Bet you I can guess the plot of the next Die Hard ? They ’ re making another Die Hard ? Let ’ s say yes for the purpose of my argument . It ’ s going to be set in a hyperscale data centre . John McLane goes on a tour to see where his tech savvy zoomer daughter works , terrorists break in , someone hacks something , explosions , etc . The word “ quantum ” is used with little justification and Bruce Willis strangles a Russian to death with a length of fibre optic cable . Sounds about right . Why a data centre ? Data Centres are looking like an increasingly tempting target for activists and domestic terror cells . A group of anarchist activists ( with a legitimate grievance against a new , extremely faschist-looking government database ) just firebombed a data centre in Athens . A data centre in Ohio got evacuated in October thanks to a bomb scare , and there was the right wing nut job who wanted to blow up the AWS site earlier this year . So far , it ’ s just anarchists who ’ ve had any measure of success , but I reckon it ’ s just a matter of time before a Hans Gruber type smells an opportunity . You ’ ve got a bet . Yippee Ki-Yay , Mother-

� ALIBABA CLOUD In addition to announcing a slew of new hyperscale cloud data centres across APAC , Alibaba Cloud is bringing the heat to AWS and Huawei with a new line of “ breakthrough ” server chips . � VANTAGE Vantage Data Centres is getting into the African data centre market at just the right time , with a $ 1 billion roadmap starting with an 80 MW campus in Johannesburg - right as the decade of African cloud begins .

� GOOGLE , FACEBOOK , AWS The US ’ biggest hyperscalers continue to ( deservedly ) attract bad press for their massive water consumption throughout droughtstricken regions like Arizona , Utah , and California . � DATA CENTRE CONSTRUCTION Globally , rising construction costs , materials shortages , and supply chain woes continue to hinder efforts to build enough data centres to meet exponentially growing demand .

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