DataCenter – Digital IT News

AMD EPYC CPU-Powered Solutions Offers Cohesity Customers More Choices

Taylor Graham — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:15:04 +0000

As companies continue to generate increasing volumes of data, it’s critical they manage and secure that data properly. Organizations face many challenges, from ransomware and other cyberattacks to stringent regulatory requirements, IT constraints, tight budgets, and tough economic conditions. To solve these challenges, companies need to take advantage of technology that is best suited to their specific requirements.

Cohesity has announced that its Cohesity Data Cloud now supports AMD EPYC CPU-powered servers, providing customers with additional choices for modern data security and management. Customers can now deploy and operate Cohesity Data Cloud on AMD EPYC CPU-based all-flash and hybrid servers from Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Lenovo.

“Customers each have unique needs but a common goal – securing and gaining insight from their data. They trust Cohesity, in part, because we strive to offer the largest ecosystem with the most choices to suit their preferences,” said John Davidson, group vice president, Americas Sales, Cohesity. “By supporting AMD EPYC CPU-powered servers, we’re opening up new options for our customers to customize and modernize their data center, increasing performance and delivering energy, space, and cost savings so they can execute their data security and management strategy on their preferred hardware configurations.”

All-flash servers have become an increasingly popular choice for organizations with high-demand applications and workloads, stringent power budgets for their data centers, or increasing storage capacity requirements and little physical space within their data center. Leveraging the performance, cost efficiency, and energy efficiency of AMD EPYC CPUs, Cohesity now delivers compelling AMD-powered all-flash servers from HPE to modernize customer data centers and meet the requirements of green initiatives through the greater density, performance, and cost savings all-flash servers provide over traditional servers. Single-socket 1U HPE servers based on AMD EPYC can reduce the number of required nodes and power costs by up to 33% when compared with dual-socket 2U servers based on other CPUs. Additionally, through the HPE Secure Supply Chain, Cohesity’s software is preloaded at the factory, reducing deployment and increasing the security of the overall solution.

“Businesses increasingly demand more from their data centers to meet their business needs —more performance, more energy efficiency, more cost savings,” said Kumaran Siva, corporate vice president, Strategic Market Development, AMD. “AMD is uniquely positioned to help meet the demands of the modern data center while enabling technology partners, like Cohesity, to deliver business critical applications like their AI-powered data security and management capabilities.”

Cohesity’s AI-powered data security and management capabilities are now generally available on AMD-powered all-flash servers from HPE and hybrid servers from Dell and Lenovo.

Learn more about Cohesity Data Cloud supporting AMD EPYC CPU-powered servers by reading the blog: “Revamping Your Data Centers with Cohesity on HPE Next-Gen Compute, Powered by AMD” here.

Cohesity DataProtect Integration with Microsoft 365 Brings Enhanced Security

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Silicon Valley’s Largest Fuel Cell-Powered Intel HPC Data Center

Taylor Graham — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:00:10 +0000

Bloom Energy has announced a power capacity arrangement with Intel Corporation, paving the way for Silicon Valley’s largest data center for high-performance computing powered by fuel cells.

The agreement calls for the installation of additional megawatts (MW) of Bloom Energy’s fuel cell-based Energy Server at Intel’s existing high-performance computing data center in Santa Clara, CA. The additional capacity expands an existing Bloom Energy fuel cell installation already deployed at the tech giant’s location since 2014. The resulting installation will be the single largest fuel cell-powered high-performance computing data center in Silicon Valley.

Bloom’s fuel cell technology offers an ideal power solution for energy-intensive data centers that demand reliable electricity generation. Bloom’s offerings can be deployed as Grid Parallel in conjunction with utility power to meet dual source energy needs of a Data Center or as Grid Independent by completely avoiding transmission infrastructure. With the ability to operate in a fully islanded microgrid mode, Grid Independent configurations circumvent delays, costs, and constraints associated with grid-based power and can be deployed in weeks on a skid mounted, moveable platform.

“Bloom Energy is proud to be a long-term supplier to Intel and to support the company’s data center capacity building at a time when the grid is severely constrained,” said Ravi Prasher, Bloom Energy’s Chief Technology Officer. “Bloom Energy technology is compatible with hydrogen fuel in addition to natural gas. We are working with governments and industries to adopt hydrogen as a primary fuel when it becomes economically viable. Intel’s confidence in our fuel cell technology is a testament to Bloom’s ability to reliably meet the energy needs of cutting edge and high-performance IT infrastructure.”

“Intel is leading the industry in extreme energy-efficient high-performance computing data centers with existing hyperscale Intel Santa Clara Data Center operating at 1.06 PUE, enabling the HPC scale needed for complex Intel chip design and technology development,” said Shesha Krishnapura, Intel Fellow, and Intel IT Chief Technology Officer. “Intel HPC Data Center infrastructure currently powers 400,000+ Intel® Xeon® based servers (5+ million highest clock cores), 700+ petabytes of storage, and 800,000+ network ports. To meet additional HPC scale needed for Intel Products and Intel Foundry, Intel is leveraging Bloom Energy technology to power the next Data Center expansion.”

As the energy demands of data centers surge across the globe, Bloom Energy’s fuel cells offer a proven solution. Rapidly deployable, on-site energy generation provides operators with the ability to scale to meet the future needs of ever-changing businesses.

To learn more about Bloom Energy’s fuel cell powered technology, visit the website here.

DPO and Partner Schneider Electric Develop Wind-Powered Modular AI Data Center

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AI Workloads Supercharged from the Datacenter to the Edge

Taylor Graham — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:59:23 +0000

Red Hat, Inc. has revealed a partnership with Intel aimed at enhancing enterprise AI capabilities through Red Hat OpenShift AI. This collaboration aims to streamline the deployment of end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI) solutions using Intel AI technologies, such as Intel® Gaudi® AI accelerators, Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® Core Ultra and Core processors, and Intel® Arc GPUs. These solutions will cover various aspects of AI, including model development and training, model serving, as well as management and monitoring, ensuring smooth operation across hybrid cloud infrastructure.

To balance the costs of maintaining existing systems with the adoption of new solutions, organizations require flexible, scalable and resilient AI infrastructures that combine hardware and software from multiple vendors. Red Hat and Intel are addressing these needs with a hybrid cloud approach wherein the AI stack is not confined to a single cloud or single datacenter. A hybrid cloud strategy empowers organizations with interoperability from the datacenter to the cloud to the edge, and enables greater AI workload portability for them to build, run and deploy AI workloads wherever needed.

Red Hat OpenShift AI offers a more consistent foundation to power AI applications across any environment, from cloud to edge, and provides streamlined support for Intel’s AI products. Intel’s comprehensive product portfolio for enterprises includes the full suite of Intel’s AI hardware and software offerings. In the data center, Intel® Gaudi AI accelerators, Intel® Xeon® processors with Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) and Intel® Infrastructure Processing Units (IPU) cater to a diverse set of AI use cases, including generative AI (GenAI) training, fine-tuning, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), inferencing, as well as confidential AI to protect data in use with Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (TDX). At the edge, Intel supports local execution of large language models (LLMs) on platforms based on Intel® Core Ultra, Intel Xeon® processors, and Intel Arc GPUs. Red Hat is collaborating with Intel to certify its hardware solutions on Red Hat OpenShift AI to ensure interoperability and enable comprehensive AI capabilities.

In addition, Intel brings together a rich set of scalable open source and commercial software, ready to go out of the box, which can be integrated with Red Hat OpenShift AI and validated for interoperability to run seamlessly in IT environments. Supported software includes Intel® Tiber Edge Platform, including Intel®OpenVINO; Intel®Tiber AI Studio; and oneAPI AI Tools. Qualified customers can request access to Intel® Gaudi® AI accelerators through Intel® Tiber Developer Cloud.

Red Hat and Intel’s open source approach to AI innovation empowers organizations to deploy anywhere on their platform of choice, accelerating time to market and providing ubiquitous AI building blocks that are more cost-effective at scale. With this collaboration, Red Hat and Intel bring together the might of their respective ecosystems, spanning leading solution providers, software vendors, equipment manufacturers and more, to further extend and build AI capabilities, solutions and services on Intel® AI products with Red Hat OpenShift AI.

Supporting Quotes

Chris Wright, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Global Engineering, Red Hat
“The AI landscape is evolving at breakneck speed, and organizations need solutions that are both agile and powerful to keep pace. Red Hat OpenShift AI, combined with the breadth and performance of Intel’s AI portfolio, offers a compelling solution for businesses to accelerate their AI journey and unlock new possibilities.”

Daniel McGinnis, vice president, Product Management, Cisco
“Cisco is actively working to advance generative AI technology to bring new and exciting opportunities to customers, such as faster innovation, enhanced decision-making and mitigated risks. We strongly support the collaboration between Red Hat and Intel as we continue to work closely with them to offer new and innovative solutions for our joint customers.”

Greg Findlen, senior vice president, Product Management, Dell Technologies
“Dell Technologies helps customers take full advantage of artificial intelligence by enabling the deployment of AI models and applications, especially generative AI, across enterprise environments. Dell collaborates with Red Hat and Intel to make it easy for customers to deploy and operate Red Hat OpenShift AI on Dell APEX Cloud Platform and Dell PowerEdge with Intel accelerators.”

Justin Hotard, executive vice president and general manager, Data Center and AI Group, Intel
“Together, Red Hat and Intel are committed to helping organizations develop and unlock the full potential of scalable and more secure AI systems based on open ecosystems and standards. Intel’s AI technologies help minimize the complexities associated with AI workloads and unlock improved performance, empowering businesses to innovate faster and achieve their AI goals.”

Kamran Amini, vice president and general manager, Server, Storage & Software Defined Solutions, Lenovo Infrastructure Solution Group
“Lenovo is committed to shaping a future where AI enhances every aspect of computing environments. This commitment is embodied in our collaboration with Red Hat and Intel, aiming to harness the full potential of AI through our Lenovo Edge-to-Cloud Solutions. By using Red Hat OpenShift AI, powered by the latest 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors with Intel AMX, and soon-to-include Intel Gaudi 3 AI Accelerators, we are optimizing and speeding up AI deployments. This synergy allows us to deliver sophisticated AI solutions that operate seamlessly across the hybrid cloud, meeting the evolving needs of our diverse clientele.”

Ray Pang, vice president, Technology & Business Enablement, Supermicro
“At Supermicro, we envision a world where AI is seamlessly integrated into every facet of our computing solutions. To bring this vision to life, Supermicro is working closely with industry leaders like Red Hat and Intel. By leveraging Red Hat OpenShift AI and the powerful capabilities of 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors with Intel AMX and Intel’s Gaud 2 and Gaudi 3 AI Accelerators—we are enhancing and accelerating AI operations across hybrid cloud environments, ensuring our customers have access to the most advanced AI tools on Supermicro servers.”

To learn more about how to integrate and simplify AI workloads with Intel and Red Hat, visit the website here.

Confidential Computing Capabilities with Cohesity and Intel Collaboration

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Flexxon Fortifies Data Center Security with X-PHY Server Defender

Taylor Graham — Tue, 07 May 2024 05:00:34 +0000

At RSA Conference 2024, Flexxon, a trailblazer in hardware cybersecurity, introduced the third addition of its X-PHY® cybersecurity solution ecosystem.

Server Defender is the world’s first standalone and fully independent cybersecurity module that enables full-stack monitoring and defense from the hardware and firmware layers. The solution also introduces a much-needed capability to the cybersecurity ecosystem – full system reversion in the unfortunate event of a breach. The early access program for Server Defender is now open to qualified customers, granting privileged access as new capabilities are introduced over the course of the year.

“We are excited to unveil Server Defender today, building on the success of our hardware-based X-PHY^® endpoint solutions,” said Camellia Chan, CEO and Co-Founder of Flexxon. “Server Defender is built upon truly revolutionary technology that will change the cyberwar landscape in our favor by addressing the greatest needs of end users and service providers.

Not only does it boast real-time monitoring and response capabilities, but Server Defender can also reduce downtime by at least 50% and instantly restore lost or compromised data. Cyberattacks can bring operations to a grinding halt, jeopardizing customer relationships and costing businesses millions in downtime and recovery efforts. That’s why Server Defender has been meticulously designed to mitigate these risks by delivering industry-leading recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).”

Chan continued, “This groundbreaking platform ensures businesses can maintain seamless service delivery even in the event of a breach, while facilitating lightning-fast data recovery and providing granular recovery points with negligible data loss. With Server Defender, our customers can drive their core operations forward, secure in the knowledge that their data and services are safeguarded against sophisticated cyber threats”.

The Current Landscape: Defenders are Losing

Reports of escalating breaches and ransomware attacks in the last year alone demonstrate the glaring vulnerabilities in our current cybersecurity standards and the dire need for action. From the ransomware attack launched by the LockBit group on ICBC Bank to the catastrophic Change Healthcare breach, which reportedly cost the group upwards of USD 2 billion and counting. An April 2024 survey report found that the biggest risk associated with data breaches was to business continuity, with 43% of respondents reporting unplanned downtime as a result of the cyberattack.

Attacks span financial and reputational losses, prolonged periods of downtime and interruptions, the inability to recover lost data and even, the palpable impact to end-users such as clients of financial institutions and healthcare services. With each successful attack, hackers grow bolder and greedier.

Patented Matrix Shield Technology – A Multiplier for Security

Server Defender was developed to address the spectrum of issues pre-emptively, during, and post-attack. Its market-changing capabilities are built upon Flexxon’s multi-patented Matrix Shield technology, which achieves constant monitoring of attack vectors targeting the PCIe system protocol, memory subsystem, kernel level, OS level, and network layers.

The algorithm transforms all objects and files into fundamental numeric representations to offer real-time threat detection and seamless, live reversion, delivering minimal downtime even in the face of file or system corruption. To achieve comprehensive detection, response and recovery, the Matrix Shield security vault uses a combination of matrices, neural networks, and a validation system to ensure that data is stored and monitored securely.

Armed with the Matrix Shield, Server Defender provides centralized security monitoring across multiple servers and data centers. With a single, user-friendly dashboard, users can keep an eye on server security spanning:

A single server at one location
A pod of multiple servers grouped at one site
Servers distributed across different cities or regions

This unified view delivers a complete, real-time picture of a user’s server security status everywhere, functioning like a command center for total oversight. This allows the true power of Server Defender to be unlocked, analyzing large amounts of security data gathered from monitoring multiple servers. Through big data analytics, Server Defender can identify even the most subtle attack patterns that may go unnoticed when looking at just one server.

Step 1: Prioritizing Attack Surface Reduction

Phase 1 of Server Defender’s rollout emphasizes full architecture attack surface reduction, effectively minimizing weak spots and risks to set a strong foundation for threat detection and response against sophisticated attacks. Delivering true Zero Day protection, it is capable of identifying, prioritizing, and closing attack paths leading to Tier 0 assets—the most critical and sensitive resources within an organization’s IT infrastructure. Given the mission-critical nature of these assets, their immediate prioritization and protection are essential first steps for any organization or service provider.

Capabilities and features that early access partners can expect include:

Enhanced data security through the patented Data Bus Sentinel, which monitors read and write operations to RAM
Threat detection through real-time data acquisition and security verification
Direct Memory Access (DMA) attack monitoring via a user-friendly web portal to track and monitor at all times
Business continuity assurance through the recovery engine and automated rollback guardian

Initial testing has yielded impressive results with improvements being implemented on a continuous basis, including:

90% reduction in false positives
50% faster threat detection
50% downtime reduction
35% faster threat resolution

A Phased Rollout Toward Truly Holistic Server Security

In the following months, additional features will be tested and integrated to further strengthen security capabilities across the entire network, remedy software vulnerabilities, and shut down an ever-evolving barrage of emerging cyber attacks.

Phases 2 and 3 will deliver:

Full architecture threat detection and response, such as monitoring and response to a wide range of malware threats, including Fuzzers, Analysis, Backdoors, Denial of Service (DoS), Exploits, Generic, Reconnaissance, Shellcode, and Worms
Application layer security, by leveraging the physical hardware layer to fortify all seven layers of the OSI model and five layers of TCP/IP model, ensuring a collaborative defense that leaves no room for threats to penetrate any external or internal layer for a truly comprehensive security posture

Enrolment in Server Defender’s early access program is available upon request by submitting your interest on the program’s landing page, with pricing starting from USD 2,800.

Scheduled for full release by end-2024, the Company will share updates on the general availability of Server Defender as and when available on its official platforms.

The De Facto Standard: Dynamic Hardware-based Security

Since the launch of the X-PHY^® SSD in 2021, Flexxon has developed its suite of hardware-based dynamic cybersecurity solutions encompassing endpoint protection and enterprise security solutions. The Company’s endpoint solutions include the X-PHY^® cybersecurity laptops and X-PHY^® Vault – the world’s first warm crypto wallet and secure personal cloud device. Flexxon’s Server Defender is the first release in the Company’s enterprise security solutions line.

With the goal of delivering effective yet easy-to-implement security solutions, Flexxon continues to develop an entire ecosystem of security innovations to safeguard our digital lives, returning peace of mind and freedom to users across the world.

For more information about Flexxon’s X-PHY Server Defender, please visit the website here.

Oracle and Digital Realty Collaboration Supports the Next Era of Workloads

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Oracle and Digital Realty Collaboration Supports the Next Era of Workloads

Taylor Graham — Fri, 03 May 2024 19:05:58 +0000

Digital Realty announced a partnership with Oracle that is intended to accelerate the expansion and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) within businesses. This strategic collaboration is geared towards creating hybrid integrated solutions to tackle Data Gravity challenges, expedite the time to market for enterprises to introduce next-generation AI services, and unlock business outcomes driven by data and AI.

As part of this collaboration, Oracle will deploy critical GPU-based infrastructure in a dedicated Digital Realty data center in Northern Virginia. This deployment, which leverages Digital Realty’s open, purpose-built global data center solution PlatformDIGITAL®, will cater to a wide range of enterprises and AI customers, helping them to address critical infrastructure challenges, including those experienced with NVIDIA and AMD deployments. By leveraging the expertise and resources of both Oracle and Digital Realty, customers with mixed requirements can benefit from a tailored and efficient solution that meets their specific needs for GPU-based infrastructure.

This announcement further strengthens Digital Realty’s existing partnership with Oracle, which currently encompasses multiple deployments across the globe, 11 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) FastConnect points of presence, a global ServiceFabric presence, and a recent Oracle Solution Center deployment in one of Digital Realty’s Frankfurt data centers. In the fourth quarter of last year, Digital Realty successfully implemented an OCI Dedicated Region deployment for a major financial services customer, showcasing the potential of the collaboration between Oracle and Digital Realty in meeting enterprise customers’ hybrid cloud requirements.

Patrick Cyril, Global Vice President, Technical Sales & Customer Excellence – Revenue Operations, Oracle: “We’re excited to be working with Digital Realty to bring innovative solutions to the market that empower our enterprise customers workloads and their ecosystems to harness the boundless possibilities of AI. Together, we’re not just pioneering technology; we’re unlocking a future where every challenge is met with unparalleled innovation and every opportunity is maximized.”

Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty: “We’re delighted to build upon our relationship with Oracle and enable the next generation of hybrid and private AI adoption among enterprises. Together, we’re bringing the extensive capabilities of the cloud to enterprises’ private data sets through secure interconnection, unlocking new data-driven business outcomes.”

This collaboration signifies a significant step forward in the advancement of AI technologies. By combining their expertise and resources, these industry leaders are poised to revolutionize the AI landscape and empower enterprises to unlock the full potential of their data. To learn more about the Oracle and Digital Realty partnership, visit the website here.

Delta Unveils Solutions for Smart Factory Automation and e-Mobility

Taylor Graham — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:00:08 +0000

At Hannover Messe 2024, Delta is unveiling its unique capabilities aimed at promoting smart manufacturing and sustainable cities under the theme “Realizing an Intelligent, Sustainable, and Connected World.” The exhibition highlights a new generation of collaborative robots (cobots) tailored for smart factory automation applications, along with a new 500kW DC ultra-fast charger suitable for both conventional and heavy-duty electric vehicles (EVs).

At today’s press conference, Dalip Sharma, President and General Manager of Delta Electronics EMEA Region, said, “Delta’s dedication to sustainability is intricately woven into our innovative solutions and business model, mirroring Europe’s net-zero endeavors. Moreover, our proactive sustainability measures, such as our Internal Carbon Pricing system, have been crucial for Delta’s factories, R&D centers, and offices in EMEA to achieve RE100 in 2023. We are also proud to demonstrate our new factory digital twin, developed on the NVIDIA Omniverse^TM platform, for our smart production demo lines.”

Across the approximately 400-square-meter Delta booth, visitors will engage on a journey into the world of intelligent infrastructure across three sectors: Intelligent Industry, Smart Energy Infrastructure, and ICT Infrastructure.

Transformation to Smart Factory

Michael Mayer-Rosa, Senior Director, Industrial Automation Business Group at Delta Electronics EMEA Region, said, “Leveraging our deep-rooted expertise in machine, process, and factory automation, we’re honored to unveil Delta’s D-Bot series cobots at Hannover Messe 2024.” Delta’s cobots are engineered for swift deployment and straightforward operation, offering plug-and-play functionality alongside intuitive programming. This innovation significantly bolsters Delta’s capabilities in smart factory automation, directly catering to the industry’s urgent requirements for adaptability and efficiency. Furthermore, the cobot portfolio boasts payload capacities up to 30 kg, reach spans as long as 1800 mm, and compatibility with EtherCAT, CODESYS, and Modbus to ensure optimal levels of precision, in applications such as pick & place, palletizing, and welding.

Just last month, Delta joined NVIDIA GTC, a global AI conference. With a digital twin developed on NVIDIA Omniverse, Delta simplified the simulation process of tray and object detection on a demo robotic line by consolidating the 3D data of diverse equipment. The result on the demo line was an increase in the synthetic data generation capabilities. The solution saves time to plan and optimize factory operations before actual production starts.

Energy Transition for Grid Challenges

Delta supports the world’s current energy transition with its comprehensive Smart Energy Infrastructure solutions, including PV inverters, energy storage systems, a variety of AC and DC EV chargers, and an advanced EV Charging Management System. At Hannover Messe, the Company is demonstrating a fast-charging station application, including the brand new 500kW DC heavy-duty EV charger, the UFC 500, designed for fleet and public charging, and the DeltaGrid^® EVM. This integration, complemented by Delta’s smart energy solutions, illustrates the Company’s commitment to alleviating grid stress from the fast-growing demand for fast EV charging.

Strong Information & Communications Infrastructure in the Age of Digital Transformation

At Hannover, Delta is also showcasing its readiness to be the partner in establishing a solid information & communications infrastructure, featuring complete ICT solutions, from prefabricated to edge data centers, and 5G telecommunication infrastructure, all designed for optimal efficiency, reliability, and scalability. These solutions are enabling higher energy efficiency and productivity in critical applications in the era of IIoT and digital transformation.

Discover Delta’s innovations at Hannover Messe 2024

Delta invites visitors to explore its latest technologies and solutions from 22 to 26 April in Hall 11, Stand C05. Media representatives unable to attend the press conference this afternoon can still arrange interviews with Delta during the trade fair. For more information about Delta’s participation in Hannover Messe 2024 and its smart innovative solutions, visit the website here.

Cisco Hypershield Reimagines Data Centers and Cloud Security

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Cisco Hypershield Reimagines Data Centers and Cloud Security

Taylor Graham — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 13:00:15 +0000

Cisco introduced a groundbreaking strategy to safeguard data centers and clouds, adapting to the growing requirements imposed by the AI revolution on IT infrastructure. Cisco is redesigning the way we harness and protect AI and other modern workloads through the industry-leading Cisco Hypershield. This remarkable advancement shifts the balance in favor of defenders, complementing recent initiatives to advance AI infrastructure using Cisco’s ethernet switching, silicon, and compute portfolio.

Cisco Hypershield protects applications, devices and data across public and private data centers, clouds and physical locations – anywhere customers need it. Designed and built with AI in mind from the start, Hypershield enables organizations to achieve security outcomes beyond what has been possible with humans alone.

“Cisco Hypershield is one of the most significant security innovations in our history,” said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chair and CEO. “With our data advantage and strength in security, infrastructure and observability platforms, Cisco is uniquely positioned to help our customers harness the power of AI.”

Hypershield is a revolutionary new security architecture. It’s built with technology originally developed for hyperscale public clouds and is now available for enterprise IT teams of all sizes. More a fabric than a fence, Hypershield enables security enforcement to be placed everywhere it needs to be. Every application service in the datacenter. Every Kubernetes cluster in the public cloud. Every container and virtual machine (VM). It can even turn every network port into a high-performance security enforcement point, bringing completely new security capabilities not just to clouds, but to the data center, on a factory floor, or a hospital imaging room. This new technology blocks application exploits in minutes and stops lateral movement in its tracks.

“AI has the potential to empower the world’s 8 billion people to have the same impact as 80 billion. With this abundance, we must reimagine the role of the data center – how data centers are connected, secured, operated and scaled,” said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Security and Collaboration at Cisco. “The power of Cisco Hypershield is that it can put security anywhere you need it – in software, in a server, or in the future even in a network switch. When you have a distributed system that could include hundreds of thousands of enforcement points, simplified management is mission critical. And we need to be orders-of-magnitude more autonomous, at an orders-of-magnitude lower cost.”

Security enforcement with Hypershield happens at three different layers: in software, in virtual machines, and in network and compute servers and appliances, leveraging the same powerful hardware accelerators that are used extensively in high-performance computing and hyperscale public clouds.

Hypershield was built on three key pillars:

AI-Native: Built and designed from the start to be autonomous and predictive, Hypershield manages itself once it earns trust, making a hyper-distributed approach at scale possible.
Cloud-Native: Hypershield is built on open source eBPF, the default mechanism for connecting and protecting cloud-native workloads in the hyperscale cloud. Cisco acquired the leading provider of eBPF for enterprises, Isovalent, earlier this month.
Hyper-Distributed: Cisco is completely reimagining how traditional network security works by embedding advanced security controls into servers and the network fabric itself. Hypershield spans all clouds and leverages hardware acceleration like Data Processing Units (DPU) to analyze and respond to anomalies in application and network behavior. It shifts security closer to the workloads that need protection.

Cisco, with its industry-leading expertise in networking, security and extensive partner ecosystem, together with NVIDIA, is committed to building and optimizing AI-native security solutions to protect and scale the data centers of tomorrow. This collaboration includes leveraging the NVIDIA Morpheus cybersecurity AI framework for accelerated network anomaly detection, as well as NVIDIA NIM microservices for powering custom security AI assistants for the enterprise. NVIDIA’s class of converged accelerators combine the power of GPU and DPU computing, to augment Cisco Hypershield with robust security from cloud to edge.

“Enterprises across all industries are seeking the security that can protect them against ever expanding cyber threats,” said Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA. “Together, Cisco and NVIDIA are leveraging the power of AI to deliver powerful, incredibly secure data center infrastructure that will enable enterprises to transform their businesses and benefit customers everywhere.”

As a revolutionary new security architecture, Hypershield is solving three key customer challenges in defending against today’s sophisticated threat landscape:

Distributed Exploit Protection: Attackers are adept at weaponizing newly published vulnerabilities faster than defenders can patch. With defenders seeing nearly 100 new vulnerabilities every day, according to Cisco Talos Threat Intelligence, this can lead to catastrophic results. Hypershield delivers protection in minutes by automatically testing and deploying compensating controls into the distributed fabric of enforcement points.
Autonomous Segmentation: Once an attacker is in the network, segmentation is key to stopping their lateral movement. Hypershield perpetually observes, auto-reasons and re-evaluates existing policies to autonomously segment the network, solving this in large and complex environments.
Self-qualifying Upgrades: Hypershield automates the incredibly laborious and time-consuming process of testing and deploying upgrades once they are ready, leveraging a dual data plane. This completely new software architecture allows software upgrades and policy changes to be placed in a digital twin that tests updates using the customer’s unique combination of traffic, policies and features, then applying those updates with zero downtime.

Built into the Security Cloud, Cisco’s unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform, Cisco Hypershield is expected to be Generally Available in August 2024. With Cisco’s recent acquisition of Splunk, customers will gain unparalleled visibility and insights across their entire digital footprint for unprecedented security protection.

“AI is not just a force for good but also a tool used for nefarious purposes, allowing hackers to reverse engineer patches and create exploits in record time. Cisco looks to address an AI enabled problem with an AI solution as Cisco Hypershield aims to tip the scales back in favor of the defender by shielding new vulnerabilities against exploit in minutes – rather than the days, weeks or even months as we wait for patches to actually get deployed,” said Frank Dickson, Group Vice President, Security & Trust at IDC. “With the number of vulnerabilities ever increasing and the time for attackers to exploit them at scale ever decreasing, it’s clear that patching alone can’t keep up. Tools like Hypershield are necessary to combat an increasingly clever malicious cyber adversary.”

“Cisco Hypershield takes aim at the complex security challenges of modern, AI-scale data centers. Cisco’s vision of a self-managing fabric that seamlessly integrates from the network to the endpoint will help redefine what’s possible for security at scale,” said Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst of ZK Research. “For instance, this level of visibility and control across a hyper-distributed environment prevents lateral movement of attackers, enabled through a unique approach to segmentation that’s autonomous and highly effective. While this may seem fantastical, the time is right given recent AI advances combined with the maturity of cloud-native technologies like eBPF.”

“At AHEAD we believe cybersecurity should be integrated into everything we do. Bolted-on security is more expensive and less effective,” said Steven Aiello, Field Chief Information Security Officer at AHEAD. “Cisco Hypershield ensures that cyber protections are included into the fabric of the enterprise. Distributed Exploit Protection will be a massive win for blue teams – legacy synthetic patching was primarily limited to edge devices, allowing lateral movement once an attacker breached the perimeter. It’s a great day for cyber-defenders!”

To learn more about Cisco Hypershield, visit the website here.

Cisco and TELUS Pave the Road for Enhanced Connected Car Experiences

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DataBank Establishes Support for the Next Phase of Expansion

Taylor Graham — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 18:30:36 +0000

DataBank has announced the establishment of a new $725 million credit facility to fund its current and upcoming data center construction initiatives.

The new capital will fund ongoing expansion in existing markets including on its campuses in New York, Denver, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and Dallas. The facility is supported by a strong bank group of 14 leading digital infrastructure banks including TD Securities engaged as the Administrative Agent and Joint Lead Arranger. The financing provides an attractively priced source of capital that is a long-term and scalable solution to meet accelerating demand for capacity within DataBank’s footprint.

This also will represent DataBank’s second green financing, following closely on the heels of the February 2024 Green Bond. In order to qualify as a green loan, the facilities being financed will meet specific sustainability criteria for water conservation, carbon emissions reduction, and a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). These projects, as well as others underway across DataBank’s portfolio, are all contributing to its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.

“New and emerging AI applications have created unprecedented demand for DataBank’s data center capacity,” said Kevin Ooley, DataBank’s President and Chief Financial Officer. “This new credit facility will allow us to meet that demand more quickly by shortening financing and construction timelines across all our campuses, but especially as we ramp up activity in the new ones we’ve announced in Northern Virginia and Atlanta.”

In November 2023, DataBank announced the acquisition of an 85-acre campus in Culpeper, VA that will support up to 192MW and 1.4M gross square feet of data center space. Just one month before that, it had announced the acquisition of a 95-acre campus in Atlanta capable of supporting another 120MW and 1M gross square feet of data center space. Once fully deployed, the expansion of the facilities on those two campuses would nearly double the current 375MW and 2.7M square feet across DataBank’s portfolio of 65+ facilities in 27 metros today.

TD Securities was the Administrative Agent, Joint Lead Arranger, and Joint Bookrunner in the transaction. Citizens Bank, CoBank, Deustche Bank, First Citizens, and Société Générale were Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners for the transaction with JP Morgan, Nomura Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Regions Bank joining as Joint Lead Arrangers. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs were Co-Documentation Agents. Cadence Bank and Preferred Bank supported the transaction as well. Jones Day was DataBank’s legal advisor for the transaction.

Learn more about DataBank’s Data Center on-going expansion here.

Two Data Centers Under Construction in the Dallas Metro Area

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DPO and Partner Schneider Electric Develop Wind-Powered Modular AI Data Center

Taylor Graham — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 18:30:36 +0000

Digital Power Optimization, Inc. revealed a new collaboration with Schneider Electric to design, build, and deploy modular AI data centers situated behind the meter across various wind farms in Texas. Working alongside Schneider Electric, DPO will tailor modules for installation at large-scale wind farm locations to facilitate its recently unveiled 100 MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and related data center buildout.

Unlike most traditional data centers procuring clean power through virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs) or offsets, these high-performance computing (“HPC”) facilities running AI applications will draw a majority of their energy directly from the adjacent wind farms. Through this partnership, DPO will work with Schneider Electric to develop power-dense data centers co-located with renewable power plants under an innovative structure that allows new forms of GPU-based computing, while driving efficiencies for cost savings and improved sustainability by levering existing power generation assets.

“We’re extremely excited to have Schneider Electric’s support in this project,” said Andrew Webber, DPO’s CEO. “Working with partners who have deep expertise in this space is a key piece of addressing these critical challenges at scale. We’re delighted to work with an experienced team to bring to life this new class of renewable-powered computing facilities.”

Schneider Electric has extensive experience in the engineering and construction of modular data center facilities, including its EcoStruxure solution. Beyond this initial 100 MW being developed at Texas wind facilities, DPO and Schneider expect to deploy additional modular HPC data centers at DPO clients’ various solar, wind, and hydroelectric sites.

For more information on DPO, please visit DigitalPowerOptimization.com.

HPC Market Solutions Delivered by Kelvion and Rosseau Partnership

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The XConn Apollo Switch Releases Early Production Samples

Taylor Graham — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:00:17 +0000

XConn Technologies has introduced preliminary production samples of its “Apollo” CXL 2.0 switch. The XConn Apollo switch served as the primary element in a real-world use case application demonstration of a CXL Memory Pool alongside Samsung during MemCon 2024.

The XConn Apollo switch is the industry’s first and only hybrid CXL 2.0 and PCIe Gen 5 interconnect solution. On a single 256-lane SoC, the XConn switch offers the industry’s lowest port-to-port latency and lowest power consumption per port in a single chip at a low total cost of ownership. Designed for seamless use with Samsung DRAM Memory Expander supporting CXL, XConn Apollo removes the traditional memory barriers to revolutionize memory architecture.

“Together with the CXL community, XConn is revolutionizing the memory landscape to unlock technology innovation and application performance, for generative AI as well as general cloud computing,” said Gerry Fan, CEO, XConn. “Today’s release of production silicon samples of our Apollo CXL 2.0 switch marks a new milestone in our next-generation interconnect journey. We are now empowering the realization of CXL’s promise and showing its practical use with a CXL memory pool.”

“At MemCon 2024, Samsung is excited to showcase the real-world value of CXL memory technology in action,” said Dr. Sungwook Ryu, Head of Samsung Semiconductor Memory Solutions Lab. “We strongly support the collaborative CXL ecosystem and will continue to work with CXL players to accelerate the adoption of this memory innovation. XConn CXL switch SoC chip is used in Samsung CMM-B (CXL Memory Module – Box).”

The XConn and Samsung demonstration was featured during MemCon 2024, March 26-27.

Available now in production samples, the XConn Apollo switch also supports a PCIe Gen 5 only mode for AI-intensive applications and is a key component in Open Accelerator Module (OAM), Just-a-bunch-of-GPUs (JBOG) and Just-a-Bunch-of-Accelerators (JBOA) environments. It features full support for CXL 2.0, is backwards compatible with CXL 1.1 and supports PCIe Gen 5 in hybrid mode. For more information about the XConn Apollo Switch or customer samples and/or Apollo reference boards, contact XConn here.

Composable Memory Solution Featured at SC23 by XConn and Liqid

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