25m | Melanie Mingas

The latest news from STC, Involta, atNorth, DEWA and WISeKey

Carlyle takes Involta

Fund managed by global investment firm Carlyle to acquire Involta, a data center company focused on hybrid IT and cloud infrastructure, including data center colocation, hybrid cloud, edge, fiber and related products.

The terms and value of the investment were not disclosed, but Carlyle said her “capital, resources and expertise” would be used to expand Involta’s operations. Involta owns and operates 12 data centers and an internal network of over 12,000 kilometers of fiber.

Joshua Pang, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Carlyle’s Infrastructure Group, said, “Involta has built a world-class platform with a proven operating model to deliver high-quality service to customers in a world. increasingly complex hybrid cloud. growth opportunity given the secular long-term demand drivers of the proliferation of data, digital connectivity and the digitization of corporate and institutional operating models. We look forward to a strong, long-term partnership and leveraging scale, resources and access capital to drive sustainable growth at Involta.

Partners Group to acquire atNorth

Partners Group to acquire atNorth, as part of its plan to create a leading pan-Nordic provider of sustainable and efficient data center solutions.

atNorth provides uniquely renewable, energy efficient and cost optimized data center hosting services to its customers. Its two sites in Iceland have a total committed electric capacity of around 83 MW with another site of around 11 MW under construction in Stockholm, Sweden, which will begin operations next month.

As it drives the growth of atNorth, Partners Group will work with management on a transformational value creation plan that will include building new sites, growing the contract portfolio, creating a connectivity ecosystem and institutionalization. internal processes.

Esther Peiner, Managing Director, Private Infrastructure Europe, Partners Group, said: “This opportunity to build next-generation infrastructure in the Nordic countries lies at the intersection of our giga themes of digitization and decarbonization. Emerging technologies, such as machine learning, AI and 5G. , will likely lead to exponential growth in the data center infrastructure required to power and run such applications. At the same time, business demand for green IT solutions is increasing. We believe in the growth potential of atNorth and look forward to working with CEO Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson and Deputy CEO Eva Guðbjörnsdóttir on our transformational value creation plan. “

MEA’s largest solar-powered data center leads the way

The first phase of construction of the largest solar-powered data center in the Middle East and Africa has started.

The installation is owned by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and will be Uptime TIER III certified.

The data center will be implemented by Moro Hub (Data Hub Integrated Solutions LLC), a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, ​​the digital arm of DEWA at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park in Dubai. The carbon neutral green data center will use 100% renewable energy with a capacity greater than 100 megawatts (MW).

“Data is quickly becoming the new engine of economic expansion and diversification. As more and more data center facilities are established in the future, this project serves as an example to combine digital and power electronic technologies to create a greener, low-carbon ICT infrastructure fueled by by renewable energies.

“We are committed to contributing to carbon neutrality around the world and are very proud to work with Moro Hub, in what is truly a historic project for the region in this regard,” said Steven Yi, president of Huawei Middle East and Africa.

This new facility is the second solar-powered green data center in Dubai launched by Moro Hub.

STC Partners with Huawei, SBM and MMR for Advanced Data Centers

STC has entered into partnership agreements with Huawei, SBM and MMR to establish advanced cloud-based data centers in Saudi Arabia.

STC said the new partnerships aimed to expand capabilities “to accelerate the kingdom’s digital transformation agenda through a flexible data distribution process that meets international standards.”

A few days after this news, Solutions by STC signed a two-year, $ 42 million contract with its main shareholder, STC, for centralized storage servers and an Internet gateway.

The news followed an earlier pledge to invest $ 400 million in “the region’s largest cloud-based data center.”

WISeKey to invest $ 10 million in crypto mining at Geneva data center

WISeKey has committed $ 10 million to begin bitcoin mining operations at its Geneva-based data center.

The former Swiss military bunker turned into a data center is located in the Swiss Alps and is so secure that it is capable of protecting data from a nuclear disaster, according to WISeKey. The bunkers have been remodeled to provide an ultra-secure environment for bitcoin mining as they have IT security certifications from ISO 27001 to the EM-SHIELD seal, which certifies protection against electromagnetic pulses.

WISeKey’s crypto mining operations will be carried out via a special purpose vehicle already established in Zug under the name TrusteCoin AG. The objective will be to acquire and gradually install more than a thousand bitcoin mining machines in its secure bunker facilities in the Swiss Alps which will be connected to a control center at the WISeKey bunker in Geneva. WISeKey is also studying other similar sites offering the same type of bunkers, such as in Gibraltar and the United States, which will be gradually connected to the network taking into account regulatory and sustainability aspects.