by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – HUAWEI has unveiled the PowerPOD 3.0 power supply system, which reaffirms its commitment to building low-carbon and smart data centres.
Huawei data centre
The system is hailed as the definition of the next-generation data centre facility.
Its unveiling also underscores the fact that the next generation of data centres will be sustainable, simplified, autonomous driving, and reliable.
Huawei projects with the continuous development of fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data, data centres will only grow in scale and importance.
However, there is growing pressure on these centres to use less electricity and operate more sustainably, especially as economies in Africa and other regions look to decarbonise.
Experts note critically, the facilities will have to enable this without compromising on performance or drastically increasing their physical footprints.
The PowerPOD 3.0, according to the company, reduces the size of data centres by 40 percent, cuts their energy consumption by 70 percent, shortens the delivery period from 2 months to 2 weeks and lowers the service level agreement (SLA) fault rate by 38 percent.
“At Huawei, we are ready and willing to contribute to green development in Africa,” said Jason Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei Digital Power Southern Africa.
He said the company had a tradition of ensuring that all its technologies were sustainable while pushing the boundaries of innovation.
“It will allow customers to pursue some of the most transformative technologies such as 5G and AI while protecting the planet,” the executive added.
Africa is forecast to benefit from systems such as the PowerPOD 3.0, as energy in particular presents a major challenge in the continent.
Data centres consume anywhere between 2 percent and 3 percent of the world’s power annually, adding strain on African countries’ grids.
Additionally, the average annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of data centres in Africa is 1.8, meaning that they are insufficient as they could be.
It is projected Africa will have more than 600-million internet users and 360 million intelligent end-users by 2025.
It thus is important to make existing data centres more efficient.
As Africa looks to balance population growth, urbanisation, and the desire to move forward on smart city initiatives with commitments to decarbonise, these kinds of next-generation data centres are seen as crucial.
– CAJ News
