Cloud · Top stories
Google Expands Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform with Remote MCP Server
Google has enhanced its Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform by introducing a remote Managed Control Plane (MCP) server. This update allows developers to securely connect external AI agents with Google Cloud resources, facilitating agent development across various IDEs. The enhancements address developer feedback on building more efficient, production-ready AI agents.
Microsoft Exchange Online Experiences Widespread Outage Affecting Email and Authentication
Microsoft is investigating a widespread service issue impacting Exchange Online customers, causing email delays, failures, and authentication problems. The outage, tracked as EX1464935, is attributed to core authentication configuration issues within the Exchange Online infrastructure. This incident affects tens of thousands of users and follows several other Exchange Online outages in recent months.
Amazon SageMaker HyperPod integrates new Ray capabilities for distributed ML workloads
Amazon SageMaker HyperPod now includes new capabilities for Ray, an open-source framework for scaling distributed Python workloads. This integration simplifies the management of Ray clusters on HyperPod's infrastructure, providing built-in fault tolerance and improved observability for large-scale machine learning.
SpaceX Aims for Orbital Data Centers with Plan for 1 Million Satellites
SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has filed for an FCC application to create an orbital data center constellation of up to 1 million satellites. The project faces technical challenges such as satellite launch, heat dissipation, and radiation management. If successful, these centers could power millions of GPUs, potentially transforming data center operations. However, achieving the scale and timeline remains uncertain due to current launch and manufacturing capacities.
Iranian missiles reportedly destroy Amazon's Bahrain data center amid conflict escalation
Iranian state media claims that the IRGC struck and destroyed Amazon's Bahrain data center with cruise missiles. This attack is stated to be retaliation against U.S. strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility, highlighting ongoing threats to American tech infrastructure in the region.
Meta to Launch Cloud Business, Enter AI Compute Market
Meta is preparing to launch a cloud infrastructure business to sell excess AI computing power and models. This strategy would place Meta in direct competition with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure and aims to monetize its significant AI investments, improving profitability. Reports of early talks with Anthropic for leasing compute power highlight potential partnerships in the cloud service sector.
Texas Halts New Data Center Grid Connections for Audit Amid Power Demand Concerns
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a moratorium on new data center approvals and grid connections through the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) until an audit is completed. This action affects over 1,800 projects, primarily data centers, representing 474 gigawatts of potential demand, which is five times the state's record peak demand and raises concerns about grid stability.
Microsoft to Disclose Quarterly Azure Revenue, Consolidates Business Units
Microsoft will begin reporting quarterly revenue for its Azure cloud business and is restructuring its operating segments from three to two. This change provides more detailed financial insight into Azure's performance, aligning Microsoft's reporting closer to competitors like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Amazon Seeks FCC Approval for 5,105-Satellite Direct-to-Device Network by 2028
Amazon has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch a new constellation of 5,105 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, with deployment planned to begin in 2028. This initiative aims to provide direct-to-device services for voice, messaging, data, and emergency services, leveraging Globalstar's spectrum and integrating with Amazon's existing satellite infrastructure. The network will target users in areas unserved or underserved by traditional wireless providers.
Microsoft to Deploy AMD's Helios AI Accelerator on Azure
Microsoft will integrate AMD's Helios, a rack-scale AI accelerator, into its Azure cloud infrastructure. This partnership aims to enhance AI computational power for Azure users, directly competing with Nvidia's offerings. The deployment underscores the growing demand for AI compute capabilities.
AWS Billing Bug Leads to Erroneous Billion-Dollar Estimates for Customers
AWS users experienced incorrect billing estimates due to a bug causing charges to show as billions of dollars instead of reflecting actual usage. The fault in the AWS billing computation system involved incorrect unit pricing. Amazon is addressing the issue by halting billing updates and reverting to accurate data.
Tottenham Hotspur reduces virtualization licensing fees by 85% with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials
Tottenham Hotspur replaced VMware with HPE’s Morpheus VM Essentials virtualization software in its stadium, resulting in an 85% reduction in licensing fees. This migration is part of a broader data center and network infrastructure redesign, highlighting a trend of organizations seeking alternatives to VMware following Broadcom's acquisition.
Google Cloud Data Analytics, BI, and Database Teams Announce New Features
Google Cloud has introduced several updates across its data analytics, business intelligence, and database services, including stateful processing for BigQuery continuous queries, a synthetic data generator for Managed Service for Kafka, and faster Dataflow pipeline updates. These features aim to enhance real-time data processing, simplify testing, and improve pipeline management for users.
AWS Unveils New AI and Security Features at NYC Summit
Amazon Web Services introduced new AI and security features at the NYC Summit, including Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and AWS Continuum. These updates enhance AI applications and security, offering capabilities for organizational knowledge access and proactive security measures. The announcements indicate a focus on advancing AI operations and cybersecurity strategies.
Nine PBS Regains Access to 50TB Archive After Cloud Vendor Ceases Operations
Nine PBS, a St. Louis public television station, lost access to 50TB of archival data after its cloud storage vendor, Open Source Storage (OSS), ceased operations. A judge has since ordered Iron Mountain, the data center physically housing the data, to provide Nine PBS access to the physical devices containing its 70-year archive, which includes irreplaceable historical content.
Amazon's Leo Satellite Network Surpasses 390 Operational Satellites for Initial Launch
Amazon has successfully deployed more than 390 Leo satellites, reaching an operational milestone for providing continuous internet service. This positions Amazon as a competitor to SpaceX's Starlink, despite trailing in satellite count and ahead in deployment speed. Amazon aims for commercial service availability by mid-2026, with expectations set for initial limitations in coverage and service quality.
Microsoft 365 services experience widespread outage in North America
Microsoft 365 services, including Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, are experiencing a significant outage primarily affecting users in North America. The disruption began at 10:44 AM ET on July 23, leading to degraded functionality and access issues across multiple platforms, prompting Microsoft to advise customers to review business continuity plans.
UK's water supply insufficient for future datacentre expansion, warns trade body
Water UK has alerted MPs that the UK lacks adequate water resources for future datacentres, contradicting government growth plans. The trade body criticizes the government's failure to address water supply needs in its AI strategy, indicating potential challenges for the tech sector's expansion in water-stressed areas.
Ireland's data centers used 23% of electricity in 2025, nearing total home consumption
Data centers in Ireland consumed 23% of the country's electricity in 2025, a significant rise from previous years. This growth raises concerns over electricity demand and its impact on residents, competing closely with residential electricity use.
SpaceX applies to launch 100k new Starlink satellites for increased bandwidth
SpaceX has applied to the FCC to launch 100,000 Gen3 Starlink satellites to enhance broadband capacity. Once deployed, the network is projected to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds, positioning SpaceX to dominate the satellite internet market and meet future demand from AI devices.
Bank of England to Regulate Key Tech Firms Like Amazon and Google
The Bank of England will regulate major tech firms, starting next week, due to concerns over financial stability. Companies like Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft must ensure resilience against cyber threats and service disruptions.
Meta announces $9 billion data center in Alberta, Canada for AI infrastructure
Meta is constructing its first Canadian data center in Alberta, with an estimated cost of $9 billion. This facility will enhance Meta's AI infrastructure amid increasing competition with tech giants in cloud services.
Google Cloud C4N Instances Now Generally Available for High I/O Workloads
Google Cloud has announced the general availability of C4N, optimized for network and block storage I/O. This instance type offers up to 400 Gbps network bandwidth and 1M IOPS, addressing performance bottlenecks for enterprise applications, particularly in sectors requiring high data transfer rates.
Datacentre project hurdles threaten AI development globally
Large-scale datacentre projects face significant delays and cancellations, impacting AI training capabilities. Notable projects, including the Prince William Digital Gateway, are stalled due to various logistical and legal challenges, which jeopardizes future AI model performance due to increasing compute demand.
NVIDIA and AWS Enhance AI Production with New EC2 G7 Instances
NVIDIA and AWS have launched EC2 G7 instances powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 GPUs, enhancing AI production capabilities. These instances offer substantial performance improvements, enabling enterprises to deploy AI and data analytics workloads at scale with lower operational complexity.
Microsoft announces Azure Cobalt 200 VMs with 50% performance improvement for AI
Microsoft's Azure Cobalt 200 Arm-based VMs provide a 50% performance boost over the Cobalt 100, tailored for agentic AI workloads. This launch signals a shift in cloud architecture due to increased customer demand for compute in AI applications.
AWS completes OSPAR 2026 assessment, expanding scope to 167 services in Singapore
AWS has completed its annual Outsourced Service Provider’s Audit Report (OSPAR) assessment for 2026, now covering 167 services in the AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region. This certification helps financial institutions in Singapore meet regulatory compliance requirements for cloud services.
Google Finance Engineering automates Spanner dual-write migrations with Antigravity CLI
Google's Finance Engineering team developed an automated refactoring pipeline using Antigravity CLI to migrate legacy data layers to Spanner. This automation addresses the challenge of manually rewriting dual-write logic across Data Access Objects (DAOs) for high-throughput production services, which is prone to error and time-consuming. The solution accelerates migration velocity while maintaining data parity during the transition.
Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS service optimizes cache, saving 100TB memory
Cloudflare's Big Pineapple platform, which powers the 1.1.1.1 DNS service, implemented five changes to its DNS cache entry storage. These optimizations reduced the per-entry memory footprint by over 50%, freeing up approximately 100 terabytes of memory across its fleet and improving cache performance.
Amazon DynamoDB Adds Real-Time Vector Search Capability
Amazon DynamoDB now supports real-time vector search, allowing users to store vector embeddings alongside operational data and perform similarity searches directly within the database. This integration removes the need for separate vector databases and synchronization pipelines, simplifying application architecture and reducing operational overhead for AI-driven features.
Emporia, Kansas Approves Data Center Amid Arrest and Virtual Meeting Shift
Emporia, Kansas, approved zoning changes for the Flint Hills Digital Campus, a hyperscale data center, despite community opposition. The approval followed the arrest of Lux Claridge, a high school physics teacher, for clapping at a city commission meeting, and the city subsequently moved future meetings online, citing public safety concerns due to threats.
Amazon EKS Introduces Kubernetes Version Rollback and Extended Support
Amazon EKS now supports Kubernetes version rollbacks, allowing users to revert a cluster's control plane to its previous Kubernetes version within seven days of an upgrade. This feature provides a safety net for quick recovery from problematic updates. Additionally, EKS has introduced Extended Support for Kubernetes versions, making each version available for 26 months.
Google Cloud Introduces AI Security Blueprint for Kubernetes Engine
Google Cloud has released a security blueprint for AI workloads on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This strategic guide suggests a multilayered security approach to protect model weights and counter threats like prompt injection, advancing AI's transition from prototype to production. It matters as AI deployment security becomes crucial for enterprises.
Plymouth Township Demands 43 Conditions for 2 Million Sq. Ft. Data Center Project
Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania, has issued 43 conditions for the approval of a 2 million-square-foot data center project proposed by developer Brian O’Neill. The developer is challenging the township's zoning ordinance, claiming the demands are too burdensome, leading to a dispute over local control and data center development.
Ofgem Proposes Upfront Fees for UK Data Center Grid Connections to Address Backlog
Ofgem, Britain's energy regulator, has proposed requiring significant upfront fees from data center projects to secure electricity grid connections. This measure aims to reduce a backlog of 315 data center projects, representing 73GW of demand, which exceeds the country's peak energy demand of 45GW.
Cloudflare Internal DNS Launches for Private Networks
Cloudflare has launched its Internal DNS, providing unified management of authoritative and recursive DNS for private networks. This service aims to simplify DNS operations by consolidating public and private DNS management on a single platform, thereby enhancing security and visibility across networks.
Anthropic Launches Claude Apps Gateway for AWS and Google Cloud
Anthropic has launched the Claude apps gateway for both AWS and Google Cloud. This tool provides enterprises with centralized management of Claude Code, enhancing control over access, costs, and policy adherence. By streamlining developer credential management and spend tracking, the gateway eases administrative burdens for organizations operating at scale.
AWS & Google Cloud Designated as Critical Third Parties to UK's Financial Sector
HM Treasury has designated Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud as critical third parties to the UK financial sector. Under the Critical Third Party (CTP) regime effective January 1, 2025, these tech giants will be subject to oversight from UK regulators such as the Bank of England. This move aims to enhance the operational resilience of the financial sector amidst increasing reliance on cloud services.
AWS and Google Launch New Sandboxing Environments for Running Untrusted Code
AWS Lambda has introduced MicroVMs, a new serverless compute option offering VM-level isolation for running user-generated code. Concurrently, Google Cloud has launched Cloud Run sandboxes in public preview, enabling safe execution of AI-generated code and untrusted binaries. Both solutions aim to provide secure, isolated environments for a variety of applications.
Equinix Partners with Nvidia and Together AI for New AI Inference Exchange Service
Equinix announced a partnership with Nvidia and Together AI to launch Equinix Inference Exchange, a service allowing customers to run AI models on Together AI's open-source cloud platform within Equinix data centers. This initiative positions Equinix to capitalize on the growing demand for AI infrastructure by providing colocation services for AI workloads, leveraging its global network of 281 facilities.