AWS acquires 960-MW data center center next to nuclear plant

Amazon Web Services will acquire a major data center campus from Talen Energy Corporation that is located next to Talen’s nuclear power plant in northeast Pennsylvania.

The deal is valued at $650 million.

The 1,200-acre data center campus will have access to 960-megawatts of clean, carbon-free, nuclear power.

"We are pleased today to have sold our Cumulus data center campus, unlocking significant value for Talen," said Talen President and Chief Executive Officer Mac McFarland. "This transaction provides an attractive return on Talen's investment and vision in building Cumulus, and creates value through the sale of clean carbon-free power from our top-decile Susquehanna nuclear plant."  

https://talenenergy.investorroom.com/2024-03-04-Talen-Energy-Announces-Sale-of-Zero-Carbon-Data-Center-Campus

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Nokia Bell Labs: From the Origins of AI to Automated Networking

Bell Labs conducted pioneering work in Convolutional Neural Networks, a class of deep neural networks that are particularly powerful for processing data with a grid-like topology, such as images.  This foundational work on CNNs can be traced back to the 1980s and early 1990s, with one of the key figures being Yann LeCun. 

Bell Labs is also recognized for its pioneering work in networking, beginning with Claude Shannon, also known as the "father of information theory," who published "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" while at Bell Labs.

In this short video, Thierry E. Klein, President of Solutions Research from Nokia, highlights:

- The role of AI in the entire lifecycle of a network, from its design to deployment, operation, improvement, and maintenance. He discusses how AI can be used for predictive maintenance to anticipate equipment failures and ensure uninterrupted traffic.

- The application of AI in industrial automation, data analytics, and robotics. He also explores the potential of running sophisticated AI algorithms on end devices, such as wearable tech, despite their compute and battery limitations.

- The development of specific language models for enterprise use. He shares about Nokia's language model, trained on 20,000 Nokia documents, which performs exceptionally well in a specific context and can be augmented with customer-specific information. 

https://youtu.be/Zp4sMUf0Cy8

Like our videos? Want to participate? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io

Check out complete MWC Barcelona 2024 Showcase at: https://ngi.fyi/mwc24yt

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Dell'Oro: Cloud SP spending dips on Ethernet data center switches

Spending from Cloud Service Providers (SPs) on Ethernet data center switches declined for the first time in three years, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Additionally, of particular significance this quarter, Arista achieved a milestone by securing the top revenue position in the Ethernet data center switch market for the first time ever, closely rivaling Cisco.

“In line with our expectations, Ethernet data center switch sales continued to decelerate in 4Q 2023, showing anemic growth at a very low single-digit rate,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “The deceleration in revenue growth was primarily attributed to the Cloud segment, marking its first decline since 4Q 2020. We attribute this decline to the ongoing digestion cycle at certain large Cloud SPs as well as a shift in focus to AI infrastructure buildouts where InfiniBand still dominates at certain hyperscalers. Arista recorded the highest revenue share gain during the quarter, claiming the leading revenue position for the first time ever,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2023 Ethernet Switch – Data Center Report:

• Revenue growth exhibited a mixed pattern across regions. North America and APAC outside of China experienced a downturn, largely attributed to challenging year-over-year comparisons, indicating the onset of a digestion cycle in these regions. Conversely, EMEA maintained growth, albeit with a notable deceleration compared to the preceding three quarters. China saw a surge in revenue following four consecutive quarters of sluggish growth.
• Shipments of 200 Gbps, 400 Gbps, and 800 Gbps switches constituted just over 20 percent of total port shipments in 2023. We expect 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps adoption to accelerate in 2024 and 2025, as some of the AI workloads will start favoring Ethernet. We discuss the potential future adoption of Ethernet in AI infrastructure in our recently published “AI Network for AI workload” report.

 https://www.delloro.com/news/cloud-service-provider-spending-on-ethernet-data-center-switches-declined-for-the-first-time-in-three-years/

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NTT and Red Hat Fuel AI Analysis at the Edge

NTT and Red Hat have demonstrated a real-time, AI-powered data analysis platform that significantly reduces latency and power consumption while enabling scaling that overcomes processing bottlenecks. The data center platform, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and Fujitsu, is built on NTT’s All-Photonics Network (a component of the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network, IOWN, initiative), NTT’s IOWN Data Centric Infrastructure (DCI) and Red Hat’s OpenShift software.

IOWN Solution Components:

• Utilizes the IOWN All-Photonics Network (APN) and data pipeline acceleration technologies.
• Part of the IOWN Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI).

Accelerated Data Pipeline for AI:

• Adopts Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over APN for efficient data collection and processing at the edge.
• Employs Red Hat OpenShift for container orchestration, enhancing workload flexibility across distributed data centers.

Benefits:

• Demonstrated reduction in power consumption.
• Maintains lower latency for real-time AI analysis at the edge.

Proof of Concept (PoC) Details:

• Real-time AI analysis platform tested with Yokosuka City (sensor location) and Musashino City (remote data center), both connected via APN.
• Achieved a 60% reduction in latency for aggregating sensor data for AI analysis compared to traditional methods.
• Reduced power consumption by 40% per camera at the edge for AI analysis, compared to conventional technology.
• Allows GPU scaling to support more cameras without CPU limitations.

Trial Calculation Results:

• With 1,000 cameras, potential for a further 60% reduction in power consumption.

This PoC uses NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs and NVIDIA ConnectX-6 NICs for AI inference.

This solution helps set the stage for intelligent AI-enabled technologies that will help businesses sustainably scale. With this solution, organizations can benefit from:

• Reduced overhead associated with collecting large amounts of data;
• Enhanced data collection that can be shared between metropolitan areas and remote data centers for quicker AI analysis;
• The ability to utilize locally available and potentially renewable energy, such as solar or wind;
• Increased area management security with video cameras acting as sensor devices.

"Over the last few years, we've worked as part of IOWN Global Forum to set the stage for AI innovation powered by open source and deliver technologies that help us make smarter choices for the future. This is important and exciting work, and these results help prove that we can build AI-enabled solutions that are sustainable and innovative for businesses across the globe. With Red Hat OpenShift, we can help NTT provide large-scale AI data analysis in real time and without limitations," stated Chris Wright, chief technology officers and senior vice president of Global Engineering at Red Hat and board director of IOWN Global Forum.

"The NTT Group, in great collaboration with partners, is accelerating the development of IOWN to achieve a sustainable society. This IOWN PoC is an important step forward toward green computing for AI, which supports collective intelligence of AI. We are further improving IOWN's power efficiency by applying Photonics-Electronics Convergence technologies to a computing infrastructure. We aim to embody the sustainable future of net zero emissions with IOWN," Katsuhiko Kawazoe, senior executive vice president of NTT and chairman of IOWN Global Forum.

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Orange Business: GenAI Needs Cloud, Connectivity & Cybersecurity

Check out complete MWC Barcelona 2024 Showcase at: https://ngi.fyi/mwc24yt

How is Orange Business leveraging GenAI in its operations and for the benefit of global enterprise customers? Usman Javaid, Chief Products & Marketing Officer from Orange Business, explains:

- The importance of having the right digital infrastructure: Many businesses are not ready for GenAI because they lack the necessary digital infrastructure. This includes having data in the right place, a flexible and adaptable network, and the correct security parameters and data compliance.

- The role of the 3Cs - Cloud, Connectivity, and Cybersecurity: These three elements combine to create a scalable digital infrastructure that is essential for GenAI implementation.

- The potential of GenAI for new use cases: Orange Business is helping customers identify new use cases for Gen, such as integrating Gen capability into contact center solutions for better real-time support, and using GenAI for internal network planning to reduce planning time.

Remember, without the right digital infrastructure, GenAI implementation is impossible. 

https://youtu.be/SO-W_uMXj2M

Like our videos? Want to participate? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io

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MWC Barcelona 2024 attendance topped 101,000

Attendance at last week's MWC Barcelona 2024 topped 101,000 according to GSMA, the event organizer.

John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. said, “MWC Barcelona embodies the energy and vibrancy of the mobile ecosystem. We are honoured to host this special event which once again has delivered an exceptional four days of debate, thought leadership, inspiration and deal making. Our thanks to all who came to this year’s show; and special thanks to the Host City Parties. Barcelona has delivered again!”  

Highlights

• Over 59% of attendees representing industries adjacent to the core mobile ecosystem 
• Over 2,700 exhibitors, sponsors and partners 
• Over 1,100 speakers and thought leaders, including over 40% female speakers 
• 51% of attendees at director level and above, of which 21% were C-Suite  
• 26% female attendees  
• Over 2,600 journalists and industry analysts from around the world  
• The GSMA Ministerial Programme convened over 180 delegations from 140 countries, including 2 heads of state, over 70 ministers, nearly 120 heads of regulatory authorities and over 40 intergovernmental organisations  

MWC Barcelona 2025 returns to the Fira between 3-6 March 2025.  

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FCC warns Affordable Connectivity Program ends in April

The FCC formally notified Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) providers that, due to a lack of additional funding from Congress, the agency will only be able to fully fund the program through the month of April.  

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged immediate action before the program runs out of funds and participating households no longer receive the full ACP benefit.  

In a public letter to Congressional leaders, Rosenworcel also highlighted the immediate impact that the ACP enrollment freeze has had on households wishing to enroll in the program but are now unable to do so.  Over the past three years, Rosenworcel has been traveling the country, meeting with ACP recipients and digital navigators to understand first-hand how the program is making a difference.

“Many of these households have contacted the Commission to express their disappointment and frustration that they can no longer sign up for the program.  Others have contacted the agency to express concern about the impending end of the program, noting its impact on older adults, families with school children, and military families at risk of losing their internet service without the ACP benefit,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel in her letter to Congress.  “They worry that without ACP support they will lose access to employment, education, health care, and more.”

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-issues-formal-notice-april-final-full-month-acp-program

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