Huawei launches 3 new sustainable data centre solutions at the 2023 Global Smart Green Data Center Summit

As digital transformation across industries accelerates, the number of global connections and computing requirements have doubled, according to Hou Jinlong, President of Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co. Ltd. Hou was opening the 2023 Global Smart Green Data Center Summit, organised by Huawei and held in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia on 4 July.

In his opening remarks, Hou highlighted that this surge has inevitably increased the demand for data centres across the world. In fact, the data centre market is expected to show an annual growth rate of nearly 5 per cent (4.66 per cent), and is projected to reach a market volume of US$410.4 billion by 2027.

The summit, themed "Smart DC, Building the Green Future", saw over 600 data centre industry leaders, technical experts, and ecosystem partners from around the world gathered to discuss new opportunities, demands, and challenges for the industry in an AI-dominated era. They also witnessed the launch of Huawei’s three latest data centre facility solutions that will improve the efficiency of data centres and keep power usage effectiveness (PUE) as low as 1.15.

Launch of green and smart data centre solutions

At the event, Fei Zhenfu, President of Huawei Data Center Facility Domain, announced the next-generation indirect evaporative cooling solution EHU (environment handling unit) and mobile intelligent management solution iManager-M.

First, the indirect evaporative cooling solution EHU aims to optimise energy savings while ensuring reliable performance.

The solution uses proprietary technology that maximises the use of free cooling sources, improving cooling efficiency and saving water and power for greater sustainability. This solution helps data centres achieve a PUE as low as 1.15, with a water usage effectiveness of only 0.6 L/kWh.

Huawei’s new EHU also features the addition of AI to optimise energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption for indirect evaporative cooling of data centres by three to five per cent.

Next, the distributed cooling architecture allows each device to run independently, ensuring that even if one device fails, the system still runs smoothly for optimal reliability. Additionally, network security safeguards and backup power combine to deliver nearly flawless system availability even in the face of network threats.

Finally, the solution is designed to be easy to use, with simplified deployment as well as operations and maintenance to reduce manual workload. Through prefabrication of materials and modular design, Huawei was able to shorten the delivery period of the product from six months to just three months. Additionally, the modular design allows for any hardware to be switched out for maintenance in just 3 minutes.

Besides cooling, Huawei also launched an intelligent management solution that helps data centre operators improve productivity and energy efficiency. First up, the iManager-M displays accurate KPIs and allows for remote operations and management. Since the software behind the solution is deployed on the cloud, data centre operators need not invest in a local server, thus reducing capital expenditure.

This also means that data centre operators can monitor and manage devices across multiple data centres in a unified manner.

Additionally, the solution features comprehensive analytics trackers to keep tabs on data on the performance of the data centres as well as energy consumption.

The iHealth monthly health report, for instance, can identify potential risks across over 20 scenarios so that operators have an accurate health status of the various devices within the data centres. If a fault is detected, an alarm will be sounded and operators will then be able to report faults and submit the logs in one simple click to ensure quicker maintenance. Likewise, energy consumption of these data centres is measured by day, month and year.

Unveiling an ecosystems approach

At the event, Shui Yu, General Manager of Huawei Data Center Facility and Critical Power Consulting and Ecosystem Solution Dept, unveiled the ICT provider’s next-generation FusionDC Ecosystem Solution.

FusionDC was first introduced to revolutionise the field of prefabricated modular data centres. Unlike brick-and-mortar designs, these data centres can fit into existing infrastructure and are pre-designed and tested off-site to reduce deployment time.

Now in its fifth iteration, the FusionDC 5.0 adopts an ecosystem approach based on the "1+4+N" architecture.

The ‘1’ refers to a unified architecture and design, where standard modules can be combined in multiple variations to create data centres that adapt to different building forms. Next, the ‘4’ refers to the four core electromechanical modules integrated within the solution: IT, power, cooling, and battery.

Finally, the ‘N’ refers to N solutions from the ICT giant’s ecosystem partners. Huawei hopes to work with its partners to develop customised scenarios suited for their business needs.

With FusionDC 5.0, customers will not be able to deploy around a thousand racks in just half a year, shortening time to market by 50 per cent. It is also a more sustainable solution, with FusionDC 5.0 having reduced PUE to 1.15 in Beijing, China and improving the recyclability of materials from 30 to 85 per cent.