As Demand Grows, NTIA Asks for Comments on U.S. Data Center Growth, Resilience, and Security

Background

Data centers are the backbone of modern infrastructure and transformative technologies like AI. Thousands of data centers across the United States drive economic growth by enabling data processing, secure storage, and connectivity. As demand for these services grows, so do the challenges for operators to balance capacity with supply chain resilience and data security.

Recognizing these opportunities and challenges, NTIA has published an RFC seeking input on the growth, resiliency, and security of U.S. data centers, particularly as it relates to AI. The RFC addresses several key areas, including energy needs, supply chain resiliency, and workforce development. It also seeks input on how data centers are adapting to new technologies, managing environmental impacts, and ensuring data security in an evolving digital landscape. Stakeholders are encouraged to provide feedback on these and other key factors impacting the future of the U.S. data center industry.

RFC Questions

The RFC contains a non-exhaustive list of questions that address the most important issues related to the growth in demand for data centers and invites commenters to provide feedback on significant questions and issues not covered by the RFC.

Meeting the demand for computing power

NTIA requests comments on the current and future challenges and opportunities facing U.S. data centers in delivering the computing power required by critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Key Market Issues

NTIA asks commenters to address key issues such as market access, customer demand, renewable energy availability, grid connectivity, energy costs, data storage requirements, high-speed broadband infrastructure, workforce capacity and capabilities, government incentives, and land and water availability.

The RFC seeks comments on competition among hyperscale providers (i.e., data centers larger than 10,000 square feet or containing more than 5,000 servers), including barriers to entry for new hyperscale providers and potential remedies, obstacles to customers switching data center providers, and regulatory obstacles.

The RFC asks about existing private or public efforts that are effectively driving data center modernization or investment, and other actions that should be taken by the private sector, civil society, or the U.S. government to encourage and facilitate data center market entry, growth, and modernization. It also asks about “external, external forces” that are driving data center market opportunities away from the U.S., the potential impact of data center modernization on other markets, and solutions to address inefficiencies caused by external factors or market failures.

Social and environmental impacts

The RFC raises concerns about the potential social impacts that may result from the increased demand for computing power and data processing that data center upgrades and investments entail. It asks how the growing demand for data centers may impact broader operating costs through increased land, energy, water, and equipment costs, and whether these increases will disproportionately affect small and medium-sized businesses. It also requests comments on the potential environmental impacts of increased energy demand, whether greenhouse gas emissions can be managed to address climate concerns, and the potential impacts on communities or disadvantaged groups (including rural communities) residing at or around the sites where the business operates. NTIA requests that commenters suggest potential actions that the private sector, civil society, or the U.S. government could take to mitigate impacts on disadvantaged communities or small and medium-sized businesses.

Supply Chain Considerations

NTIA is seeking comment on how supply chain risks, vulnerabilities, and threats could impact data center modernization, investment, growth, and continuity. It asks which supply chain dependencies are critical to the availability of information technology and operational technology (IT/OT) components in data centers and whether there are existing supply chain shortages in IT/OT equipment, fiber, chips, or other equipment, that could impede data center growth in the U.S.

The RFC also considers how data centers are adapting to emerging technologies, including edge computing, artificial intelligence, software-defined infrastructure, and digital coherent optics, as well as open source software.

NTIA wants to understand the landscape of major suppliers of data center hardware, software, and services, both domestic and international. The RFC asks how the U.S. government can support smaller suppliers and whether foreign suppliers, or those with manufacturing operations overseas, play a key role in providing components to U.S. data centers.

NTIA is also interested in supply chain risk management, including what standards and best practices data center operators and customers are implementing. The RFC requests comments on measures to exclude unreliable or counterfeit IT/OT components, audit processes, vendor and supplier assessments, legacy equipment assessments, contingency planning, and resiliency efforts.

Availability of labor

NTIA wants to understand whether workforce challenges are hindering the growth of the data center industry. The RFC asks whether workforce shortages exist in key areas and whether partnerships and collaborations between the data center industry and the U.S. government, including federally funded R&D centers and university-affiliated research centers, can expand the industry’s access to a skilled workforce.

Thoughts on Energy and Power

NTIA is seeking comment on whether utilities are a reliable source of power and how data centers are approaching the use of backup power. It also asks about data center efforts to find alternatives to utility power and traditional cooling solutions and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which approaches appear to be most effective, and any obstacles data centers face in these efforts.

Data security

NTIA seeks information on existing data security controls, compliance efforts, and governance practices in the data center industry, including voluntary guidelines, regulations, and frameworks currently in place, as well as obstacles operators face that hinder security efforts. The RFC asks how data centers are handling security incidents and breaches, whether cybersecurity incident reporting requirements, or government support could facilitate greater security and scalability of next-generation security practices in the industry.

NTIA is also interested in whether and how data centers are adapting data security practices to accommodate running or training Frontier AI models or integrating AI capabilities into existing infrastructure. The RFC asks about new physical or cybersecurity measures and whether new cybersecurity measures, controls, and risk assessments are necessary in data centers that run and train Frontier AI models. It also asks about the benefits, economic feasibility, and barriers associated with maintaining physical separation of infrastructure used for training Frontier AI and additional security for highly sensitive data, such as Frontier AI model weights.

NTIA also seeks comments on the types of data security training data centers provide to staff, how they assess staff competency in data security, and how they assess and verify their attitudes toward data security.

Government interventions

NTIA seeks comment on actions the Department of Commerce or other federal government entities can take to promote investment, modernization, and growth in the data center industry.

Next steps

With the NTIA request for comment open until November 4, 2024, this is an opportune time for stakeholders to provide input on the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of data center operations in the U.S. The information gathered will inform both economic and security policies and energy strategies that can have a lasting impact on the industry’s growth and resilience.