Infrastructure

Green data centres for Thailand’s sustainable economic growth

Under the theme ‘Open. Connect. Balance’, Thailand recently hosted ASEAN leaders at the 2022 APEC Summit, and among many current unprecedented challenges discussed, helping the region regain its balance seemed to be a common thread, with the Bangkok Goals on Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy set as one of the roadmaps. As one of the fastest growing regions in the world - and one of the most vulnerable to climate change - Southeast Asia is trying to strike a balance between performance and sustainability: prioritising recovery and growth, while keeping the eyes on a consistent sustainable development that will allow the country to thrive for many years to come. Digital transformation, integrated across all aspects of society, has already been identified as one of the key components to driving the country’s overall economic competitiveness, and many already understand that there is only one way to embrace Thailand 4.0 sustainably. Many industries are gradually ‘going green’, including green finance, green transportation powered by EVs and green hotel standards. Now comes the turn for one of the most valuable assets that this revolution will bring - data. Thailand is leading the way, not only by having the region’s most advanced data centre for colocation and cloud services, but also by having one that generates its own renewable energy. SUPERNAP (Thailand), a joint venture between leading Thai companies, is the only Tier IV colocation and cloud data centre in the country to have implemented a solar panel farm. This move contributes to the development of the green digital infrastructure of the region, while also supporting Thailand’s long term sustainable economic development. Every year, the volume and value of data generated and collected by organisations in Thailand grows exponentially, as many recognise its strategic value for business decisions. The more data collected and stored, the more knowledge, opportunities and competitive advantage businesses gain. More data, on the other hand, requires larger spaces and more energy to keep the ecosystem running, which, in most cases, comes from electricity from fossil fuels. If no action is taken, this could not only lead to a problematic increase of greenhouse gas emissions, but to dangerous price fluctuations, as there have been recent electricity price increases influenced by geopolitical challenges and increasing demand. Thai businesses are looking for secure, scalable, resilient, and now sustainable, data centres to fully realise the potential of data while reducing costs. “As a regional digital infrastructure leader, SUPERNAP (Thailand)’s transition to renewable energy was already an urgent priority, and we are now extremely proud to have reinforced our position as Thailand’s most sustainable commercial data centre. Powering operations by solar panel farm will not only help us reduce carbon footprint on behalf of our colocation and cloud clients but will also minimise the impact of energy price fluctuations. While we are not immune to rising electricity costs, solar green energy from the solar panel farm is significantly cheaper than retail rates, which will allow us keep prices as low as possible, an ultimately enable customer's success stories with highly secure, scalable, resilient and now sustainable digital IT infrastructure,” shares Yap Jin Yi, CEO of SUPERNAP (Thailand). SUPERNAP (Thailand) has partnered with WHA Utilities and Power to build its solar panel farm, recognising WHA’s leadership in maximising innovation and technology to create long term sustainable value in the country. Thailand’s economy will leverage emerging digital technologies to solve the most pressing problems and drive growth, whether in finance, retail, healthcare, manufacturing or tourism. Data-driven technology has the potential to shape the future in new and unimaginable ways, but first, businesses and individuals must ensure that there is a future to look forward to. Embracing sustainability is a pressing matter, and change must begin immediately.

VictoriaMetrics and CMS team up to monitor the universe

VictoriaMetrics has announced its role assisting the monitoring tasks of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the European laboratory for particle physics, CERN.  Tailor-made monitoring solutions  The CMS experiment is one of four particle physics detectors built at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Located deep underground at the border of Switzerland and France, the project is currently focused on experiments investigating standard model physics, extra dimensions and dark matter.  The computing infrastructure to deal with the multi-petabyte data sets produced by CMS requires best-in-class systems to monitor workload and data management, data transfers, and submission of production requests.  The CMS experiment has long relied on scalable, open source solutions to satisfy real-time and historical monitoring needs. However, after encountering storage and scalability issues with long term monitoring solutions such as Prometheus and InfluxDB, the CMS monitoring team began the search for alternatives. Edging out existing technology The CMS monitoring team has engaged VictoriaMetrics following a post by CTO and Co-Founder Aliaksandr Valialkin on Medium, which benchmarked VictoriaMetrics against other popular monitoring systems, and were won over by the detail on display.  "We were searching for alternative solutions following performance issues with Prometheus and InfluxDB. VictoriaMetrics' walkthrough of use cases, and concise detail gave us excellent insight into how they could help us. The solution's backwards compatibility with Prometheus made implementation into the CMS monitoring cluster as smooth and seamless as possible." says V. Kuznetsov from Cornell University (member of CMS collaboration). Initially implementing VictoriaMetrics as backend storage for Prometheus, the CMS monitoring team progressed to using the solution as front end storage to replace InfluxDB and Prometheus. This had the added impact of removing cardinality issues with Influx.  Since installing VictoriaMetrics, the CMS monitoring team had zero issues with cardinality, or using the software on the operational side. The CMS monitoring team gained added confidence in the open source flexibility of VictoriaMetrics after seamlessly implementing new features for vmalert, the solution's alerting system. "Working with CMS to monitor the experiment computing infrastructure is a great honour for the team here. The number of use cases for monitoring and observability is growing exponentially, and seeing our tech applied to cutting-edge science is testament to how critical monitoring has become. Our open source, community driven model is and will be at the core of our offering, granting us the flexibility to serve projects as complex as CMS infrastructure in the future", says Roman Khavronenko, Co-Founder of VictoriaMetrics.

Case study: Easily differentiate three fibre infrastructures with highly visible, colour coded labelling

Well-identified network infrastructure is of great importance in Dark Fibre Africa’s network. Thanks to smart, standardised colour coding on reliable labels from Brady, service provisioning and network maintenance becomes faster, and customer downtime risks are reduced with easy identification. Read the case study to get inspiration! Dark Fibre Africa had the need to differentiate between the fibre infrastructure of three of their major service offerings by using colour codes available on the portable BMP51 Label Maker systems from Brady. Black on white: GPON services Black on yellow: Dark fibre and all managed services White on red: DFA core network infrastructure Black print on white or yellow are available as standard labels for the BMP51 Label Maker and were supplied by Brady. The white on red label was not a standard Brady product available on the BMP51. Some challenges faced with competitor labelling products included: Print faded over time Adhesion proved not sufficient Additional maintenance was required to re-apply labels Because of this, Dark Fibre Africa contacted Brady to present a solution in keeping with the established network infrastructure colour coding. Solution: Legible white on red labels that can be printed on-site Brady fast tracked the request and within a few months developed a reliable cable label in red that could receive a white print with optimal legibility on a curved surface. Before presenting a sample to the customer, R&D specialists tested the label extensively in Brady’s in-house facilities. The new label construction and selected adhesive stayed attached to cables, equipment cabinets and distribution boards. Labels remained legible in heavily air-cooled environments indoors as well as in UV exposure outdoors. On top of this, the label material was successfully adapted to fit a BMP51 Label Maker cartridge. Because of this, Dark Fibre Africa would be able to print the new label anywhere in its network infrastructure with the portable printers already in use. After successful sample testing in Dark Fibre’s network infrastructure, Brady agreed to also offer stock availability for the new white on red label. A large stock of the complete colour code is always immediately available, as well as logistical and technical support. Result: Reduce downtime risks Reliable labels that stay attached to cables, equipment cabinets, distribution boards and remain legible, are important for network maintenance, improvements and troubleshooting. Clear identification enables technicians to quickly identify the infrastructure for fault finding and troubleshooting during network failures. This increases service provisioning and maintenance speed and further reduces downtime risks and enhances speed of deployment. Find out more about reliable data centre identification solutions from Brady.

Data centre outages are costing more, with power failure the culprit

By Paul Brickman, Commercial Director at Crestchic Loadbanks One of the more consistent problems that the data centre industry faces is the issue of outages. While it is well known that data centre outages can cause critical work problems for an enterprise of any size, what is becoming more and more apparent is that these outages are becoming increasingly costly too. Recent findings from Uptime Institute’s 2022 Global Data Centre Survey revealed that the data centre industry is growing immensely, becoming more and more dynamic and resilient. Despite persistent staffing shortages, supply chain delays and other obstacles, there is a renewed focus on being more sustainable. The report indicated, however, that light was not at the end of every tunnel, as it additionally highlighted the fact that downtime in the data centre industry is becoming ever more expensive. Indeed, power failures have been identified as the main cause of this increase in cost. The Global Data Centre Survey focuses on responses from more than 800 owners and operators of data centres. This included those responsible for managing infrastructure at the world’s largest IT organisations. While the aforementioned notes of sustainability, efficiency gains, staff shortages and supply chain issues also dominated the report, the issue of power resiliency remained a persistent and dominant theme throughout. Back up power failure - a growing concern Further analysis in related research from the Uptime Institute identifies that the biggest cause of power-related outages is the failure of uninterruptible power supplies, followed by transfer switch and generator failures. Although this data shows a trend towards improved outage rates, the frequency of these outages is much too high and, with costs also on the rise, the consequences of an outage are getting much more severe. Data centre operators are well aware of the impact that a power outage can have, and many have put measures in place to mitigate these risks. However, with back up power failures identified as the primary cause of power outages, as well as external issues around grid reliability, energy shortfalls, and the transition to more sustainable power sources, it has never been more important that operators test their back up power systems. £1m failures are becoming increasingly common The data highlighted in the report indicates that the costs of outages are on the rise. This is likely down to several factors, such as industry changes, the cost per minute of downtime increasing, and the prevalence of technology that is susceptible to outages. In fact, a quarter of the respondents that were interviewed reported that their most recent outage cost them more than £1 million in not only direct costs, but in indirect costs also. This 25% is a significant percentage increase from 2021, which showcases a continuing upward trend over the last five years. The report states, ‘Uptime’s 2022 annual survey findings are remarkably consistent with previous years. They show that on-site power problems remain the single biggest cause of significant site outages by a large margin.’ Considering that data centre equipment vendors are caught between high demand and lingering supply chain problems, and that attracting, but, moreover, retaining qualified staff remains highly problematic for many operators, it is becoming increasingly clear that using a load bank is an essential cost saving tool. Using a load bank to commission or regularly test the back up power system not only tests the prime movers and the batteries (UPS), but also ensures that the more critical components of the system, such as the alternator and crucially the transfer switches are tested as well. These load bank tests not only prove that the UPS or generators will start, operate, and run efficiently in the case of a power outage, but also that the sets can be safely turned off with no interruptions when mains power is restored. Put simply, in a data centre environment, the business case for using a load bank is clear cut - not testing is an extremely costly risk to take.

Riello UPS expands into Ireland with new branch

Riello UPS is expanding with the launch of a new subsidiary covering the Republic of Ireland. Riello UPS Ireland is the Italian-headquartered company’s 17th dedicated worldwide branch and is a strategically important addition aimed at increasing the brand’s presence in the thriving Irish data centre market, where global tech giants including Amazon, Google, and Facebook all have major facilities located. The new subsidiary will be headed up by Leo Craig, who will combine the role with his current position as Managing Director of Riello UPS in the UK. A Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (MIET) and a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Management (FISM), Leo is also a Certified Data Centre Design Professional (CDCDP) and a Certified Data Centre Energy Professional (DCDEP) with more than 30 years’ experience in the critical power protection industry. The subsidiary expects to be fully operational by the new year, with a dedicated team and new premises in Dublin’s IT district. Riello UPS Ireland will also be exhibiting at the upcoming DataCentres Ireland trade show on 16-17 November at the RDS Arena in Dublin. The show provides the new branch with the perfect platform to showcase its range of proven data centre solutions, including the modular Multi Power, high-efficiency NextEnergy, and transformer-free Sentryum. Leo comments, “The Irish market offers huge growth potential for us as a business. Riello UPS brand is already a well-established brand over here and we have strong links through several resellers and distributors. But having our own office and team on the ground will give us a much better foothold to increase our presence in the months and years to come.” Roberto Facci and Fabio Passuello, the Commercial Director and CEO respectively of RPS S.p.A, add, “The Irish legal entity marks a fundamental step forward of our business expansion, and it is pivotal to further and better serve the growing demand of the data centre industry and the critical power segment.  “And we also truly believe that under the sound leadership of Leo Craig, our Irish legal entity will very soon become a solid reference for the Irish market customers as well as for our own company’s international footprint.”  Also known as a UPS, an uninterruptible power supply provides invaluable protection against electrical power outages and disturbances. It offers instantaneous battery backup that enables critical equipment like computers, IT systems, and machinery to keep running until the power returns or a standby generator kicks in. With a power range of 400VA to 6.4MVA, Riello UPS’s portfolio incorporates 24 high tech solutions for protecting everything from the smallest desktop PCs and home entertainment devices to the latest data centre supercomputers and advanced manufacturing equipment.

Panduit expand OneMode capabilities on multimode fibre

Panduit has extended the fibre capabilities of OneMode, its 1U rack mounted device that offers a passive media converter to leverage a multimode fibre backbone (100Mbps - 1Gbps) and significantly increases bandwidth to 10Gbps, 50Gbps and up to 100Gbps across already installed fibre infrastructure. OneMode extends data reach out to 800m and up to 5000m using a second OneMode device. The technology offers an inexpensive and quick to deploy solution to upgrading campus networks. OneMode has been developed in partnership with Cailabs. Panduit has the global rights to integrate Cailabs technology within the innovative OneMode product portfolio. This agreement includes exclusive use of the technology for the education market. Utilising the Cailabs technology, OneMode shapes the laser light to become the dominant fundamental mode, and the cable behaves as if it is made of single mode fibre. This eliminates modal and chromatic dispersion, providing the capability for 100 data speeds and extended cable runs. Panduit has demonstrated the capability of 100Gbps up to 500m on multimode fibre, with zero signal degradation. OneMode offers multiple benefits to markets such as education, healthcare, enterprise and industrial due to the capability to use installed cabling rather than rip and replace and trench work to replace old cable with new fibre infrastructure. Global shortage of fibre optic cables, especially in Europe, Asia and China, has led to delays and price increases to almost double in 16-months. As technology demands across campus infrastructure expands to support more connected devices, running more cloud services, the bandwidth limitations of multimode fibre installations become the barriers to efficiency and new technology uptake. Panduit’s OneMode devices can be installed in half the time that rip and replace requires. The device is simply to install, with access to the telecom closet, and creates no disruption to the network regardless to the topology during deployment. This technology provides a flexible and affordable solution to reduce the investment in upgrading multimode cabling infrastructure. OneMode can support the evolution in network traffic, without long, complex, and expensive new cable deployment.

Neterra launches a new fibre metro network in Sofia

Neterra has built and launched a new, fast and secure fibre metro network in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It covers the entire capital, including all important business centres, central streets, and boulevards. Through it, the company offers internet for businesses, protection from DDoS attacks, other connectivity services and media streaming. Qualified engineers are responsible for maintenance and provide technical support 24/7. Neterra's new network has several major advantages compared to the networks of other operators. It is the only fibre network that reaches all the data centres in Sofia, enters them, and connects them. This includes both Neterra's data centres and those of other operators. Another benefit is that cables are run deeper underground and in protected conduits to prevent risks of outages. For the Sofia fibre metro network, the company uses the most modern and high-quality equipment - from cables to optical distribution frames (ODF) and connectors. As a result, the connection is of exceptional quality. In the capital of Bulgaria, Neterra maintains over 550 active business services and consciously invests in reliable components. Thanks to the large capacities set in advance, Neterra's metro network is expected to meet the needs of businesses in Sofia for years to come. At the same time, it is connected to the Bulgarian core fibre network of the company, which connects all major Bulgarian cities such as Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Burgas, Plovdiv and Ruse.

Lindy Electronics has launched the DST-Pro 100 USB-C Laptop Docking Station with Triple Display (Full HD) or Single Display (4K) and 100W Power Supply. Available now, the DST-Pro 100 is Lindy’s powerhouse docking station. Designed with pros in mind, this product allows for easy, fast and reliable charging of your device, ensuring you can perform power-hungry tasks with ease. Housed in a robust aluminium body, this dock has been constructed to facilitate elite performance. The UK retail price is £264.95. Connects a DisplayPort and/or up to two HDMI displays, USB peripherals and powers the laptop over a single cable Supports 4K 60Hz for a single display or dual 4K 30Hz displays Integrated four port USB SuperSpeed 5Gbps Hub (2 x Type A, 2 x Type C) Connect a soundbar using TosLink (Optical) Two-year warranty Extended display This docking station comes with HDMI and DisplayPort connections, all with 4K capability. With one extended display connected, you can expect Ultra HD 4k 60Hz. This product is also capable of supporting 4k@30Hz for dual displays (using HDMI ports) and crisp Full HD@60Hz for triple display setups. Added connectivity Providing all the ports and card slot options you would need for a professional-grade workspace, this desktop delivers SuperSpeed (5Gbps) USB ports as well as some unique audio connectivity options. Through a single USB-C connection, access four USB Type A ports, two USB-C ports, Card Readers (SD and Micro-SD), separate 3.5mm audio and microphone jacks, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet and an optical TOSLink output. The TOSLink output is ideal for connecting high-end audio equipment such as soundbars and with a wired Ethernet connection and SuperSpeed data transfer, you can expect to have a blazing fast and reliable desktop experience. Power delivery With a 100W PSU (Power Supply Unit), this docking station has the capability to ensure your device is always fully charged and ready to deal with power-hungry, demanding tasks. Simply connect your docking station with one USB-C cable and be confident that your laptop is being charged whilst you work. This also leaves more available ports both on your device and docking station for connecting additional USB accessories and peripherals. Plug-and-play This docking station does not require any driver installation. This allows for seamless large-scale implementation and a hassle-free experience.

Saft batteries provide backup to TotalEnergies’ technical centre

Saft has delivered a Flex’ion lithium-ion battery system to ensure continuity of critical systems at TotalEnergies’ Technical Centre for the Asia Pacific (TCAP). This research facility develops, analyses, and tests lubricants, special fluids and fuel additives for the automotive, off-road, and industrial sectors. TotalEnergies’ laboratory experiments in Mumbai often need to run continuously over months. Any power outage could lead to a test failure, disrupting the laboratory’s research and delaying the introduction of a new product to the market. The site’s researchers wanted to improve efficiency and reliability by upgrading the existing decentralised UPS with a single centralised system. They turned to Saft for a system to deliver 250kW for up to 15 minutes. Partners were able to integrate their technologies smoothly, and produced a system for TotalEnergies within a tight timescale of less than four weeks. Amandine Racaud, Head of TotalEnergies’ Technical Centre for Asia Pacific, says: “We want complete reliability from our backup system so that we can plan our research programmes with confidence. Being safe and reliable, Saft’s Flex’ion batteries are ensuring power continuity to keep our experiments on track. Flex’ion systems are also recognised for their lower environmental footprint, in line with TotalEnergies sustainability approach.” Flex’ion batteries were developed for high-performance UPS applications where space and safety are vital. Housed in five cabinets, the battery system is compact enough to fit into the limited space available. Also, Saft’s patented lithium-iron-phosphate electrochemistry and battery design ensure the safest battery solution. Flex’ion's lithium-ion battery technology can operate reliably at high temperatures (35°C), which reduces HVAC requirements, minimising energy bills and carbon emissions. Lithium-ion batteries are six times lighter than valve-regulated lead-acid batteries. Furthermore, with its robustness, design life of over 20 years and maintenance-free characteristics, Flex'ion is the solution that offers the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the system. Once delivered, Saft’s team in India provided support to ensure installation and commissioning was completed smoothly in six days. The battery system’s smart monitoring capability will enable TotalEnergies to have full confidence in its condition and calendar life. The project builds on Saft’s successful delivery of battery systems for TotalEnergies, which has Flex’ion batteries running in its offices in Singapore and at the High-Performance Supercomputer Centre in Pau, France. In India, Saft has also delivered nickel technology batteries to TotalEnergies for industrial backup applications at the Dhamra LNG terminal and for the Adani Green Solar Parks.

Schneider Electric makes eConversion the default mode for its Galaxy UPS series

Schneider Electric has announced an enhanced version of eConversion (formerly known as ECOnversion), to provide increased sustainability for its Galaxy V Series three-phase UPS. After years of field tests, all Galaxy V Series UPS' will be shipped to customers with eConversion as the default. eConversion mode provides the highest protection level for critical loads with Class-1 (UL certified) and results in savings up to three times the UPS price. Providing critical back-up power solutions for IT and non-IT environments, such as industrial edge applications, the Galaxy V Series’ eConversion delivers reliable power protection and helps attain new levels of sustainability. eConversion has over eight years of field deployment and thousands of customers worldwide who use it daily to protect their critical loads since its launch in 2014. “With eConversion as the default mode for Galaxy V Series three-phase UPSs, we expect to facilitate the conservation of 175GWh of electricity annually - which is the equivalent of the energy produced by nearly 60,000 rooftop solar installations.” Says Mustafa Demirkol, Vice President of Data Centre Systems, Offer Management and Marketing, Energy Management at Schneider Electric. “We’re looking forward to helping customers meet their sustainability goals while reducing their electricity spending and corresponding carbon emissions.” High efficiency mode mitigates impact of rising energy costs According to the World Bank, energy prices are expected to rise more than 50% in 2022 before easing in 2023 and 2024. Utilising eConversion enables operators to mitigate some of the cost and climate impact while continuing to benefit from the highest protection level for critical loads with Class-1 (UL certified). Additionally, with the eConversion savings metre, customers can check electricity savings on the UPS display. Customers can still choose to use the Double Conversion mode, but field experience has shown that modern electrical installations do not justify such high permanent use of electricity. EcoDataCenter, a climate-positive HPC data centre, deployed four Galaxy VX UPS’ at 1250kW each to support customer loads with the possibility to run at 99% efficiency with eConversion mode. As digital demand will continue to grow and require resilience to reap the benefits of automation and efficiency, data centre, OT, and IT professionals will need to make step-changes towards a net zero world. eConversion is available as a feature in all Galaxy V Series UPS’ worldwide.