Tag: centers
Economies of scale: How and why enterprises are outsourcing their data centers
These Angry Dutch Farmers Really Hate Microsoft Over Data Centers
The security guard lets go of Ruiter within a few seconds, and the councillor escapes with a red mark across his neck. Back in his car, Ruiter insists he’s fine. But his hands shake when he tries to change gears. He says the altercation — which he will later report to the police — shows the fog of secrecy that surrounds the Netherlands’ expanding data center business.
“We regret an interaction that took place outside our data center campus, apparently involving one of Microsoft’s subcontractors,” says Craig Cincotta, general manager at Microsoft, adding that the company would cooperate with the authorities.
The heated exchange between Ruiter and Microsoft’s security guard shows how contentious Big Tech’s data centers have become in rural parts of the Netherlands. As the Dutch government sets strict environmental targets to cut emissions, industries are being forced to compete for space on Dutch farmland — pitting big tech against the increasingly political population of Dutch farmers.
There are around 200 data centers in the Netherlands, most of them renting out server space to several different companies. But since 2015, the country has also witnessed the arrival of enormous “hyperscalers,” buildings that generally span at least 10,000 square feet and are set up to service a single (usually American) tech giant. Lured here by the convergence of European internet cables, temperate climates, and an abundance of green energy, Microsoft and Google have built hyperscalers; Meta has tried and failed.
Against the backdrop of an intensifying Dutch nitrogen crisis, building these hyperscalers is becoming more controversial. Nitrogen, produced by cars, agriculture, and heavy machinery used in construction, can be a dangerous pollutant, damaging ecosystems and endangering people’s health. The Netherlands produces four times more nitrogen than the average across the EU. The Dutch government has pledged to halve emissions by 2030, partly by persuading farmers to reduce their livestock herds or leave the industry altogether. Farmers have responded with protests, blockading roads with tractors and manure and dumping slurry outside the nature minister’s home.
Farmers object that Microsoft is building its data center before it’s even received government permits certifying that it won’t worsen the nitrogen problem, according to the article. In response the Farmer Citizen Movement has sprung up, and last month it became the joint-largest party in the Dutch Senate. One party leader tells Wired, “It is a waste of fertile soil to put the data centers boxes here.”
And Wired adds that opposition to datacenter development is also growing elsewhere in Europe.
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Hackers Scored Corporate Giants’ Logins for Asian Data Centers
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Uber to shut down its own data centers as it strikes cloud agreement with Oracle and Google
Uber has struck agreements with Oracle and Google to migrate 95% of its data center contents onto the cloud, with plans to leverage additional services such as Google Ads, the Google Maps platform, and database service Cloud Spanner. Both agreements would last seven years. Uber’s transition to the Google Cloud…
How AWS used ML to help Amazon fulfillment centers reduce downtime by 70%
Ambulatory surgery centers, robotics seen as trends for orthopedic devices in 2023
Amazon To Plow Extra $35 Billion Into Virginia Data Centers in Cloud Race
AWS is the largest provider of cloud computing and last year dropped an estimated $28.4 billion on capital expenditures, according to BofA Securities analysts. The Amazon division sells governments and companies processing power and software services, and encourages them to unplug their own data centers in favor of the on-demand computing tools from Amazon’s servers.
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Our data centers need a hard reset
Small nuclear reactors could solve data centers’ sustainable power problem
The Register highlights a report by Omdia analysts Alan Howard and Vladimir Galabov that notes how data center operators have been early adopters of renewable energy—Google and Microsoft recently announced plans to buy more energy to make their data centers greener—but it is still unavailable in many markets. That’s where…