CSC exports Finnish computing and data centre expertise to the world – as a pioneer in sustainable development

Today, IT services are produced under the principle of specialised networking. Finland and CSC are well-poised to specialise in providing energy-efficient data centre services.

The International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), held in Frankfurt from 18 to 23 June, is the largest high-performance computing event in Europe where computer users and manufacturers meet. This annual event attracts close to 3,000 people from around the world to network, learn about the latest industry news and see the latest products.

CSC has a booth at the ISC Exhibition. There, we are showcasing data centre technology and cloud computing services for research and processing sensitive data, for instance. This year, we are shining a spotlight particularly on our Kajaani data centre and Finnish data centre expertise. In addition, visitors can acquaint themselves with CSC's broad range of training for high-performance computing and scientific software.

Eco-efficiency of data centres breaks records

CSC is the pioneer in sustainable development in the provision of ICT services. We are able to lead the way because we administer and develop all the key subareas of production on our own — from Funet network-linked server rooms to our range of scientific computing software.

Our data centre in Renforsin Ranta, Kajaani, might in fact hold a world record. This modular data centre (MDC), deployed in 2012, has a power usage effectiveness (PUE) value of 1.03[1], placing it in the front rank of global performance.

The PUE value of a data centre is the ratio of total amount of energy used by the facility to the energy consumed by the servers. A "perfectly efficient" server room would thus have a PUE value of 1. Typically, the energy efficiency of data centres ranges between 1.5–2.5. The energy efficiency of all of CSC's data centres is extremely good in international terms (PUE values of 1.03-1.58). During the past five years, we have improved these values by more than 11% by improving our cooling systems, modernising server capacity and stepping up its efficiency, and opting for the most energy-efficient server room technologies.

Energy efficiency can yield millions in savings

The main criteria that a service provider must consider when thinking of where to locate a well-run server room include the possibility of expanding the facility and increasing energy supply in line with needs, and factors such as good telecommunications connections, security, expertise and costs. When all the essential requirements have been met, the deciding criterion is very often the total production cost of server room services.

Energy costs can amount to as much as 40–60% of the running costs of a server room, and therefore comprise the single largest item in operating costs. Energy efficiency and the PUE value, together with energy price and consumption, are the factors that determine the total amount of this cost item.

"Affordable energy combined with a world-class PUE value can provide the customer with savings of as much as millions of euros per year," says Marjut Andler, Director at CSC.

Table. Example calculations of the annual costs of a server room at CSC's modular data centre in Kajaani and a server room located in Central Europe.

Another key factor in energy efficiency is that all the energy is consumed for useful work. The high-performance and cloud computing environments that CSC offers for use in Finnish research have an extremely high utilisation ratio. The computing resources required by researchers are ensured with scalability tests, thereby avoiding wasted resources.

Germany's new submarine cable increases Finland's appeal

"We can promote Finland's competitiveness by attracting foreign data centre investments into Finland. Our advantages are our geographical location, political stability, high level of information security and opportunities for substantial savings," says Kimmo Koski, Managing Director of CSC.

The recently launched submarine cable link between Finland and Germany that was implemented by CINIA further improves our country's telecommunications connections to Europe. It is hoped that this will also increase Finland's appeal in the data centre market. The new submarine cable is the shortest and fastest route from the telecommunications hubs of Central Europe to the favourable data centre environments of Northern Europe and the markets of Asia and Eastern Europe.

Additional information:

Marjut Andler
Director
marjut.andler@csc.fi
tel. +358 (0)40 547 6957

www.isc-hpc.com
CSC's booth at ISC: http://www.isc-hpc.com/overview-sponsors-exhibitors.html

Read Kimmo Koski's blog: Building European competence: Smart Specialization and Datacenter Ecosystems