Data centers might seem to be just boring warehouses taking up space and power, but they became increasingly important components to various growing technology and services in 2024, which resulted in a parallel surge in data center infrastructure development and construction.

Dell’Oro Group noted in a recent report that the data center physical infrastructure (DCPI) market maintained double-digit revenue growth during the third quarter of 2024, “as purpose-built physical infrastructure deployments to support accelerated computing workloads increasingly materialize at scale.”

“Top-line revenue growth for the DCPI market was comparable to the previous quarter, but the underlying product mix notably shifted toward products and systems with characteristics to support high-density accelerated computing workloads,” Dell’Oro Group Research Director Lucas Beran, wrote. “As expected, this shift was primarily realized from growth in liquid cooling and high-capacity power distribution infrastructure, which we anticipate will accelerate further in the coming year.”

Synergy Research Group (SRG) pointed to a similar growth trajectory in 2024, noting that there were 510 new data center facilities in various stages of planning or construction around the world at mid-year.

Below are the five data center-related stories that generated the most attention from SDxCentral readers in 2024.

Dell terminates VMware deal post-Broadcom close Dell Technologies has terminated a distribution agreement with former subsidiary VMware just months after VMware was acquired by Broadcom. The move comes just ahead of the launch of a controversial new VMware partner program.

Dell in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing wrote that it delivered a notice to Broadcom terminating an outstanding commercial framework for how Dell and VMware distributed and collaborated on “certain solutions and go-to-market activities.” Read more

Is Broadcom willing to bargain on VMware pricing? Broadcom’s juggling of VMware pricing and licensing terms has resulted in a significant spike in what enterprises are paying for continuity, but there may be some wiggle room for those down to bargain, according to one of Broadcom’s rivals.

Nutanix executives during that vendor’s most recent earnings call took a more cautious approach to how it might take advantage of enterprise discontent with Broadcom’s moves, highlighting several hurdles that are extending these conquest sales opportunities. Read more

Broadcom’s VMware acquisition brings surprising consequences — how to prepare Broadcom’s recently closed acquisition of VMware is likely to have its share of surprises for users and ecosystem partners – some more expected than others.

Before the deal’s close, customers were concerned about future pricing, product plans, sales coverage and support. In the first quarter since, Broadcom has already started laying off VMware employees, changing how products are bundled and canceling channel contracts. Read more

Intel CEO Gelsinger leaves the chip giant listless Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s abrupt and immediate “retirement” from the chip giant ends what was a tumultuous time for the former VMware head who was brought back to Intel in hopes of steering a turnaround. It also further calls into question Intel’s ability to make headway into the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled data center space. Gelsinger left Intel less than four years after re-joining the semiconductor firm under the hallmark of turning around what had been a somewhat aimless operation. Gelsinger had been something of a legend within Intel’s halls, having spent nearly three decades at the company where he served as CTO, helped architect the 80486 processor, led 14 different microprocessor programs, and played key roles in the Core and Xeon families. Read more

Microsoft, OpenAI plan $100B Stargate AI data center, eases reliance on Nvidia Microsoft and OpenAI are planning to build an artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer data center that is estimated to cost more than $100 billion and begin running in 2028. The data center project, dubbed Stargate, will be headquartered in the United States to meet the growing demand for high-performance computing (HPC) that supports generative AI workloads and applications – a tall order not necessarily suited for traditional data centers. Read more