Cisco & Schneider Electric partner on edge computing solution

DataCenterNews Asia | January 29, 2020

Cisco and Schneider Electric have unveiled a new edge computing solution which integrates Cisco’s HyperFlex Edge hyperconverged infrastructure with Schneider Electric’s 6U Wall Mount EcoStruxure Micro Data Center. The integration supports the growing challenges associated with edge computing, such as greater numbers of distributed systems deployed in environments not optimised for IT, which are often unstaffed, placing new physical and cyber security demands on the solution. According to Cisco and Schneider Electric, the integration also brings resilient, secure and localised computing capabilities closer to where the data is created, processed and stored.

Spotlight

Increased complexity of Al models equals increased adoption challenges Financial institutions are looking to capitalize on opportunities presented by the adoption of artificial intelligence (Al). The rapid pace of development in areas such as deep learning, conversational, and generative Al has vastly increased the scope and app


Other News
Storage Management

AEC Firms Modernize File Data Storage in 4300+ Locations Worldwide with the Nasuni File Data Platform

PRnewswire | July 03, 2023

Nasuni Corporation, a leading provider of file data services, today announced increased demand for the Nasuni File Data Platform from the global AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) industry. Nasuni is enabling its AEC customers to speed up their digital transformation by modernizing their file storage and protection infrastructure; this ultimately makes data more accessible from the cloud, while providing more effective data protection and unparalleled ransomware recovery capabilities. Since 2021, Nasuni has grown its AEC customer base helping more than 190 customers in over 4,300 locations (27 countries worldwide) to enhance data management, adopt next-level building information modelling (BIM) tools, and facilitate complex collaborations using global file shares. The Nasuni File Data Platform gives companies the infinite scale of the cloud, while providing superior edge performance and unrivalled data protection and security through its data file services (including Nasuni Ransomware Protection and Nasuni Access Anywhere). It achieves this by consolidating data silos, providing 24/7 business continuity, optimizing user productivity, delivering enhanced business insights, and offering the ability to choose multiple cloud providers. Hybrid cloud technology delivers critical performance benefits from the edge, enabling organizations to achieve more effective collaboration and sharing on large data sets and files at a regional or global scale. "The AEC industry's entire business is dependent on file data and is in the midst of seismic change, with more digital solutions across entire value chains, and innovative data use cases like digital twins, design automation, BIM products, and trialling artificial intelligence (AI)-based knowledge management to remain competitive and take operations to the next level", said David Grant, President of Nasuni. "These capabilities, underpinned by cloud-based file and object storage, managed by the Nasuni File Data Platform, improve organizations' competitiveness by optimizing their processes and enabling enhanced collaboration, sharing, and data protection." The Nasuni File Data Platform integrates and supports applications like Adobe InDesign, Autodesk Revit, Dassault CATIA CAD, Siemens Teamcenter, and Windows® File Copy. Nasuni's intelligent edge caching allows AEC firms to leverage the infinite scale of cloud object storage of their choosing while meeting the needs of hybridized work environments and maintaining high performance data accessibility even for local and remote offices. Research in 2022 indicates that the construction industry is, alongside the education sector, the most likely target of ransomware attacks, making data protection and the ability to instantly recover from attacks without tying up internal resources imperative to maintaining competitive business operations. "The Nasuni-Azure snapshotting approach just works," said Joe Marando, CIO at global architecture firm, JERDE. "If ransomware hits, you just go back and restore your data from right before the attack, and you get your data back. I love the file recovery functionality with Nasuni." Ramboll, a leading AEC firm founded in Denmark, with 16,500 employees in 35 countries and 300 remote offices, partners with clients to create the infrastructure behind sustainable societies. The company was relying on physical and virtual storage systems, backed by NetApp SnapMirror, at many of its global offices. The challenge of maintaining this worldwide infrastructure was significant, yet Nasuni successfully replaced their existing infrastructure with ease. "We would have to do multiple updates on a weekly basis," recalls IT Project Manager, Morten Madsen of Ramboll. "[the current system] was not a scalable solution for a company of our size." Madsen selected the Nasuni File Data Platform to address the company's storage, backup, and management problems and today, Ramboll trusts more than 3 petabytes (PB) of global file data to be stored, protected, and managed by Nasuni. APi Group, JERDE, Kimley-Horn, McLaren, Perkins+Will, Ramboll, SMEC (Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation), Voessing, and the Walsh Group have also selected Nasuni to modernize their legacy file infrastructure, gain more value from IT investments, and recover from cyberattacks like ransomware in minutes. To learn more about how Nasuni is enabling the AEC industry to reduce file storage costs, improve collaboration, and enhance resiliency, please visit our customer case studies. About Nasuni Nasuni Corporation is a leading file data services company that helps organizations create a secure, file data cloud for digital transformation, global growth, and information insight. The Nasuni File Data Platform is a cloud-native suite of services that simplifies file data infrastructure, enhances file data protection, and ensures fast file access globally at the lowest cost. By consolidating file data in easily expandable cloud object storage from Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and others, Nasuni becomes the cloud-native replacement for traditional network attached storage (NAS) and file server infrastructure, as well as complex legacy file backup, disaster recovery, remote access, and file synchronization technologies. Organizations worldwide rely on Nasuni to easily access and share file data globally from the office, home, or on the road. Sectors served by Nasuni include manufacturing, construction, creative services, technology, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, oil and gas, financial services, and public sector agencies. Nasuni's corporate headquarters is based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA delivering services in over 70 countries around the globe.

Read More

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, Windows Systems and Network

CoreWeave Opens New Texas Data Center to Expand Access to High-Performance GPUs

prnewswire | July 26, 2023

CoreWeave, a specialized cloud provider of large-scale GPU-accelerated workloads, today announced a new data center facility in Plano, Texas, to be fully operational by December 31, 2023. The $1.6 billion data center is CoreWeave's first facility in Texas and will support economic activity and job growth in the area. "We are pleased to partner with Plano and the local community to open this cutting-edge data center and create new jobs," said CoreWeave CEO and Co-founder Michael Intrator. "The 450,000 square foot facility will help meet the unprecedented demand for high-performance cloud solutions for artificial intelligence, machine learning, pixel streaming and other emerging technologies that CoreWeave is uniquely positioned to deliver," said Intrator. This news comes on the heels of continued growth for the company. Recently, CoreWeave announced the opening of a modern data center in New York City that provides ultra-low latency to over 20 million inhabitants across the metropolitan area. In April, CoreWeave announced a $221 million Series B round, followed by $200 million in Series B extension funding for a total of $421 million in capital raised for the round. "With the demand for machine learning, AI and visual effects/rendering sharply rising, we are thrilled to partner with CoreWeave as the company invests in its first data center in Texas, capable of high-computing solutions for such specialized needs," said Mayor of Plano, John B. Muns. About CoreWeave Founded in 2017, CoreWeave is a specialized cloud provider, delivering a massive scale of GPU compute resources on top of the industry's fastest and most flexible infrastructure. CoreWeave builds cloud solutions for compute-intensive use cases — machine learning and AI, VFX and rendering, batch processing and pixel streaming — that are up to 35 times faster and 80% less expensive than the large, generalized public clouds.

Read More

Windows Systems and Network, Windows Server Management

Pure Storage Expands Strategic Partnership with Microsoft to Accelerate Enterprise Cloud Adoption

prnewswire | August 23, 2023

Pure Storage®,an IT pioneer that delivers advanced data storage technology and services, today announced an expanded, multi-year strategic product and go-to-market partnership with Microsoft, that brings Pure Storage's industry leading storage capabilities to native Microsoft Azure services by leveraging Azure's new Premium SSD v2 and introducing them toAzure VMware Solution (AVS)in Preview. News Highlights: Now in Preview in 16 Azure regions globally, Pure Cloud Block Store™ for Azure VMware Solution enables customers to: Optimize AVS Costs.With Pure Storage's compression and deduplication technology, organizations can achieve a high data reduction ratio on VMware workloads in Azure. Combined with Pure Storage's ability to decouple block storage costs from compute costs, customers can achieve sizable savings off their baselines for storage heavy workloads. Take Advantage of Evergreen®Innovation in Azure.Pure Storage will continue to innovate and leverage the best technology available in Azure. By integrating Azure's latest storage solution,Premium SSD v2disk, in partnership with the Azure Storage team, Pure Storage is helping mutual customers achieve up to one-third of the infrastructure cost than Pure's previous platform without sacrificing performance or capabilities. These savings can now be extended to AVS customers. Accelerate and De-Risk Cloud Migrations.Organizations can migrate their applications to the cloud without any capability trade-offs, with the ability to scale storage and compute independently based on need. Leverage Pure Storage Safemode® Ransomware Data Protection: Pure Storage delivers an always-on, policy-driven snapshot creation and protection mechanism called Safemode which provides the ability to leverage Pure Storage snapshots to instantly restore protected data sets. Customers enjoy and rely on this protection with their on-premises VMware environments with FlashArray, and can now also leverage this functionality with Azure VMware Solution and Pure Cloud Block Store. Implement Flexible Disaster Recovery: Organizations can take advantage of data protection capabilities in Purity such as zero-RPO ActiveCluster, near-zero RPO ActiveDR, and Purity CloudSnap™ to ensure the right data is protected in the right way, to the right place, at the right time. Right-Sizing Disaster Recovery:Pure Storage's high availability and cloud replication capabilities enable disaster recovery targets on AVS that can be configured with minimal compute and storage that can scale on-demand. This brings additional cost savings to the customer's Disaster Recovery strategy. Simplify and Unify Storage Strategy. By using the same data management platform both on-premises and in the cloud, organizations can more easily track, manage, deploy, and provide consistent multi-cloud governance for their data. Executive and Customer Insight: "This expanded partnership between Pure Storage and Microsoft creates a significant milestone, ushering in a new age of cloud migration, and ultimately driving faster, more cost effective adoption of cloud services. Pure Cloud Block Store™ for Azure VMware Solution is just the beginning. By optimizing performance and cost at scale, we look forward to unlocking the number of mission-critical use cases that we can serve in the coming years."–Ajay Singh, Chief Product Officer, Pure Storage "Our commitment to advancing Microsoft Azure VMware Solution, and the Microsoft Azure platform more broadly, with best-of-breed partnerships with vendors like Pure Storage underscores our mission to meet customers where they are today, particularly in a new world of business where speed, simplicity, and cost efficiency are critical. We're thrilled to continue working through the next phases of our partnership to provide a fast path to the cloud with Pure Storage."–Jurgen Willis, Vice President, Azure Specialized Workloads and Storage, Microsoft "VMware Cloud provides consistent and modern infrastructure for all applications, across any cloud, with low TCO. We're pleased that Pure Storage is joining the Azure VMware Solution partner ecosystem. With Pure Cloud Block Store for Azure VMware Solution, existing VMware and Pure Storage on-prem customers can now migrate and modernize to Azure VMware Solution while preserving their investments in VMware and Pure Storage processes, skills, and enterprise capabilities." –Narayan Bharadwaj, Vice President, Cloud Solutions, VMware Industry Significance: Gartner forecasts that in 2023, worldwide public cloud spending will grow 20.7% to total$591.8 billion, up from$490.3 billionin 20221. As cloud adoption accelerates, enterprises aspire to migrate all or portions of their VMware environments - the majority of which consume block-based storage - to the cloud but are met by challenges of inconsistent storage layer management in comparison to their on-premises deployment, and an unmet need to scale compute and storage independently to match data growth. The expanded partnership between Pure Storage and Microsoft eliminates this barrier. By integrating Pure Cloud Block Store with Azure VMware Solution, organizations gain access to Pure's robust feature set, as well as the ability to de-risk deployments while perfectly right-sizing and scaling storage and compute independently as workload demands change About Pure Storage Pure Storageuncomplicates data storage, forever. Pure delivers a cloud experience that empowers every organization to get the most from their data while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. Pure's commitment to providing true storage as-a-service gives customers the agility to meet changing data needs at speed and scale, whether they are deploying traditional workloads, modern applications, containers, or more. Pure believes it can make a significant impact in reducing data center emissions worldwide through its environmental sustainability efforts, including designing products and solutions that enable customers to reduce their carbon and energy footprint. And with a certified customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

Read More

Application Storage, Windows Server OS

Scala Data Centers enables new Hyperscale market in Curauma, Chile, on campus with 30MW of IT capacity

prnewswire | August 08, 2023

Scala Data Centers, the leading Latin American platform of sustainable data centers in the Hyperscale market, announces the start of the SSCLCR01 data center operations, located in Curauma, Valparaíso region, Chile. Scala's new data center, boasting an investment of US$ 65 million and a robust 5MW of IT capacity, has been launched 100% booked to one Hyperscale customer. It is strategically situated in our Curauma Campus, poised for exponential growth, as it is designed to reach a critical capacity of approximately 30MW in the coming years. Delivered in just 10 months, Scala's new data center is part of the company's strategy to enable new Hyperscale markets acrossLatin America. In addition to the availability of land, energy, connectivity, and proximity to consolidated markets – it is based 56 miles from theSantiagometropolitan area – Curauma will establish itself on the world's connectivity map with the arrival of the Humboldt submarine cable, which promises to connectLatin Americato theAsia-Pacificregions for the first time. With around 9,500 miles of fiber, the Humboldt subsea cable will bring unprecedented scale, connection quality and lower latency betweenLatin America,Asia, and Oceania. Not to mention the connection the data center will have with the U.S. West Coast. "In a scenario where 5G accelerates the deployment of various services and applications that use high data volume and require low latency, Scala has succeeded in choosing its first campus to become operational inChile," evaluates Scala's CEO and Co-FounderMarcos Peigo. "Furthermore, aligned with our purpose of enabling the future inLatin America, we have created a unique opportunity here for customers positioned on the West Coast of theUSAand for a potential group in APAC (Asia-PacificandChina) to offer their products and solutions to Latin American customers." Powered by 100% renewable and certified energy, in line with the company's portfolio, the new Chilean data center was built based on the proprietary and innovative One Scala Template design and construction methodology. With high efficiency in the use of its resources, the SSCLCR01 data center was designed to operate with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) lower than 1.2-1.3 and with a WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) of zero as it uses air cooling. The SSCLCR01 data center project was led by the company's pioneering Center of Excellence in Engineering (CoE), which has more than 340 engineers, architects, and data center specialists acrossLatin America. CoE oversees the planning and execution of all activities related to the construction and operation of a data center, from site selection, through planning, design, construction, and commissioning, which speeds up delivery to customers and brings gains in scale, energy efficiency, and greater control and visibility of projects. All SSCLCR01 data center monitoring will be conducted by the company's Command Center, located at its operations headquarters in São Paulo,Brazil, where a trilingual team extensively uses technology, artificial intelligence, and rigorous quality processes to monitor and ensure security, in line with Scala's other sites in operation. Growth inChile.In addition to Curauma Campus, Scala continues to build Lampa Campus, in the metropolitan region ofSantiago. This will be the largest data center campus ever built inChilewith an IT capacity of 80MW – considering 30MW for initial delivery in 2024. Also in theSantiagoregion, the installation of a HyperEdge data center is planned. Conceived by the CoE, this building will feature the proprietary FastDeploy design and construction methodology, which allows scalable implementation of edge data centers with the same high-quality experience as the traditional model, in up to 50% less time. Scala will invest approximatelyUS$ 400 millioninChileduring the first phase of the three campuses. Strategically positioned, they will have a combined IT capacity of over 200MW, which is equivalent to around two times the total installed capacity currently in the country, or twice the critical capacity of mature markets inEuropesuch asMadrid. Scala continues its accelerated expansion plan, with the construction of new sites at Tamboré Campus (São Paulo state,Brazil),Porto Alegrecity (Rio Grande do Sul state,Brazil), and Lampa (Chile), as well as advanced projects to implement other data centers in Jundiaí city (São Paulo state,Brazil),Fortalezacity (Ceará state,Brazil),Chile,Mexico, andColombia. Since its founding in 2020, Scala has invested more thanR$ 8 billion(~US$ 1.6 billion) in Hyperscale data centers inLatin Americaand expects to reach 500MW of distributed capacity over the next five years in four countries it operates. In 2023 alone, the company started operating three state-of-the-art data centers inLatin America, located specifically inRio de Janeiro(13.2MW IT), Tamboré (6MW IT) and, now, in Curauma (5MW IT). About Scala Data Centers Scala Data Centers is the leading Latin American platform of sustainable data centers in the Hyperscale market. Headquartered inBraziland founded by DigitalBridge, it was developed to meet and exceed the growing demand for digital access inLatin America. Scala has a highly qualified team of over 800 professionals and applies a flexible and innovative approach to providing exceptional quality colocation services to hyperscale clients, cloud-based software and service providers, and large enterprises. We customize state-of-the-art solutions for each client in the construction of the latest generation data centers, with high availability, the best energy efficiency rates, and superior density. All this allied to the best sustainability practices guided by our ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) program.

Read More

Spotlight

Increased complexity of Al models equals increased adoption challenges Financial institutions are looking to capitalize on opportunities presented by the adoption of artificial intelligence (Al). The rapid pace of development in areas such as deep learning, conversational, and generative Al has vastly increased the scope and app

Resources