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Amazon in January signed a $35 billion contract to build new data centers across Virginia, a deal so sizable a detractor disappointed at the incentives being thrown at the tech giant said, “We might as well start calling it the Commonwealth of Amazon.” — Commerical Observer
The state’s “Data Center Alley,” Loudoun County, is still cutting $1- to $3 million-per-acre deals with tech companies that rely on hyperscale data centers designed to provide massive, scalable data storage and computing resources for cloud computing and big data processing. The currently... View full entry
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) for November showed a steady increase of 3.8% to 207.2, marking the third consecutive month of growth following September and October’s revised totals of 182.2 and 199.6, respectively. The reported increases in planning activity were propelled by commercial... View full entry
High inflation, rising interest and plummeting stocks are taking a toll on Big Tech [...]
Despite the amount of blood on tech firms’ payroll ledgers, though, these massive cuts are not expected to affect the blistering pace of data center construction, according to industry sources.
— Construction Dive
The expected pullback from larger hyperscale data centers is nonetheless on pace to be absorbed by concurrent increases in the proliferation of smaller and more quickly deliverable colocation centers, according to recent market data. Related on Archinect: Dodge Momentum Index records... View full entry
The latest Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) report indicates a sizable increase of 5.7% to a total of 183.2 for September, up from the revised 173.4 figure that was recorded in August. The Dodge Construction Network notes that this total falls within 5% of the DMI’s all-time high and was... View full entry
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced Design Academy Eindhoven program head Marina Otero as the winner of this year’s $100,000 Wheelwright Prize in support of her research proposal titled ‘Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse.’ Through the grant, Otero will... View full entry
Barcelona has become the latest city to begin construction on a digital twin of itself. Currently in a test phase, the data-driven replica of the city is expected to be operational by 2027, at which point it will be used as an urban planning tool to shape the city’s future development. The... View full entry
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has included hefty spending on infrastructure projects in its annual budget, looking to spur growth and improve its popularity just ahead of key state elections. The budget also includes a proposed 30% tax on income from cryptocurrencies. — ABC News
India also introduced a new digital rupee (after previously attempting a ban on cryptocurrencies) and plans to declare data centers and large energy storage systems as infrastructure in an effort to increase access to institutional funding. Hopes are that the investment in building projects will... View full entry
Facebook is due to commence construction on its 12th data center in the United States with a new $800 million, 907,000-square-foot facility located in DeKalb, Illinois. The data center will be powered by 100% renewable energy and will use 80% less water than the average data center, the... View full entry
Microsoft has been experimenting with undersea data centers for years, and the current installation in the Orkney Islands will be deployed for around five years. There are 12 racks with 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes (27,600 terabytes) of storage [...] The data center is powered by a giant undersea cable that also connects it back to the internet, and the findings could mean the company will scale this project up to more powerful data centers in the future. — theverge.com
Microsoft has now installed a webcam by its undersea data center located off the shores of Scotland. The video stream is part of the company's efforts to observe environmental conditions of Project Natick, a research project aimed at determining the feasibility of subsea data centers powered by... View full entry
With the cloud being increasingly lifestyled and infrastructured into a range of everyday social and economic practices and processes, data centres continue to grow in size. Far from a massive database in the sky, it is the planet’s surface and our everyday lives that are gradually being colonised by the cloud. — Failed Architecture
This piece by Alexander Taylor, a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, looks back on the evolution of data center infrastructure, which continues to grow larger as our everyday lives become increasingly influenced by cloud computing. View full entry
![“Often people think of [data centers] as almost like cathedrals of servers. Very clean computer equipment, white walls and things—the reality is, these are factories,” states Tate Cantrell, CTO of the data-center company Verne Global, in this article by Ingrid Burrington. Credit: Wikipedia](https://archinect.imgix.net/uploads/1d/1d54j3zthigxg3yq.jpeg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514 "“Often people think of [data centers] as almost like cathedrals of servers. Very clean computer equipment, white walls and things—the reality is, these are factories,” states Tate Cantrell, CTO of the data-center company Verne Global, in this article by Ingrid Burrington. Credit: Wikipedia")
The impact of data centers—really, of computation in general—isn’t something that really galvanizes the public, partly because that impact typically happens at a remove from everyday life. The average amount of power to charge a phone or a laptop is negligible, but the amount of power required to stream a video or use an app on either device invokes services from data centers distributed across the globe, each of which uses energy to perform various processes [...] — the Atlantic
"Still, it seems weird that most people—most engineers building the platforms people use every day, even—lack the basic comprehension that different online activities have different energy impacts, or that an individual’s online activities have energy impact at all beyond a laptop’s... View full entry
Google's satellite imaging allows us to virtually tour remote or inaccessible locales the world over, and with recently improved resolutions and initiatives from the Google Cultural Institute, our gaze can go farther and more intimately into places we may never physically visit. Google's interest... View full entry
There’s no smooth sailing for at least one of Google’s mysterious barges.
Parts of the $4 million boat, located in Portland, Maine, are being sold for scrap, a Google spokesperson has confirmed to Fortune.
Google’s three barges sparked a media storm of inquiries when they first appeared in 2013, raising questions about their purpose. Were they floating data centers? A secret lab to design and launch Google’s next stunning project?
— fortune.com
Previously:Google's barge explanation: Bilge?San Francisco's bay barge mystery: Floating data center or Google Glass store? View full entry
The newly announced second building at Facebook’s data center in Luleå, Sweden, will be the first of the social network’s data centers to be built using its new rapid deployment data center concept, which leans on modular and lean construction principles, much like those demonstrated by Swedish furniture giant Ikea. — allfacebook.com
The mystery surrounding a large structure built on a barge docked in San Francisco bay is deepening. Is it a floating Google data center? A floating Google Glass store? Or something else altogether? — news.cnet.com
Meanwhile, (not-so-secret) construction boom at Google's fellow bay area competitors: Cupertino council clears huge Apple 'spaceship' campus for liftoff City Planners Approve Frank Gehry-Designed Facebook Campus in Menlo Park UPDATE: Google's barge explanation: Bilge? View full entry
