Hyperscale Data Centres: Scale, Speed & Strategy

MEEZA deploys 4.9MW data centre capacity in Qatar

Vertiv has announced that it has supported MEEZA to design, build and install its new data centres in Qatar. Vertiv was selected as MEEZA’s vendor of choice due to the company’s expertise in providing end-to-end data centre solutions that adhere to the highest industry guidelines. For the last 14 years, MEEZA has been providing a wide range of managed IT services and solutions, in addition to cloud solutions and cyber security services. According to the DataReportal Digital 2021 report, there were 4.67 million mobile connections and 2.88 million internet users in Qatar in January 2021, and the digital landscape across the country is transforming rapidly. To continue to progress its digital transformation and remain a country of choice for international hyperscalers, MEEZA required a significant increase in computing power, deployed in a short time frame. To achieve this, Vertiv helped MEEZA add 4.9MW of data centre capacity in just 14 months from design to installation, instead of about 22 months or more required for a similar capacity in a brick-and-mortar solution. MEEZA’s new M-VAULT data centres, offering cloud services to customers in Qatar, the region and the world, were built using Vertiv Integrated Modular Solutions (IMS), which provided a simple way to install capacity in a fraction of the time it would take for a traditional data centre build, due to its pre-engineered and prefabricated nature. Within the 14-month timeline, Vertiv delivered three buildings made of 100 fully equipped prefabricated modules, with the solution integrating Vertiv critical power, thermal management, and monitoring and control technologies - systems that are designed to work together. This type of modular solution also provides business agility, as it allows MEEZA to scale along with its customers. The new data centres align closely with Qatar’s digital transformation agenda as it shifts to a ‘smarter’ economy and supports the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030), to become an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for its people by 2030. Vertiv’s market leading solutions help customers like MEEZA achieve energy efficiency goals; and that doesn’t change when they become sub-assemblies in an integrated modular solution. For example, the Vertiv Liebert EXL S1 UPS provides MEEZA up to 99% energy efficiency in Dynamic Online mode. With its intelligent paralleling feature, the UPS can optimise efficiency at partial loads, achieving cost savings by minimising energy losses. Additionally, continuing to work with Vertiv’s IMS services to check and fine-tune system settings will help MEEZA realise energy efficiency gains throughout the equipment lifecycle. Not only did Vertiv address the tight timeline, but it also gave MEEZA access to infrastructure and domain experts, including the local partner-provided resources. Working with Vertiv meant having technical experts both on and off site, with engineers working to ensure a design and build tailored to specific business needs while technicians managed installation and integration, ensuring seamless start up and optimal operation. With the support of Vertiv’s uniquely crafted solution, pre-sales support, installation services and after-sales support, MEEZA has been able to further optimise and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. The project has also resulted in increased revenue and minimised installation risks. Fadi Nasser, Chief Commercial Officer, MEEZA says, “We constantly endeavour to offer cost-effective IT solutions and services to help our clients focus on their core business and to support their efforts to scale rapidly. Partnering with a global leader like Vertiv pushes us one step closer to our goal as we bring the best of both companies to the forefront of the Qatari market. There are massive business expansions currently occurring in the Middle East, so our business model aims to provide optimum, low cost, highly efficient and sustainable solutions that are easy to scale, if and when needed. We have been able to scale our business and become the preferred provider for wholesale internet services, major telecom operators, ISPs, government agencies, large enterprises and educational institutions across the region, and we are optimistic that with the launch of latest M-VAULT, the pace of digital acceleration in the country will skyrocket.” Pierre Havenga, Managing Director for Vertiv in the Middle East and Africa, says, “Vertiv has always been at the forefront of digital transformation, innovatively supporting our customers’ goals and we are thrilled to have completed another project for MEEZA as one of its long-term partners and vendors. The next few years will reshape the digital landscape in Qatar, and we could not be more excited to be part of this transformational journey with them. Our portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services, that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network, will greatly support MEEZA in its mission of digitally disrupting Qatar and putting it on the global map.”

Prime Data Centres breaks ground on Chicago data centre campus

Prime Data Centres has announced that it has broken ground on its $1bn Chicago data centre campus at 1600 East Higgins Road in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Prime ORD will deliver more than 750,000ft2 and 175MW of capacity at full build-out, creating the largest data centre campus in Greater Chicago. ORD-01, the first of three planned campus data centres, will be marketed to major cloud providers, global internet businesses, colocation companies, and the Fortune 500 enterprise as a single-tenant, hyperscale data centre. “On behalf of everyone at Prime, I would like to thank Elk Grove Village and the numerous contractors and team members involved in readying ORD-01,” comments Nicholas Laag, Chief Executive Officer of Prime Data Centres. “The partnership between Elk Grove and the data centre industry has led to unprecedented growth and positive economic impact. Looking ahead, we will continue to partner with forward-thinking governments, executing on an aggressive, multinational expansion plan that will establish Prime as the data centre foundation for the global proliferation of content creation and cloud solutions.” “I couldn’t be happier to welcome our new neighbours at Prime Data Centres to Illinois as they break ground on their Chicago data centre campus,” says Governor JB Pritzker. “We aren’t just the heart of the Midwest - we are a national leader in innovation and business growth, in large part thanks to companies like Prime. From the outset of my administration, I have prioritised attracting companies in the rapidly growing data centre industry. Thanks to those efforts and our reputation as a global tech hub, we have 15 operating data centres investing more than $4.6bn in our communities - all while creating hundreds of jobs. This data centre brings with it economic opportunity at every turn - for residents of Elk Grove, greater Chicago, and throughout our great state. Congratulations to the entire Prime team on this extraordinary feat.” The official ceremony was held on 15 November, and featured guest speakers such as Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson, as well as executives from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and project partners ComEd, Clune Construction Company and Gensler. “Prime’s presence in Elk Grove Village validates our unique position as a hub for data centre operators. We welcome Prime to Elk Grove Village, not as tenants, but as partners in every sense of the word,” says Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson. “While we know that our infrastructure suits Prime’s needs, we also know that they will find success here in Elk Grove because we both share a drive to innovate and thrive. We are looking forward to partnering with Prime so we can support their continued growth here in Elk Grove Village.” Elk Grove Village’s tax incentive plan and increased regional demand created a unique opportunity for Prime Data Centres. Prime ORD-01 will deliver 384,000ft2 and up to 72MW of much-needed capacity to the tightened market. The facility will be highly energy efficient and built to the exacting availability, connectivity and power density requirements of today's most prominent cloud brands.

Nxtra commences construction of its largest data centre in India

Nxtra Data has begun the construction of its new hyperscale data centre in Kolkata. The company will invest Rs 600 Cr in the development of the largest data centre in East India, which will serve the underserved markets of East and Northeast regions along with the SAARC countries and fulfil the growing needs of enterprises and global cloud players. The ceremony was attended by Shri Babul Supriyo, Honourable Minister for Information Technology, Electronics and Tourism, Government of West Bengal; Shri Debashis Sen, IAS (Retd), Managing Director, West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO); Shri Rajeev Kumar, Principal Secretary of Information Technology and Electronics Department; and Rajesh Tapadia, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Nxtra by Airtel. The 25MW facility will be built in New Town, Kolkata and will be fully operational by 2024. In line with the company’s commitment to environment and its ambition to reach net zero by 2031, the new centre will be a green facility, sourcing clean energy for running its operations. Once up and running, it will be Nxtra’s first large-scale facility in east India, in addition to its already existing 12 large and 120 edge facilities across India. The new centre will further cement Nxtra’s position as the nation's largest network of data centres. “Nxtra and Airtel are delighted to partner West Bengal in its digital-first economy agenda and would like to thank the state government for its unflinching support. The new facility will be one of the largest data centres in East India and will be the gateway to serving customers in and around the eastern region and the SAARC countries. We are investing extensively in green energy and our state-of-the-art, carrier-neutral, hyperscale Kolkata data centre will run on renewable source of energy,” says Rajesh Tapadia, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Nxtra by Airtel. Nxtra by Airtel is on an expansion spree and will invest over Rs 5000 cr over the next four years to expand its capacity by three times to over 400MW. The company has already invested and partnered with eight organisations to source more than 180,000MWh of renewable energy. Nxtra is aiming to reach net zero by 2031.

Teraco completes JB4, its latest hyperscale data centre

Teraco has announced the completion of the first phase of JB4, its new hyperscale data centre addition to the Bredell Campus, Ekurhuleni, South Africa. The new facility supports the growing demand by enterprises and cloud providers for data centre capacity. JB4 offers highly resilient and secure colocation facilities in line with Teraco’s long term vision of enabling digital transformation across Africa. Gauteng is a logical destination for Teraco’s continued investment in data centre infrastructure on the continent. Home to digitally connected enterprises, including telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, logistics, and retail, the Johannesburg Metropol benefits from its enviable location in the heart of South Africa, which has led to it becoming the hub for connectivity and peering. JB4 represents a strategic addition to Platform Teraco, offering enterprises and cloud providers a scalable platform for IT infrastructure deployment while sustaining performance, reliability, security, and the most comprehensive network choice. The first phase of JB4 comprises 30,000m2 of building structure, 8,000m2 of data hall space, and 19MW of critical power load. Teraco has secured adjacent land and power for phase two expansion, bringing the total critical power load in the facility to 50MW at the end state. The JB4 addition to Teraco’s growing data centre platform takes critical power load capacity at Teraco facilities to 126MW, which includes the Isando Campus JB1/JB3 (40MW), Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campus CT1/CT2 (21MW) and Durban (1MW). This data centre facility dramatically extends Platform Teraco’s capacity in South Africa, according to Jan Hnizdo, CEO, of Teraco. He says, “Forming a vital part of the African IT landscape, Platform Teraco is an essential part of the modern enterprise’s digital transformation strategy with its diverse industry ecosystems and open interconnection marketplace.” JB4 is connected to all the other Teraco data centres through the diverse ecosystem of network operators in the facility, making it ideal for the distributed interconnection-defined architecture of the modern enterprise. Jan says that the majority of enterprise organisations are accelerating their digital transformation strategies and placing a greater focus on cloud adoption strategies. He adds, “Enterprises are looking for the ability to scale as network strategies evolve, and in a world where fast and secure interconnection with strategic business partners is a priority, this is a source of competitive advantage.” Organisations working to accelerate their digital transformation utilise Teraco to dynamically scale their IT infrastructure, adopt hybrid multi-cloud architectures and interconnect with strategic business partners within the Platform Teraco ecosystem of global and local clients. Jan concludes, “The continued increase of cloud adoption in Africa is also being enabled by investments in critical infrastructure, including hyperscale data centre facilities such as JB4. This will enable global cloud clients to service the South African market and the rest of the sub-Saharan African region.”

AirTrunk paves the way to net zero emissions by 2030

AirTrunk has announced its commitment to net zero emissions by 2030, with an approach to emissions reporting that has been developed specifically for hyperscale data centre environments. AirTrunk’s 2030 net zero target exceeds the objective set out in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2050 and covers Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. AirTrunk Founder and CEO, Robin Khuda, says: “The climate crisis is one of the most important global challenges of our generation. By taking immediate action to reduce our emissions, we are making an important commitment to our employees, investors, customers, partners and communities for generations to come. “As the pioneer of hyperscale data centres in the region, we are also pioneering a global standard for managing net zero emissions in hyperscale data centre environments. It is based on transparency, accountability and customer collaboration, and balances climate ambition with emissions ownership.” AirTrunk Chief Technology Officer, Damien Spillane, says: “It remains our goal to set the industry standard in sustainability across the Asia Pacific and Japan region, and our net zero approach puts us in a position to pave the way in data centre emissions reporting. The approach leverages the strategies and competencies of our customers while enabling interoperable carbon ledgers and ensuring zero double-counting.” AirTrunk is continuing to achieve carbon neutrality for its Scope 1 emissions, as well as the Scope 2 emissions from its corporate head offices. The company will continue to monitor, measure and report its Scope 3 emissions, and develop a roadmap to manage these emissions in the future. AirTrunk’s roadmap to achieve net zero by 2030 for Scope 1 and 2 emissions is outlined in its FY22 Sustainability Report, which also details the company’s achievements and commitments against its planet, people and progress sustainability pillars. Highlights from the report include the following: • Energy efficiency: the achievement of 1.35 annual average operating Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), which is 20% lower than the Asia Pacific region average, and a year-on-year improvement from 1.37. • Water management: a new water management framework that ensures AirTrunk’s data centre water usage is both sustainable and productive. AirTrunk sets Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) limits in water stressed areas and has established an innovative water productivity threshold that sets minimum energy saving targets per unit of water use, ensuring that water usage delivers significant energy and carbon reductions.  • Scope 3 emissions: inclusion, for the first time, of Scope 3 emissions across the value chain including emissions associated with embodied carbon, business travel, employee commuting and employees working from home. • Gender diversity: an increase in the representation of women across its employee base to 32.6%, from 27% in FY21. • Sustainable financing: the conversion of AirTrunk’s A$2.1bn corporate loan facility into a Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) which achieved several milestones including being the largest SLL for a data centre globally, the first for a data centre in APJ, and the first to utilise operating PUE as a Key Performance Indicator. AirTrunk met all its SLL KPIs in FY22.  Each year, AirTrunk will respond to new challenges and opportunities and continue to assess its sustainability strategy and redefine its commitments to ensure a long-term climate view. AirTrunk Chief Operating Officer, Dana Adams, says: “We have made substantial progress on the targets we released in our inaugural Sustainability Report last year, demonstrating our commitment to integrating sustainability across our operations. We will continue to responsibly manage climate risks and opportunities, while engaging with our stakeholders and redefining benchmarks in sustainability.” KPMG has been engaged to independently assure selected sustainability information including scope 1, 2 and select scope 3 emissions as well as carbon offsets. The Assurance Report is included in Appendix 3 of the Sustainability Report. “Together with our stakeholders, we are well-positioned to lead the transformation of our industry to enable a net zero emissions future,” Robin concludes. To download AirTrunk’s FY22 Sustainability Report, click here.

Kao Data appoints Gratte Brothers to support data centre expansion

Kao Data has announced that it has appointed Gratte Brothers as principal contractor for the expansion of its KLON-06 data centre in Slough. The project will see Gratte Brothers build out the IT capacity at KLON-06 to support the expansion of Kao Data’s platform - providing customers in West London with an optimised, sustainable and OCP-Ready facility. The build at KLON-06 will adhere to Kao Data’s high performance blueprint, providing a hyperscale inspired facility that’s placed to support enterprise and large-scale cloud deployments across the West London availability zone. From a sustainability and efficiency standpoint, the facility will include an efficient cooling system, lithium-ion UPS, and be powered by 100% renewable energy. Furthermore, all generators will be powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), removing 90% of net CO2 emissions. Iain Thomson, Managing Director, Gratte Brothers says: “We are delighted to be partnering with Kao to deliver the technical expertise required to bring this facility to life. KLON-06 provides a perfect opportunity for Gratte Brothers to showcase its commitment to engineering efficient and sustainable solutions, and we look forward to working collaboratively with the team to deliver this project.” “Our partnership with Gratte Brothers demonstrates Kao Data’s commitment to technical excellence in data centre design, build and operations, and will help fast-track the development of KLON-06 in line with customer demands,” says Paul Finch, COO, Kao Data. “Slough is one of the UK’s most important data centre communities, and the expansion of our portfolio within the world’s second largest data centre hub illustrates our dedication to scaling our high performance platform and supporting customers with sustainable, digital infrastructure solutions.”

KIOXIA announces EDSFF E1.S SSDs for hyperscale data centres

KIOXIA has announced that it has expanded its portfolio with the addition of the KIOXIA XD7P Series data centre NVMe SSDs. Designed for hyperscale and general server applications in the new Enterprise and Data Centre Standard Form Factor (EDSFF), XD7P drives are the second generation of KIOXIA’s E1.S SSDs with Open Compute Project (OCP) data centre NVMe SSD support, following its KIOXIA XD6 Series. “Hyperscale needs of density, power, performance and serviceability are driving PCIe 5.0 E1.S as a form factor, and the OCP data centre NVMe SSD specification V2.0 for the data centre,” says Ross Stenfort, hardware storage engineer, Meta. “The KIOXIA XD7P Series SSD supports these storage technologies, to enable the next generation of hyperscale needs.” XD7P Series data centre NVMe SSDs deliver overall improved performance, achieving nearly one to two times the sequential write performance when compared to their predecessors. These drives are designed to PCIe 4.0 and NVMe 2.0 specification, and PCIe 5.0 with maximum interface speed of 32GT/s per lane is under development. Hence, XD7P will be released initially as PCIe 4.0 SSDs. PCIe 5.0 SSDs will be released based on customer demand.  Based on KIOXIA’s fifth generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology, the XD7P Series utilises a proprietary KIOXIA controller, which can be adapted to customer needs. The E1.S form factor will be available in heights of 9.5mm, 15mm and 25mm with heat sink options. Capacities will be available up to 7.68TB with 1DWPD endurance. “Next generation cloud and edge platforms need to tackle the challenges arising from thermal and signal integrity requirements,” says Frederik Haak, Senior Manager SSD Marketing, KIOXIA Europe. “With the XD7P Series, KIOXIA’s new generation of E1.S form factored data centre PCIe and NVMe SSD offers an excellent choice for cloud and system architects with focus on future proof platform design.”

Evolution partners with Warburg Pincus to develop sustainable data centres

Evolution Data Centres (EDC) has entered into a programmatic joint venture with affiliates of Warburg Pincus (WP) for the development of sustainable hyper-scale data centres in the fast-growing cloud markets within Southeast Asia. As part of the venture, WP will be committing capital from its maiden asset-level Asia real estate fund, which successfully closed with committed capital of $2.8 billion in late 2021. EDC was founded by a team of executives with over 25 years of experience in the Asian Data Centre market and an extensive track record, having deployed more than 640MW of capacity and led more than $1bn of digital infrastructure transactions in the region. Evolution was established to address two key challenges: the lack of quality and scale of data centre capacity in emerging Asian markets, and the critical need for sustainable infrastructure in the region. Darren Webb, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EDC says, “I am delighted to announce our new partnership with Warburg Pincus. It is great to have the backing of such a credible investor who shares our passion for building and operating hyper-scale, sustainable data centres across multiple high-growth markets in Southeast Asia. This funding will help us realise our vision of being the leading sustainable data centre provider in the region.” “Warburg Pincus has an outstanding track record of investing in Asia real estate and digital infrastructure. We look forward to drawing on their wealth of experience in undertaking large-scale capital expenditure programs in the region as we embark on our next stage of growth.” comments Ed Martin-Sperry, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of EDC. www.evolutiondatacentres.com www.warburgpincus.com

STACK Infrastructure and ESR partner

STACK Infrastructure and ESR have announced a joint venture to develop a 48MW data centre site in Incheon, Korea. STACK and ESR will jointly develop and deliver a 48MW facility in Incheon in Seoul’s western suburbs. Power to the facility has been secured from KEPCO and construction of the single building will commence in Q1 2023 for delivery of ready for service capacity in Q4 2024. The facility will be operated under the STACK brand. The development is strategically located with robust access to power and network, offering scalability and reliability for higher rack densities and floor loading specifications. The partners will develop a facility incorporating the latest environmentally friendly design supporting industry-leading PUE and building standards. This data centre will enable hyperscalers and enterprise clients to address their evolving requirements in Korea and the APAC region more broadly. “STACK’s opening of a fifth APAC market in 12 months, expanding on our recent developments in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Tokyo, enhances our focus on our customers’ strategic requirements by establishing a scalable presence in existing and emerging tier one data centre markets,” says Pithambar (Preet) Gona, STACK’s Chief Executive Officer - APAC. “We are excited about our partnership with ESR, which illustrates our ability to work with market leading real asset managers, leveraging our combined expertise to the benefit of our customers”. “ESR’s strong regional capability and experience in tier one data centre markets ensures we are well-positioned to help develop facilities across critical hyperscale locations,” says Diarmid Massey, CEO of ESR Data Centres. “Partnering with STACK enables us to leverage an outstanding global operating platform and innovative capital solutions to target hyperscale customer growth in key markets.” This milestone follows the recent announcements of STACK’s entrance to the APAC market with the opening of its Singapore regional headquarters, its first 36MW campus in Inzai, Japan and expansion into the Australia market with 124MW in Melbourne, Canberra, and Perth. The strategic nature of ESR’s partnership with STACK and ESR’s previously announced data centre land acquisitions in Japan and Hong Kong, as well as the recent first closing of ESR DC Fund 1, a maiden fund with over $1 billion of equity commitments, continue to demonstrate ESR’s commitment to new economy investment and the development of a range of environmentally friendly and industry leading data centre solutions regionally. www.stackinfra.com www.esr.com

DataVita makes senior appointment to lead international push

DataVita has appointed James King as its new Business Development Director to lead its ambitions for international growth. A chartered accountant with a background in corporate and project finance, James joins from the Scottish Futures Trust where he was an associate director. He previously held roles at accountancy giants EY and PwC. While at the Scottish Futures Trust, James established the Host in Scotland initiative, which aims to raise the profile of Scotland as a location for data centre facilities on the world stage. James’s experience working with global partners in the data centre and subsea infrastructure sectors will see him lead DataVita’s plans to build on its domestic success by attracting companies with international data centre requirements to Scotland.   Danny Quinn, Managing Director at DataVita, says: “Scotland has great potential to follow the likes of Ireland and Sweden an become part of the international data centre market, encouraging multinational companies and hyperscalers to base their regional European data centre services here. We see James as a key contributor to our plans on this front with his experience at Host in Scotland, building on the expertise within our current team.” James adds: “Having worked alongside Danny Quinn and his team for many years, I have been able to see first-hand how dedicated DataVita is to its clients and providing a first-class service with a very keen focus on sustainability. The company’s Fortis data centre facility is unrivalled in Scotland - and arguably the rest of the UK - in terms of its green and security credentials and I am really excited to build on its success to date.” www.datavita.com www.hostinscotland.com