Seeing Technological Changes Through the Huawei Legion: Data Center Base

If we trace the source of Huawei’s legion, we will find that Huawei has disclosed 15 legions in two time periods. Five legions were established in October last year, including: coal mines, customs and ports, smart roads, data center energy, and smart photovoltaic legions ; At the end of March this year, it was announced that ten more reserve corps had been established, including interactive media (music), sports health, new display core, campus network, data center network, data center base, site and module power supply, airport rail, and power digital services. and Government Affairs One Netcom, etc.

List these legions, it can be clearly seen that there are three legions related to the data center, namely the data center energy legion, the data center network legion, and the data center base legion.

Behind the digital transformation and digital economy in the intelligent era, the data center is the computing power infrastructure to ensure its safety and efficiency, and it is also an important carrier for cities to build smart brains and smart cities, which are related to the improvement of people’s livelihood and economic development.

Huawei has set up a total of three legions to carry out data center business, and data centers have become Huawei’s top priority. So the question is: what is the difference between data center energy, data center network, and data center base? What are the market changes and trends in the development of the entire IDC industry in the data center base that we are focusing on?

The core of IDC development

Data center energy, data center network, and data center base can be described as the core of data center development. The base supports the infrastructure of the data center, and the network connection sets up a bridge for data center transmission and interaction tasks. the need for continuous development. Specifically, in terms of scene and function, the three are quite different.

Data center energy focuses on the green development of data centers. Data centers are major energy consumers. According to data from research institutions, the overall power consumption of data centers in my country has increased by more than 10% per year in the past ten years. According to IDC estimates, by 2024, the power consumption of data centers will account for more than 5% of the power consumption of the whole society.

Data center energy focuses on the reduction of energy consumption and PUE value of the data center, such as the cooling system of air-conditioning equipment, the application of liquid cooling technology; the optimization of green computing IT equipment, such as the use of AI technology for data time-sharing scheduling, to achieve Intelligent prediction, reasonable expansion and contraction, optimized allocation of computing resources, and improved server utilization.

The data center network focuses on the construction of the data center network. At present, the existing data centers are mainly based on IPv4 in terms of connection network protocols. All things are connected, and the demand for IP addresses in the network increases exponentially. The data center is the computing power center of the intelligent world, IPv6 has become the basic demand for interconnection, and the replacement of the dedicated network by the Ethernet network has become the inevitable development of technology.

The base of the data center mainly faces the infrastructure construction and operation and maintenance of the bottom layer of the data center. During the construction and operation of the data center, it includes systems such as power supply, cooling, cabinets, wiring, and fire safety. The cabinet system and integrated wiring determine whether the data center space can be used efficiently. Security management and computer room management ensure the controllable and orderly operation of the computer room.

From infrastructure base to network connection to green development, the core systems of the data center have undergone considerable changes during the development process. The base of the data center is the basic construction of the data center. What are the main changes in the development of these years?

From Bulk to Intensive: One-Stop Capability Becomes “Ace”

Among the existing data centers, most of the preliminary plans are built by major Internet companies to meet their own business needs. For example, due to the large amount of data in business development, companies such as Baidu and Tencent need to build data centers in different regions to meet the needs of massive data storage and computing.

With the continuous development of digital intelligence technology, more and more data support our production and life. Data centers have become the carrying entities of massive data in our digital life, and the normal operation of the digital economy is inseparable from the storage, processing, and analysis of data by data centers. The country also regards data center construction as a key area of ​​”new infrastructure”.

The construction of the data center base is bulk from the enterprise, and is developed as a national-level digital engineering integration. In the beginning of 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four ministries and commissions have determined the construction of the “East Number and West Count” project, and ten data center clusters will be established in eight places including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to complete the national The overall layout and design of the integrated data center system. Intensive data center construction kicked off.

In the traditional data center industry, Internet companies are one of the main forces in the construction of data center bases. Because of the demand for their own business data volume and the high requirements for innovative technologies, the Internet giants we know all have their own data centers. . Furthermore, the data center service provider is also the backbone of the IDC service circle, providing diversified services for the industry’s data center customers and promoting the continuous development of the data center market. However, these service providers mostly exist in the service role of single-point capabilities, and mainly provide some services in data center construction and operation and maintenance. For example, consulting services for data center construction, data center infrastructure services, etc.

The construction, operation and maintenance, service and other stages of the data center base include complex content systems and complex professional fields, such as the supporting civil construction of the computer room for building system construction, the power supply, cooling, cabinets, wiring, etc. of the physical infrastructure of the data center, servers, etc. operating systems, network equipment, software and hardware platforms, etc. Therefore, in the past, the role of service providers in data centers was relatively scattered, providing differentiated services at different stages of data center construction and operation.

In the market, it can be seen that some IDC manufacturers use modular construction methods to meet new efficiency and security requirements. In the construction of the base of the data center, the modular method is used instead of the traditional civil construction. Like building blocks, the construction of the data center can be completed by stacking and deploying large-scale modules.

The data center of HUAWEI CLOUD Dongguan uses a modular construction method, which was completed and put into operation in only 6 months, while the traditional construction method takes at least two years. In the internal function operation and maintenance of the data center, modular deployment solutions, such as temperature control modules, IT modules, etc., these key parts of the data center are implemented in a modular manner.

For data center builders, cost and efficiency are the most critical metrics. Modular construction and operation and maintenance can be customized and expanded on demand, which can reduce the cost of infrastructure construction and operation and maintenance and improve its efficiency.

Under the influence of the data calculation project, the demand for data center base construction has been amplified. Facing the future, in the construction of data center bases, enterprises with comprehensive one-stop service capabilities for construction and operation are beginning to increase, but there are few technical service providers in the industry with one-stop full-life field service capabilities for data centers.

More and more IDC manufacturers in the industry have begun to focus on technology and modular solutions, playing the trump card of one-stop service data center base construction capabilities. After all, the scattered services of data center bases are only a small part. One-stop service also means a package of solutions, which contains huge commercial value, especially in the future follow-up operations of the data center. This is the focus of the blue ocean and competition for manufacturers participating in the IDC market in the future, and it is also the focus of more and more IDC manufacturers such as Huawei. The reasons for attaching importance to the construction and investment in the field of data center bases.

“Spin and Jump” in the main theme of development

With the rapid growth of the scale and capacity of data centers, the complexity and difficulty of operation and maintenance management has also increased. Traditional data centers have poor elastic expansion, difficult management, complicated procedures, and many rectifications. The data center operation and maintenance model is backward, the operation and maintenance methods and methods are too dependent on labor and experience, and the operation and maintenance efficiency and resource utilization are too low.

At present, the average resource utilization rate of many data centers is lower than 60%. There are still weak links in the reliability and physical security of data center equipment, and cyber attacks and security incidents against data centers are emerging one after another. At the same time, under the requirements of the “dual carbon” goal, the green reformation of data centers requires higher PUE values, and it is becoming more and more difficult to meet the environmental protection standards.

In terms of data center construction and management, how to speed up the efficiency of data center base construction, increase the greenness and safety of operation and maintenance, and reduce the cost of data center base construction and operation and maintenance has become the core of competition for IDC manufacturers. Whose solutions and technologies can solve the core demands of the data center base will have a greater chance of staying at the poker table.

The market size of the entire data center has huge commercial value, with a market capacity of 100 billion and is still growing. According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the market size of my country’s IDC industry reached 156.25 billion yuan in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%. In 2020, it is initially estimated that the market size of my country’s IDC industry will reach 195.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.3%. In 2021, the total size of China’s data center business market will be close to 300 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 30%.

According to Synergy’s latest forecast, the number of large data centers operated by hyperscale operators around the world will exceed the 1,000 mark in the next three years, and will continue to grow rapidly thereafter. The domestic data center is also second only to the rapid development of the United States. The orientation of policies and market commercial value has made the data center industry a “sweet pastry”.

For IDC service providers, how to divide this thick cake in the future, the core theme basically revolves around these four goals: how to achieve simplicity and continuous innovation in data center solutions, and how to maximize data center costs and operation and maintenance. The best strategy, how to deliver high-quality and fast data centers, and how to ensure reliable operation of data centers.

The core demands of these data center parties are also the standards for IDC manufacturers to continuously improve. Data center service providers need to find places where they can innovate based on their own advantages in the core theme of these developments.

In the construction and operation and maintenance of data centers, there are many sub-fields involved. In the long industrial chain, there are all-round players and specialized players. Everyone in different stages can play their respective strengths and can stay for a long time. The strength of the poker table is continuous value empowerment in innovation and service.

In the age of intelligence, behind the digital transformation and digital economy, data centers are the infrastructure for safe and efficient computing power. They are entrenched in large and small data centers across the country and have countless trivial needs that require all kinds of players in the industry to give full play to their strengths. .

The cake of the IDC industry is huge, and it needs to cooperate with various forces to carry out in-depth reform. This development opportunity is equal to all participants. Whether they can seize it or not, it is necessary to evaluate everyone’s business understanding and innovative services at the poker table. The market is treacherous and unpredictable, and innovation and recognition are the touchstone. Only after real gold can be quenched, impurities can be screened out and left for eternity.