The Ultimate Guide to Data centers
A curated Kiwi edition of IndustrialDay news, analysis, interviews, reviews, job moves, and related resources for Data centers (DC).
What to know about Data centers
Data centers serve as the backbone of our digital world, housing the critical infrastructure that powers the internet, cloud services, and enterprise IT operations. They are pivotal in managing the ever-expanding volume of data generated across industries and consumers globally.
This collection of stories highlights the dynamic growth and technological innovations shaping data centers today. From expansions into emerging markets like Indonesia and Malaysia to the creation of AI-ready and sustainable campuses, data centers are evolving to meet increasing demands for performance, scalability, and environmental responsibility.
Readers will find insights into advancements in cooling technologies, energy efficiency, and the incorporation of renewable energy sources aimed at reducing carbon footprints. Moreover, the integration of AI and edge computing within data center architectures demonstrates how the industry adapts to modern workloads and latency-sensitive applications.
Security remains a critical theme, as data centers bolster defenses against cyber threats while ensuring compliance with emerging regulations. Partnerships between global tech firms and local providers underscore the importance of connectivity, interconnection, and hybrid cloud strategies in today’s data ecosystem.
Exploring these stories offers a comprehensive view of how data centers underpin digital transformation, drive innovation, and face challenges in sustainability, infrastructure expansion, and operational excellence.
Kiwi Data centers News
Regional stories with direct local relevance
Māori urged to help power Aotearoa's energy shift
Iwi and hapū face a narrow window to secure jobs, land rights and returns as New Zealand's power system shifts away from fossil fuels.
Sovereignty by design: Building New Zealand's digital resilience
A mix of local and global systems could shield New Zealand services from cyberattacks and natural hazards while preserving control over critical data.
Schneider Electric: Electrifying everything else, flexibly
New Zealand businesses and homes could ease grid strain and cut fossil fuel reliance by shifting to microgrids, batteries and solar, says Schneider Electric NZ.
National unveils nine-point energy plan to tackle power bills
Households could get cheaper, more flexible power deals as National proposes new rules to boost competition and rein in network charges.
Lodestone Energy launches NZD $100m IPO for solar growth
The deal could end the NZX's five-year IPO drought and fund expansion of a solar generator aiming to supply more homes and businesses.
It took 20 years to start regulating social media - will AI controls come sooner?
Public pressure for AI guardrails is surging faster than it did for social media, as Australia joins a growing coalition urging action.
Analyst Insights
Research and market analysis connected to Data centers
Sovereignty by design: Building New Zealand's digital resilience
Kingston holds global DRAM module lead with 62% share
Gartner forecasts AI strain on services, costs & jobs
LG's 2.6MW cooling unit wins NVIDIA DSX qualification
AI drives bigger data storage needs, Western Digital study
Featured News
Data sovereignty is a strategic imperative in the AI era
AI is pushing boards to weigh local control against cloud convenience, with 80% of respondents saying sovereignty matters more in vendor selection.
Schneider Electric: Electrifying everything else, flexibly
New Zealand businesses and homes could ease grid strain and cut fossil fuel reliance by shifting to microgrids, batteries and solar, says Schneider Electric NZ.
AI workloads & modern facilities driving Honeywell growth
Data centre operators are under pressure to supply their own electricity, opening the door for Honeywell to add on-site power and utilities.
Exclusive: Castrol puts data centre experts behind CORE
The shift towards AI-ready liquid cooling is prompting Castrol to target new-build data centres and costly retrofits across Asia Pacific.
Interview: Cloudera says AI agents reshape zero trust
Enterprises must update identity controls as software agents generate more requests and need tightly time-limited access to sensitive systems.
VAST Data targets AI data sovereignty with DataEnclave
Enterprises and governments could run AI on sensitive data without exposing it, as the technology targets sovereignty rules across APAC.
ABB: Renewables usage puts NZ in data centre sweet spot
Renewables are leaving New Zealand well placed for data centres, but ABB says grid upgrades and smarter use of existing assets are needed.
Interview: Cloudera bets on hybrid AI growth in JAPAC
Banks and large enterprises in Asia-Pacific are rethinking cloud-first AI plans as costs, sovereignty and regulation favour hybrid deployments.
Genetec: Open platforms key as physical security evolves
Businesses are prioritising hybrid, open security systems to protect existing hardware investments while adopting cloud and AI tools more gradually.
Future of AI is distributed infrastructure built on open source
Rising AI demand is exposing cloud bottlenecks, as firms eye in-house open source systems to cut costs and limit vendor lock-in.
Open source is powering the next generation of frontier AI
Rising inference demand and custom hardware needs are pushing AI infrastructure beyond standard cloud setups, boosting open source tools.
Exclusive: Cloudera builds Hadoop-free future platform
Existing customers get six years of support as Cloudera shifts new AI and analytics workloads to a Hadoop-free platform due in November.
Apple's Unified Memory powers Kiraa AI's rapid automation
Australian firms can speed month-end processing from days to an hour by running Kiraa AI on Macs instead of costly cloud servers.
ClickHouse customer base soars on back of AI demand
AI agents are driving a sharp rise in demand for the real-time data platform, which added 1000 customers early in 2026 to top 4000.
SUSE targets Australia's industrial edge to drive growth
Australian miners, shippers and utilities could be next to benefit as SUSE pushes edge computing and AI inference beyond data centres.
Expert Columns
The Next Evolution of Data Centres Isn't Technology. It's People
Small but mighty - micro data centres are the foundation of security and disaster recovery
Building Infrastructure for an AI World in Motion
In the AI era, channel value is being redefined
Engineering for operations: going from security to insight
How businesses can avoid widespread harm from cloud outages
AI's data centre overhaul forcing a network rethink
The smartest AI will help us use less, not just do more
The data center math has changed
Fewer servers, more performance: The new logic of the modern data center
Interviews
Interviews and video coverage from the networkRecent Data centers News
Google Cloud unveils ultra-low latency tools for markets
Exchanges and trading firms can now run latency-sensitive workloads in Google Cloud private regions, as it targets co-location-like timing predictability.
Dell expands AI Factory to push agentic AI on-site
Adoption has climbed to more than 6,500 customers as businesses shift from AI pilots to on-premise production and weigh rising costs.
Dell expands AI Factory with NVIDIA for enterprise use
More than 6,500 enterprises are now using the platform as Dell adds software, deskside systems and servers to help move AI from pilot to production.
Equinix opens Sydney centre for liquid-cooled AI tests
Enterprises can now test liquid-cooled AI systems in Sydney before committing to costly rollouts, as power and heat demands surge.
Nutanix expands AI ties with NVIDIA, Supermicro & Netris
The tie-ups are aimed at making it easier for enterprises and cloud providers to run agentic AI in production across mixed infrastructure.
Equinix launches global liquid cooling test centres
Enterprises racing to deploy AI systems can now test liquid cooling in live data centres before committing to large-scale infrastructure changes.
PyTorch Foundation adds nine members, including Shopify
The expansion signals deeper industry backing for open source AI as three new platinum members join the foundation's ecosystem.
'Sky glow': Data centres could threaten Mackenzie's dark sky status
Residents fear fast-track data centres could flood Twizel with light pollution, putting Mackenzie's dark sky reserve status and tourism at risk.
Data Vault plans new North Shore data centre in Auckland
Auckland businesses will gain more colocation capacity next year, as the New Zealand-owned operator adds a second site on the North Shore.
OmniOn launches efficient Osprey bus converters for AI
Higher efficiency and the same quarter-brick footprint could ease heat and power constraints for operators packing more AI hardware into dense racks.
CHINT unveils factory-built Power Pod for Asia data centres
Data centre developers in Asia-Pacific could cut installation times by up to 60% as CHINT's factory-built power pod targets AI-driven demand.
Mitsubishi Heavy & Ingeteam team up on US data centres
Rising AI electricity demand is pushing US data centre operators to seek more reliable power systems as the firms plan broader integration work.
CERN expands OpenSearch across 139 clusters for data
The platform now underpins observability, security and research services at CERN, handling 1.4 petabytes of data across 139 clusters.
NVIDIA launches RTX Spark for Windows PCs with local AI
Its push into on-device AI on Windows PCs aims to woo creators and gamers while reducing reliance on cloud services for everyday tasks.
Hyundai & Kia back VAST Data in strategic investment
The investment follows years of production use and has already helped 42dot halve storage needs while keeping autonomous driving work within existing data centre capacity.
CScale raises USD $145 million to tackle AI optics
The funding backs efforts to reduce downtime in large AI systems as optical links become a critical bottleneck across data centres.
Frankfurt internet exchange hits record 21.47 terabits
Viewers streaming Champions League matches pushed traffic to 21.47 terabits per second, as demand on the hub rose 7 per cent in under four weeks.
Broadcom launches HyperArmour to protect VMware ESX
It aims to close a common gap in private cloud defences by blocking hypervisor attacks before unpatched flaws or stolen root credentials can be abused.
RETN adds sixth subsea route to boost Taiwan resilience
The extra Taipei-Hong Kong path comes after repeated cable faults exposed the risk of relying on too few international links around Taiwan.
LG Electronics posts record nine-month profit as B2B grows
Its core appliance and vehicle businesses helped drive record nine-month operating profit to KRW 4.03 trillion, despite macroeconomic uncertainty.
Job Moves
Microsoft appoints Nick Walton as NZ Managing Director
TenPeaks appoints Whineray as Independent Chairman
DLA Piper appoints Edward Eisdell-Moore as NZ tech partner
Atturra rebrands Plan B to expand IT services in New Zealand
DLA Piper expands New Zealand team with senior promotions & hires