Today we are starting our blog on Habrahabr, and in the first post I would like to tell you about the most large-scale event of Schneider Electric in 2017 in Russia - the Innovation Summit, which was held in Moscow in mid-April.
Innovation Summit is an international event that brings together experts, customers and partners around the world. Earlier, the Summit was held in Paris, Singapore and Dubai, and this year we held it in Russia. The fact that the event came to the Russian market, and Data Center Day dedicated to data processing centers became the first day of the Summit, says a lot.

At present, the level of technological equipment in data centers is increasing in Russia, and it is now important to show how modern solutions can improve the work of the data center. Customers are increasingly taking into account not only the capital expenditures that the company incurs during the construction phase, but also the subsequent operating expenses incurred during the operation phase. Our practice has shown that only an integrated approach to the construction of data centers and understanding and analysis of the mutual influence of some systems on others will provide an opportunity at the operational and development stage of the site to optimize costs and reduce operational risks. As part of this integrated approach, we offer solutions for all major engineering systems of the data center - the organization of air conditioning, power supply, automation and infrastructure management, allowing to optimize costs and ensure reliable operation of equipment throughout the life cycle of the data center. The entire range of Schneider Electric solutions available in Russia and the CIS countries, including for data centers, was presented at the Summit. Also at the stand of the IT Division, our new developments concerning the placement, power supply, cooling and control in the data center were presented. Today we will summarize a small summary of the sessions, round tables and discussions.
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videoAnalyticsThe global market for commercial data centers is showing steady growth, and an increase in the number of cloud projects is predicted. In his speech, these theses were confirmed by Alexey Solodovnikov, managing director of the Russian representative office of The Uptime Institute. He cited data from a study conducted by 451Research at the end of 2016. The largest growth of corporate data centers will occur until 2020 in the Asia-Pacific region, it will be the locomotive of global growth. The power consumption of data centers will exceed 80,000,000 kW in 2017 and will continue to grow mainly due to an increase in the share of energy consumption by cloud-based data centers. Thus, key technological trends were identified: the increasingly cloud-based management of data centers, the increasing trend of standardization and industrialization, as well as increasing interest in an open data center architecture to reduce the cost of their creation.
IKS Consulting analysts, who spoke at the Innovation Summit, noted that Russian companies need to prepare for the explosive growth of video content. According to the agency, from 2016 to 2021, a 5-fold increase in mobile traffic in Russia is expected (twice as fast as fixed traffic will grow), with 78% of this traffic being video in 2021. The requirements of the Russian legislation contribute to the development of the data center's ecosystem: the law on personal data has ensured a market growth of 10-12%, and the Yarovoi Law will require keeping another 157 billion gigabytes of information, so that data center operators need to provide effective input methods into operation hundreds of new racks. According to iKS forecasts, commercial and cloud data centers remain the drivers of the market, as 78% of companies operating in Russia plan to place their capacities on such sites.
During the Innovation Summit, Natalia Makarochkina, Vice President of the IT Division of Schneider Electric in Russia, presented her vision of the future of the data center market. Natalia talked about how today the emphasis is shifting from centralized data processing to hybrid computer ecosystems, in which there is both a central data center and peripheral computing systems. Since the typical architecture of cloud networks has its drawbacks, such as latency, throughput, standards, and integrated management solutions, they can be eliminated. Comprehensive data centers bring applications and services closer to users and "things." The world is preparing to support huge data flows, including those generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). According to forecasts, by 2020, 3% of the global electricity consumption will come from data centers, and this is a serious challenge for operators, who are often limited in power supply.

The impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on storage and transfer prospects is great. Roman Postnikov, CEO of OneFactor, which develops M2M solutions for MegaFon and other companies, said: “IoT is a fuel for artificial intelligence.” According to Postnikov, today in Russia are actively developing systems and solutions for different industries. Leading market players today integrate data obtained by multiple sensors into AI systems and their business processes.
Russian data centers
Representatives of Russian data centers spoke at Data Center Day. In particular, Alexey Soldatov, General Director of DataPro, spoke about how the market and industry have changed in the past 5 years. From a technological point of view, there has been an increase in capacity and an improvement in performance. The average temperature in the “cold” corridor has increased from 22 degrees to 25, and in the hot - from 26 to 40. And this is not the limit, a further increase in energy consumption is expected. Already, the energy consumption per rack is not 2.5-3 kW, but 3.5-4 kW, again with the expectation of further growth. The power supply of modern racks is organized in such a way that two active inputs to the rack are no longer required: now you can turn off one of them for carrying out routine maintenance. The design of data centers has changed for the better, both the appearance of the buildings and all the rooms inside.
New DataPro Data Center
Mikhail Margolin, director of business development at Rostelecom, in turn, provided estimates of savings from the use of leased facilities. Companies in Russia save from 35% to 55% of the budget by leasing capacity, including 30% from reduced energy consumption and cooling costs. According to the representative of Rostelecom, today there is a great demand for Russian data centers, especially as part of the import substitution program.
New partners
On the first day, Innovaton Summit Schneider Electric concluded important agreements according to which company solutions for data centers are becoming more accessible in Russia. First, TsMO, a member of the Remer manufacturing group, will be producing server cabinets for Schneider Electric. The new line of assembly constructs was created on the basis of the SX series and has similar characteristics and basic functionality. Localized product will allow to find technical and commercial compromise in projects.

In addition, a cooperation agreement was signed between Schneider Electric and the 3Data data center network. Under the contract, Schneider Electric will provide the customer with a full range of infrastructure equipment to equip small data centers, reducing costs and accelerating the construction of new facilities. The new scheme of mono-vendor cooperation will allow 3data to work on special conditions and guarantee shortened delivery times. It is expected that simplified administration of equipment orders and previously agreed technical solutions will significantly reduce the time for commissioning new capacities. This is precisely the plus of the mono-vendor approach to the construction of data centers.
Innovation for the future
An important part of the event was the presentation of Schneider Electric innovative solutions. They presented techniques for optimizing and increasing the efficiency of data centers and reducing energy consumption used by the company throughout the world. These techniques allow to increase the cooling capacity of the cooling system up to 15%, reduce the consumption of engineering infrastructure and the data center as a whole by 10-20% and increase the maximum possible utilization of the rack space (U) by 15-20%.
The Galaxy VM 160kVA UPS line was also presented - these are the “younger” representatives of the new generation Galaxy V with lithium-ion batteries. This year the senior representative of this family, designed for capacities from 500kW to 1500kW, which can be used both for large data centers and for centralized protection of industrial facilities, was released for sale. Its use in combination with lithium-ion batteries provides a more compact and lightweight solution that has a long service life and enhanced control functions compared to traditional solutions based on lead-acid batteries.

The senior vice-president of the IT Division of Schneider Electric Philip Arseno spoke about the application of the EcoStruxure platform in leading global companies such as Ferrari, General Motors, SAP, Capgemini and others. The new ecosystem of data center solutions has enabled them to create highly efficient data centers with high power density of computing equipment, with a management system and engineering resources planning, which allows seeing not only the momentary picture, but also the development prospects.
Feedback
We thank everyone who visited the Innovation Summit 2017, and ask to share your impressions in the comments, and also offer a small survey.