Data Center Bytes

Cloud computing has been sold as elastic, on-demand access to virtually unlimited resources. However, the rapid growth of data-intensive and artificial intelligence–driven workloads has strained the availability of certain types of computing, particularly specialized processors and region-specific capacity. As a result, customers (and their lawyers) are questioning whether compute resources will be available when needed.

The UK government published on April 1 a policy statement setting out its proposals for the much-anticipated Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (the Bill). The proposals include bringing data centers and managed service providers within scope of the United Kingdom’s cybersecurity regulatory framework, strengthening supply chain obligations for designated operators of essential services, updating technical security standards, and new executive powers for the UK government to direct regulated entities in relation to a specific cyber incident or threat.

The demand for data centers is continuing to accelerate, fueled largely by generative artificial intelligence, broader digital transformation, and organizations migrating to cloud infrastructure. To help navigate key challenges for meeting demand, from a vendor’s perspective, Morgan Lewis partners Barbara Melby and Mike Pierides recently authored an Insight titled Data Center Operations: Aligning Supply Chain, Compliance, and Customer Expectations. The article explores key challenges for bringing new capacity online, an operational overview of data centers, contractual considerations, and customer expectations around security, availability and resilience.