Robot Crabs And Laser Cats: How Data Centers Got Weird In 2023

The article discusses some of the most unconventional data center stories from 2023. Amazon's AI chatbot, Q, reportedly leaked confidential data, including the locations of Amazon Web Services data centers. Microsoft introduced "crab robots" to make data center storage more efficient through Project Silica, which stores data on laser-etched glass plates. Other companies like Oracle, Digital Realty, and Scala have started using robotic dogs for tasks like equipment inspections and security roles. A data center in New York was named the city's ugliest building, and a cat caused a prolonged outage at a Department of Veterans Affairs data center by jumping on a keyboard and deleting a server cluster.

NASA tested the potential of using lasers to transmit broadband video and other data across vast distances by sending a video of a cat named Taters from a spacecraft to an observatory. This technology could have broad applications for the data center industry, particularly for space-based data, which has been limited by connectivity and latency problems.

Key takeaways

Amazon's AI chatbot, Q, has reportedly been leaking confidential data, including the locations of Amazon Web Services data centers.
Microsoft is using "crab robots" in an initiative called Project Silica to make data center storage more efficient by storing data on laser-etched glass plates.
Sabey Data Centers’ facility at 375 Pearl St. in Lower Manhattan has been ranked as New York’s ugliest building and the third-ugliest building in the U.S.
A Department of Veterans Affairs data center in Kansas City, Missouri, experienced a prolonged outage due to a cat jumping on a technician’s keyboard and accidentally deleting an entire server cluster.

Robot Crabs And Laser Cats: How Data Centers Got Weird In 2023

Key takeaways

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