IDCC2021: 5 Discoveries of Data Center Technology|Idcnova-Media|the gateway to China data center market

From predicting the leading role of "digital transformation" to forward-looking the wave of "new infrastructure", the annual China IDC industry annual ceremony accurately grasps the development trend and points out the direction for the development of the data center industry in the future.

In 2021, the tide of new infrastructure construction is in the ascendant. Under the dual-carbon strategy, "dual energy consumption control" will affect thousands of industries. As a new type of infrastructure, data centers are empowering the digital transformation of thousands of industries, and while providing efficient computing power. Meanwhile, they also face many challenges such as efficiency, energy consumption, and security.

In the current complex environment, the 16th China IDC Industry Annual Ceremony is coming as promised in the industry’s eager expectations. The companies of the data center industry gather together for the policy interpretations, market predictions, technological explorations, obtain cooperation opportunities and development directions.

Through IDCC2021, we have seen the resilience of the industry moving forward in the ups and downs, as well as the various exploration and practice of firm innovation by enterprises, illuminating the direction and trend of data center technology development.

Discovery 1: Data Center Liquid Cooling Has Been Prepared for Large-scale Commercial Use

If it is said that the high power of chips and servers in recent years has promoted the rise of liquid cooling technology in data centers, then this year's dual carbon and energy consumption policy has made the combination of computing power and liquid cooling change from a choice to an inevitable trend.

From the "Three-year Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centers (2021-2023)" to the "Implementation Plan for the Implementation of the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Target Requirements to Promote the Green and High-quality Development of New Infrastructures such as Data Centers and 5G", "Liquid Cooling" are are regarded as encouraging and supporting technologies.

After several years of development and testing, liquid cooling technology has been relatively mature. At this meeting, IDC companies’ concerns about the safety of liquid cooling were significantly reduced. Some companies said they have tried liquid cooling in data centers, and some companies are planning to adopt liquid cooling.

Faced with the obstacles of ordinary enterprises deploying in application liquid cooling, Alibaba Cloud, the representative of immersed liquid cooling, released the Panjiu liquid cooling integrated solution-Immersion DC 1000 at the conference, which completed the development from self-development to technology The role of output changes.

Different from previous liquid cooling products, Alibaba Cloud's Panjiu solution realizes product integration. According to the instruction of "Alibaba Cloud Panjiu Liquid Cooling Infrastructure Special Session and Alibaba Cloud Panjiu Liquid Cooling Product Launch Conference”, Panjiu liquid cooling solution is based on single-phase immersion liquid cooling technology, and innovatively integrate heat dissipation technology with IT systems such as servers and network equipment. At the same time, it supports super computing power and has flexible deployment methods.

GUO Yiqun, director of Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure business and head of liquid cooling products, said that Immersion DC 1000 "is not affected by regions, can be deployed in any weather area in the world and can easily achieve the PUE1.09.”

This figure is enough to illustrate the advantages of liquid cooling compared with air cooling in terms of heat dissipation efficiency and power consumption.

The dual-carbon background and energy consumption restrictions pose challenges to both new data centers and old data centers, and the value of liquid cooling will keeping increasing.

Discovery 2: Lithium Batteries Replace Lead-Acid Batteries, Energy Storage is Gaining Attention

The lead-acid battery traditionally used in UPS power supply has high energy consumption, large space, short overall battery life, high operating environment requirements, easy to cause environmental pollution, strict operation requirements for application scenarios, and various drawbacks, which are currently difficult to meet the data center need.

In contrast, high-energy and low-consumption lithium batteries have advantages in terms of safety, energy conversion efficiency, and economy. They can significantly reduce the area of the data center, extend the service life, and increase the rate of return on investment.

At IDCC2021, equipment manufacturers have demonstrated various technological research and products based on lithium batteries. It isi a recognized trend that lead-acid batteries will be replaced with lithium batteries.

For example, in the "Data Center Smart Energy Efficiency Forum-Shuangdeng Group Special Forum", Shuangdeng Group released the SHVP-Li series of lithium battery solutions. The data center lithium battery solution is based on a high-safety lithium iron phosphate electrochemical system and three-dimensional ultra-high conductivity network technology, and integrates a high-precision monitoring and management system to inject green and low-carbon energy into the data center while providing uninterrupted power backup guarantee.

In recent years, attempts to apply energy storage systems to data centers have been ongoing, including power grid companies, equipment manufacturers, and IDC companies. In July of this year, a large-scale IDC service provider built the first domestic project to apply large-scale energy storage technology to data centers, and data center + energy storage began to attract attention in the industry.

In the second half of this year, the state issued a number of policies to support energy storage-type data centers. "Power curtailment" and peak-to-valley tariffs have increased the attractiveness of energy storage to data center companies.

According to ZHAO Zemin, deputy chief engineer of Beijing Shuangdeng Huifeng Energy Technology Co., Ltd., the use of energy storage in data centers has the following advantages: reduced PUE, green and low-carbon; reduced electricity bills, maximized the use of renewable energy; peak-shaving electricity, grid-friendly; improved power supply flexibility, risk resistance capability. At the conference, he introduced the data center optical storage microgrid solution developed by Shuangdeng Group based on more than 10 years of experience in energy storage technology.

Discovery 3: Evolution of data center power distribution architecture and the emergence of energy management systems

Based on the rapid development of technology and the continuous changes in demand, and under the premise of a high degree of safety and reliability, the data center power distribution system, which is responsible for the production, transmission, transformation, distribution, and use of electric energy, is moving towards high-end and intelligent direction. It will help gain greater flexibility and higher efficiency in equipment control, operation and maintenance, etc. Meanwhile, it proposes new demands to power distribution equipment manufacturers

At the "Siemens Data Center Decarbonization Solution Forum", Siemens Intelligent Infrastructure Group introduced the redefined data center power distribution architecture: excellent medium-voltage cabinets, reliable low-voltage cabinets, and advanced system architecture.

The "dual control of energy consumption" indicators and rising energy costs have prompted data centers to pay more attention to the details of their energy use, energy management efficiency, and energy use reliability. At the same time, energy supply technologies are complex and diverse, and energy conversion technologies are increasing. Users hope to find suitable energy solutions to meet their own energy needs in the processes of equipment energy saving, process energy saving and management energy saving.

Siemens leverages its excellent industrial genes to launch the Siemens digital integrated energy management and control platform. The platform is a multi-energy flow integrated energy management system built by Siemens that combines energy production and use. Relying on digital twin technology, it can realize the three functions of energy prediction, optimal scheduling, and analysis and diagnosis.

Discovery 4: The Futher Application of AI in the Data Center

The formulation of a series of policies and mechanisms such as national integrated big data center hub nodes, data center energy efficiency limit value mandatory standards, peak and valley electricity prices, etc., will have many far-reaching impacts on the industry, such as the application of AI in data centers, which may be further expanded and deepened.

In the "Smart DC, Pre-Building the Future-Huawei Low-Carbon Data Center Special Forum" , it demonstrated the application of AI in low-carbon and energy-saving data centers.

The use of indirect evaporative cooling, fluorine pumps and other refrigeration technologies, intelligent integration of power modules, high-efficiency UPS, lithium battery and other power supply technologies, and AI-based automatic tuning technology are the first ways to effectively achieve low energy consumption in data centers.

Huawei's new generation of deeply integrated power modules, with 1 column and 1 circuit, saves more than 40% of the space. At the same time, through product prefabrication, the quality is more reliable. The delivery cycle is reduced from 2 months to 2 weeks, and LUE Link Utilization Efficiency is 97.8%, with an efficiency increase of 3.3%, saving 18.8 million yuan (10 years), and finally through the AI technology, iPower comprehensively improves the reliability of the power supply and distribution system.

In response to the energy-saving transformation of old data centers, Huawei Digital Energy Technology Co., Ltd. also launched a full-dimensional solution from equipment (power distribution and HVAC) to system (AI energy efficiency tuning).

Discovery 5: Data Center From Intelligent to Intelligent Operation

For a long time, data center operations have remained at the stage of standardized and centralized management, focusing mostly on the electromechanical level of "hardware", and intelligence is also limited to the use of intelligent equipment. The intelligent operation of data centers has not been put on the stage.

Divided by the "data center intelligent driving classification standard", domestic data centers are still generally at the L1 level with manual-based and system-assisted—that is, the use of dynamic environment monitoring and building automation systems to achieve data monitoring and collection. With equipment and system fault alarms and automatic electrical switching capabilities, few data center operations have reached the L2 stage of "system-based and manual-assisted".

Surprisingly, at the IDCC2021, we saw a breakthrough in the L3 level of data center intelligent operation at the GDS first-generation Smart DC conference with the theme of "Green Smart Infrastructure Connecting to a Sustainable Future".

The first generation of Smart DC is the "overall optimal solution for data centers" created by GDS based on 20 years of experience in operating more than 70 self-built data centers. Among them, in terms of intelligent operation, GDS has formed the X-BP series of products based on best operating practices and self-developed software and hardware collaboration:

X-BP-Hardware: Provides three major hardware of AHU, HVDC and mobile diesel generators, and cooperates with the self-developed control system to achieve TCO optimization.

X-BP-BMS: Based on a minimalist delivery BMS system, it realizes comprehensive control and quality assurance of data, combined with professional knowledge system and white-box connection and maintenance, inspires data value, and empowers intelligent, efficient and safe management.

X-BP-AI: Relying on 70+ large-scale data center operation experience, and using "expert system + AI" for linkage optimization, bringing better energy efficiency performance and safety assurance.

The L3 level of intelligent operation does not just stop at theory. At present, the first generation of GDS Smart DC, including X-BP series products, has landed in the Changshu ultra-large-scale data center park. The L3 level data center intelligent operation is realized in the park, and operations, energy efficiency and security management have been greatly optimized.

As the industry's leading data center service provider, GDS's innovation in intelligent operation may drive the trend of data center development from intelligent to intelligent operation.

From the PUE1.09 to the L3 intelligent operation of the data center;

From the exploration of equipment technology to the implementation of multiple scenarios in the data center;

From industry development opportunities to industry challenges;

The China IDC industry annual ceremony has been standing with the data center industry for 16 years. We are the witnesses of every technological advancement, the participants of every year's development, and a member of the creators of the blueprint for the future industry.

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IDCNOVA shares the partent company's unparalleled industry resources and influences in China to track the growth of the ecosystem by delivering news and professional advise on data center in China.

Industry Report:

2021-2022 China Data Center Industry Electromechanical Equipment Market Research Report

2021-2022 China Data Center Industry Electromechanical Equipment Market Research Report.pdf