Data Center News Roundup: Tax Breaks and Cyber Threats

With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for data center professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.

The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry — from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.

To keep up-to-date with all things data centers, subscribe to the Data Center Knowledge daily newsletter to get content straight to your inbox.

1. Royal Ransomware Now Targets Linux, VMware ESXi  

After a fruitful 2022, the Royal ransomware group (no known affiliation with the British monarchy) has expanded its ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) attack methods to now target Linux and VMware ESXi ecosystems in addition to Windows. To protect against these attacks, businesses should implement advanced logging capabilities, system patching, and an XDR/EDR solution.

2. AI on Trial: OpenAI CEO to Testify to Congress

In a tale of code and consequences, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to testify before a Senate panel, marking his first rendezvous with Congress. As generative AI technologies (like Altman’s ChatGPT) take the world by storm, policymakers are wary of their potential for misuse — from the spread of misinformation to job displacement.

3. Cloud Restrictions in the EU

In an effort to prevent foreign government interference, ENISA, the European Union's cybersecurity regulator, is proposing to require EU cloud providers to store user data within Europe. Under the proposed plan, U.S. cloud providers operating in Europe (including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google) would need to prove that the U.S. government could not access their European cloud data.

4. Tax Breaks for Amazon in Oregon

Amazon (surprise, surprise) is set to receive $1 billion in tax breaks from Oregon’s rural Morrow County for the construction of five new data centers. While local officials hope that the incentives will encourage Amazon to spend $12 billion in their county, critics have questioned the true value of these tax breaks and potential conflicts of interest among officials during negotiations.

5. U.S. DOE Invests in Data Center Cooling

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $40 million in funding for fifteen projects for its COOLERCHIPS (Cooling Operations Optimized for Leaps in Energy, Reliability, and Carbon Hyperefficiency for Information Processing Systems) program. Selected projects, including those at HP and Intel, Purdue University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, will focus on finding novel solutions to reducing the energy required to cool and power data centers.

6. Intel Faces Potential Layoffs

Following a $2.8 billion Q1 loss, Intel may be facing more layoffs. According to anonymous posts in online forums, the tech giant is seeking volunteers for buyouts and early retirement — with involuntary layoffs in the Data Center and AI (DCAI) segment predicted to follow in June.

Other Great Data Center Reads on DCK This Week

Empowering Women in Construction with Safer, More Inclusive Workplaces. The construction industry has seen a record number of women taking trade jobs. In this profile of Vicki O'Leary, Ironworkers International's director of diversity, Soni Brown looks at how the industry's skilled labor shortage and a shift in diversity hiring goals, focusing on the safety and inclusion of women, are the reasons behind this change.

How ISO, CIS, MITRE, and CSA Impact Your Cloud Security Architecture. For organizations looking to improve their cloud security architecture, DCK contributor Klaus Heller wades through today’s most widespread and impactful security standards.

Why Data Centers Will Depend on Humans for the Foreseeable Future. Contrary to popular predictions of automation, Christopher Tozzi explains why data centers will continue to depend on people to perform important tasks in design, construction, engineering, and maintenance.

That’s all for this week. Which of these stories is most important to you? Let us know in the comments below!