The Ultimate Guide to Data centers
A curated Kiwi edition of TechDay 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
McKay completes electrical works on Tauhei solar farm
The 150 MW AC project adds to New Zealand's utility-scale solar build-out, with McKay delivering the full electrical package at Tauhei Solar Farm.
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.
Analyst Insights
Research and market analysis connected to Data centers
Check Point launches AI-scale security orchestrator 200
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
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.
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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
Enteligent unveils PowerCore stack for AI data centres
The stack could lift AI rack compute density by up to 50% as operators face rising power demands and heat from GPU-heavy workloads.
Cerebras to bring fast AI inference to Oracle cloud
The addition will give Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers a faster option for AI agents, with Cerebras inference due in calendar year 2027.
ORCA launches PT-3 quantum computer for business use
Businesses can now trial quantum workloads in London as the room-temperature system is already being used for protein design and energy scheduling.
Oracle expands NVIDIA AI cloud with Vera Rubin systems
Customers will soon get broader access to NVIDIA Vera Rubin systems on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, as the pair scale AI capacity for training and agents.
AMD & Meta expand AI partnership with Helios systems
Meta is boosting the computing base for its frontier models with AMD hardware, while AMD will invest USD $1 billion in the equity offering.
Yokogawa launches gas density meter with touchscreen
The new meter is aimed at plants needing faster gas monitoring, with colour touchscreen controls and digital links for industrial systems.
LG Electronics posts strong Q3 on vehicle & AI demand
Vehicle and AI data centre orders helped lift operating profit 34.1 per cent to KRW 781.9 billion in the third quarter.
3C merges with Datalec to form AI data centre group
The new group aims to capture rising demand for AI-ready infrastructure, with revenue expected to top USD $400 million in 2026.
Salience Labs raises USD $125m in Bullhound-led round
Demand for AI data centre networking is drawing major chip investors as Salience Labs plans to expand manufacturing and Silicon Valley operations.
Vertiv & Deloitte issue guide to AI infrastructure
As AI projects move from pilots to production, the guide warns that power, cooling and connectivity limits may decide where workloads can run.
Oracle to offer Google TPUs on OCI Cloud from 2027
Enterprise users will gain another AI chip choice in OCI from 2027, as Oracle becomes the first hyperscale cloud outside Google to host TPUs.
Akamai launches AI inference & agent sandbox tools
The new services are designed to help enterprises move AI systems into production while keeping latency, data access and agent security under control.
Cloudera launches blueprints to move AI into production
Only 28% of enterprises have moved at least 40% of their AI pilots into production, according to Deloitte research cited by Cloudera.
Cloudflare records 49 global internet disruptions in Q3
Power cuts, shutdowns and conflict disrupted internet access worldwide, with Cloudflare logging 49 incidents in the quarter and Iraq driving 18 exam-related outages.
Leostream launches cloud remote access alternative to VPN
Organisations can now limit contractors and staff to approved machines only, avoiding wider network exposure and reducing reliance on VPNs.
Virtuozzo adds NVIDIA support & lite deployment option
Smaller sites can now run AI and storage together more cheaply, as the new version targets remote offices and on-premises deployments.
3C merges with Datalec to form AI data centre group
Rising demand for AI-ready infrastructure has prompted the new group to target more than USD $400 million in revenue in 2026.
Nvidia backs open standards for AI factory builds
The move could let data centre builders use common blueprints for high-power AI systems, easing deployment of racks up to 250kW.
Enteligent launches modular power stack for AI racks
It aims to ease a growing power bottleneck in AI data centres, where operators are struggling to fit more compute into the same rack space.
WWT & DDN launch AI storage design for NVIDIA Vera Rubin
It aims to ease power and planning bottlenecks for AI campuses by matching storage to GPU racks and cutting recomputation delays.
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
