprint: John Sheputis and Don Jenkins, Infomart
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinBy Matt Stansberry and Lee Kirby Driving operational excellence across multiple data centers is exponentially more difficult than managing just one. Technical complexity multiplies as you move to different sites, regions, and countries where codes, cultures, climates and other factors are different. Organizational complexity further complicates matters when the data centers in your portfolio have […]
The Calibrated Data Center: Using Predictive Modeling
/in Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinBetter information leads to better decisions By Jose Ruiz New tools have dramatically enhanced the ability of data center operators to base decisions regarding capacity planning and operational performance like move, adds, and changes on actual data. The combined use of modeling technologies to effectively calibrate the data center during the commissioning process and the […]
Retainers Improve the Effectiveness of IEC Plugs
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinThese small devices prevent accidental disconnection of mission critical gear By Scott Good Today IEC plugs are used at the rack-level PDU and the IT device. IEC plugs backing out of sockets create a significant concern, since these plugs feed UPS power to the device. In the past, twist-lock cord caps were used, but these did […]
Data center design goals and certification of proven achievement are not the same
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Matt StansberryOn March 13, 2015, Data Center Knowledge published an article “ViaWest Accused of Misleading Customers in Las Vegas”. The following is excerpted from the article. ViaWest, the Shaw Communications-owned data center service provider, is being accused of misleading customers about reliability of its Las Vegas data center. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office has asked […]
The Making of a Good Method of Procedure
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinGood MOPs (method of procedure) help humans manage the complexity inherent in data centers By Alfonso Aranda with Lee Kirby Data centers are complex techno–human systems. The number of interrelated and interdependent elements (including the human element) that interact in the normal operation of a data center and the large number of interactions that take […]
Sun Life Plots Data Center Facilities and Operations Roadmap to Meet Application Demands
/in Design, Operations/by Kevin HeslinAn imminent return of service causes a top-to-bottom examination of data center facilities and operations By Rocco Alonzi and Paolo Piro When Sun Life Financial completed a return of service for its data center operations in 2011, the Enterprise Infrastructure (IE) and Corporate Real Estate (CRE) teams immediately saw an opportunity to improve service stability, […]
Digital Realty Deploys Comprehensive DCIM Solution
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinExamining the scope of the challenge By David Schirmacher Digital Realty’s 127 properties cover around 24 million square feet of mission-critical data center space in over 30 markets across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and it continues to grow and expand its data center footprint. As senior VP of operations, it’s my job to […]
Annual Data Center Industry Survey 2014
/in Design, Executive, Operations/by Kevin HeslinThe fourth annual Uptime Institute Data Center Industry Survey provides an overview of global industry trends by surveying 1,000 data center operators and IT practitioners. Uptime Institute collected responses via email February through April 2014 and presented preliminary results in May 2014 at the 9th Uptime Institute Symposium: Empowering the Data Center Professional. To immediately […]
McKesson Retrofits Economizers in Live DC Environment
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinPharmaceutical installs economizers in a live site to improve energy efficiency By Wayne Everett, Dean Scharffenberg, and Coleman Jones McKesson Corporation, the oldest and largest health-care services company in the United States, plays an integral role in meeting the nation’s health-care needs. McKesson is the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America, delivering one-third of all […]
Avoid Target Fixation in the Data Center
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinRemoving heat is more effective than adding cooling By Steve Press, with Pitt Turner, IV According to Wikipedia, the term target fixation was used in World War II fighter-bomber pilot training to describe why pilots would sometimes fly into targets during a strafing or bombing run. Since then, others have adopted the term. The phenomenon […]
Data Center Outages, Incidents, and Industry Transparency
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinThe lack of transparency can be seen as a root cause of outages and incidents By Jason Weckworth I recently began a keynote speech at Uptime Institute Symposium 2013 by making a bold statement. As data center operators, we simply don’t share enough of our critical facilities incidents with each other. Yet Uptime Institute maintains […]
New System Combats Data Center PQ Concerns
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinUsing relevant technologies and techniques to develop an optimized system for addressing data center PQ concerns By Kuochuan Chu For years, engineers and data centers operators have implemented various strategies to improve power quality in mission-critical facilities. We have found, however, that good power quality requires a solid grounding system. By efficiently utilizing the essential […]
Solving Air Contaminant Problems in Data Centers
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinRoHS-compliant products exacerbate the problem By Christopher Muller, Dr. Prabjit Singh, G. Henry White, and Paul Finch End users have worried about the reliability of electronic gear almost since the introduction of the circuit board. Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS), or lead-free, manufacturing regulations for electronic equipment that went into effect in 2006 only served […]
Dual-Corded Power and Fault Tolerance: Past, Present, and Future
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinDetails of dual-corded power change, but the theme remains the same. Uptime Institute has worked with owners and operators of data centers since the early 1990s. At the time, data center owners used single-corded IT devices for even their most critical IT assets. Figure 1 shows a selection of the many potential sources of outage […]
Putting DCIM to Work for You
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinAt Symposium 2013, Erik Ko of Twitter, Hewlett-Packard’s Ken Jackson, and James Pryor of Regions Bank discussed the experience of selecting and implementing DCIM solutions from the end user perspective. The panel was moderated by Uptime Institute’s Kevin Heslin. Earlier that week, Symposium 2013 attendees heard presentations that focused on the potential for DCIM and […]
Uptime Institute Network Activities Around the Globe
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinNo longer “the best kept secret” the Uptime Institute Network has gone international These interviews with Uptime Institute Network directors Rob Costa, Sylvie Le Roy, and Mozart Mello highlight the qualifications of the Uptime Institute staff working with Network members across the globe and also portray the opportunities for growth and need for the Network […]
Implementing Data Center Cooling Best Practices
/in Operations/by Kevin HeslinStep-by-step guide to data center cooling best practices will help data center managers take greater advantage of the energy savings opportunities available while providing improved cooling of IT systems The nature of data center temperature management underwent a dramatic evolution when American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) adopted new operating temperature guidelines. […]
Code mandates for data center operations
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryData center operations and management are increasingly the target of codes that impact safety, communications, and economic systems. Going well beyond the guidelines laid out by NFPA 75 and 76, the new 2011 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70) actually provides for regulatory oversight of mission-critical facility management. This video will provide a history of codes […]
Server Decommissioning as a Discipline: Paul Nally, Barclays
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryIn 2013, Barclays removed 9,124 physical servers from its data centers globally, winning Uptime Institute’s Server Roundup competition for the second year running. This effort is part of a server footprint reduction across the entire company. The organization reaped significant cost benefits, but this project has also reduced risk and complexity, providing Barclays’ internal IT […]
Diesel exhaust after treatment for data centers
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryCleaning up your act: A guide to exhaust standards By Lamont Fortune, PE, United Health Group Are your diesel generators used strictly for emergency or non-emergency purposes? Your answer to this question will tell you just how clean your diesel exhaust has to be by 2015 (and as early as 2014) as far as the […]
How business practices can impair data center availability
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryDon’t pit man against machine By Charles Selkirk, ATD While data centers in Southern Africa utilize world-class designs and construction techniques, ongoing operational sustainability models struggle to attract and retain sufficient qualified and motivated personnel, in part due to the lack of recognition of the importance of their work (unless something goes wrong!). The Uptime […]
Documenting Underfloor Conditions in an Operational Data Center
/in Operations/by Matt StansberryExcel is the basis of a surprisingly simple visual tool to document underfloor conditions By Chad Beery, ATD Engineers regularly employ pictures and drawings to communicate design ideas. They sketch on whiteboards during a meeting, talk with their hands and sometimes even sketch on the back of napkins. In fact, the deliverables produced by design […]