Netflash

Google has an answer to some of the electricity supply problems that data center construction is causing : It has signed an agreement with energy supplier Voltus to build what it’s calling a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant, expanding on an earlier 100 megawatt deal the two signed earlier this year. This power plant is virtual in the sense that it doesn’t generate any electricity itself, but aggreg…

Hyperscalers are getting decidedly twitchy about citizens’ reactions to their secretive data center construction plans, and are looking for ways to de-escalate some of the conflicts. Earlier this month, Amazon announced its Data Center Commitment which, among other things, would disclose more information about energy and water use and consider a moratorium asking government officials to sign non-…

AI has created a paradox that comes up in almost every conversation I have with midmarket IT leaders. Smaller companies arguably have more to gain from AI than any other group. A 400-person firm can’t hire its way to the scale of a Fortune 500 competitor, but it can use AI to extend the reach of every employee it already has. A three-person finance team can close the books faster, a small sales t…

Nvidia is hosting its GTC conference in Berlin this week, and while the bulk of the news is European-oriented, there are several stories of interest around the world. They include the usual stories of Nvidia: AI compute platforms, data center infrastructure, and networking . Nvidia Unveils DSX POD Modular AI Factories Nvidia introduced the DSX POD, a factory-built, modular data center approach de…

AI infrastructure and AI software will shape the next $1 trillion dollars in IT spending growth, according to Gartner. The research firm is anticipating a significant rise in AI-driven spending in a wildly changing tech environment. “Spending on AI-optimized servers, AI-optimized infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and AI software platforms continues to strengthen as organizations seek to industri…

Extreme Networks is previewing a technology that will let enterprise customers run AI applications locally using a mix of on-premises compute and spare network equipment processing capacity. With Extreme Exchange zones, enterprises will be able to pool compute resources, including spare capacity on Extreme access points and switches already deployed at branch offices and other edge sites, to run …

Cisco announced a new operational technology security certification designed to help network and security professionals develop the skills needed to secure industrial environments as IT and OT systems become more connected. The Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification targets early-career OT professionals, IT practitioners transitioning into industrial roles, and students interested in indust…

Microsoft has reportedly withdrawn from an agreement to become the anchor customer for a planned artificial intelligence data center in Loughton, England, after delays in securing an electricity connection delayed the facility’s expected availability into the 2030s. The news was first reported in The Telegraph, a London newspaper. The project was announced in 2025 during President Donald Trump’s …

Multiple factors are coming together to propel enterprise deployments of SONiC, the open-source network operating system (NOS) created 10 years ago by Microsoft to run on white box switches in hyperscale data centers. Alan Weckel, founder and analyst at 650 Group , is forecasting that data center switching revenue based on SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) will exceed $5 billion i…

Microsoft expanded its sovereign cloud offerings on Tuesday, adding new security, governance and AI capabilities as customers, particularly in Europe, demand greater assurance over where data is stored, who can access it and how critical services operate during disruptions. The announcement builds on Microsoft’s ongoing digital sovereignty efforts, assisting organizations in applying appropriate …

Proponents of SONiC made a strong showing at last week’s Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit, where vendors including Cisco, Microsoft, and Nokia championed SONiC’s capabilities as an open Ethernet platform for AI networking. The Linux-based network operating system decouples network software from the underlying hardware and allows it to run on hundreds of switches and ASICs from multiple ve…

ThousandEyes, a Cisco company, monitors how ISPs, cloud providers and conferencing services are handling any performance challenges and provides Network World with a weekly roundup of events that impact service delivery. Read on to see the latest analysis, and stop back next week for another update on internet and cloud traffic performance. Note: We have archived prior-year outage updates, includ…

Gartner kicked off its IT Symposium/Xpo this week and unveiled its annual list of the top strategic technology trends that organizations need to explore in the coming year. AI systems today are operating in an architectural vacuum, “generating software faster than humans can review it, creating unmanaged credential paths and binding processes to single-source vendor monopolies,” said Gene Alvarez…

AI agents are driving up telemetry costs and complicating network management as enterprises struggle to monitor the technology and control unexpected expenses, according to new research from Cisco Splunk . The company’s State of Observability 2026 report found that 57% of organizations have observability costs that exceed the cost of the infrastructure being monitored. Another 60% said unexpected…

Investors are pouring more into AI data center infrastructure than they can hope to recoup by 2030, according to Gartner. “Enterprise and consumer AI revenue will be insufficient to support profitable returns on all planned AI capital expenditures during this period,” said Gartner Senior Director Analyst Will Sommer. AI data center owners would need to generate $8.5 trillion in revenue through 20…