Hyperscale data centers: who builds them and how much they cost
By the end of 2018, the number of hyper-scalable data centers reached 430 pieces. Analysts predict that in the current year their number will increase to 500. Already, work is underway on the construction of another 132 hyperscale-data centers. In total, they will process 68% of human-generated data. The power of these data centers is needed by IT companies and cloud providers.
Photos - Atomic Taco - CC BY-SA
Most (40%) hyper-scalable data centers are in the United States. At the beginning of the summer, it became known about plans to turn the two power plants of the State of New York - in the city of Somerset and the village of Cayuga - into hyperscale data centers of 250 and 100 MW, respectively. Also build a new data center in the country plans to Google. It will be erected in Phoenix , where other data centers are being built, with a total capacity of more than a gigawatt.
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Hyper-scalable data centers are being developed in Europe. Over the past year, cloud providers have increased the capacity of data centers in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris by 100 MW. According to CBRE investors, this figure will increase by another 223 MW until the end of 2019.
In Norway, one of the most famous data center - Green Mountain. It is located in an underground bunker and is cooled by water from the nearest fjord. Soon this data center will receive new equipment, which will increase its capacity by 35 MW.
On the "upgrade" of European data centers, of which we spoke above, providers spent $ 800 million (equipment that increases the data center capacity by one megawatt, costs $ 6.5-17 million). To upgrade power plants in New York State (according to preliminary estimates) they plan to attract $ 100 million.
Building hyper-scalable data centers from scratch costs even more. In 2017, Google representatives said that over the past three years, the company has spent $ 30 billion on expanding its data center network. Since then, this figure has only increased.
Recently it became known that the IT giant plans to invest another 1.1 billion dollars in the development of the Dutch data centers. As for other organizations, Microsoft and Amazon spend $ 10 billion annually to develop the infrastructure of data centers.
Photo - Ethen Rera - SS BY-SA
Almost half of the energy consumed is accounted for by air conditioning systems. Therefore, today new technologies are being developed that would optimize the cooling processes in the data center. Examples include immersion cooling and intelligent algorithms for controlling airflow. We talked about them in more detail in one of the past materials .
Hyper-scalable data centers require serious investments in infrastructure. Therefore, not all companies have the opportunity to build them. Also in the IT industry there is an opinion that large-scale data centers are not sufficiently “flexible” to solve problems in the financial and educational fields, where it is necessary to process data on the periphery.
That is why in the IT industry, in parallel with hyper-scalable data centers, another trend is developing - edge computing. Data centers for peripheral computing are often modular systems. They have relatively modest computational capabilities, but they are cheaper than hyper-scalable “brothers” and consume less power. Peripheral calculations further reduce the costs of processing and transmitting data due to the fact that their source is closer than in the case of traditional data centers.
The technology is already being used in retail, banking and the Internet of things industry. According to experts , the number of data centers located on the periphery will triple by 2025. At the same time, Markets Insider says that in three years the volume of the peripheral computing market will reach 6.7 billion dollars.
At ITGLOBAL.COM, we provide private and hybrid cloud services and help companies manage their IT services. This is what we write about in the corporate blog:
Photos - Atomic Taco - CC BY-SA
Who builds hyperscale
Most (40%) hyper-scalable data centers are in the United States. At the beginning of the summer, it became known about plans to turn the two power plants of the State of New York - in the city of Somerset and the village of Cayuga - into hyperscale data centers of 250 and 100 MW, respectively. Also build a new data center in the country plans to Google. It will be erected in Phoenix , where other data centers are being built, with a total capacity of more than a gigawatt.
')
Hyper-scalable data centers are being developed in Europe. Over the past year, cloud providers have increased the capacity of data centers in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris by 100 MW. According to CBRE investors, this figure will increase by another 223 MW until the end of 2019.
In Norway, one of the most famous data center - Green Mountain. It is located in an underground bunker and is cooled by water from the nearest fjord. Soon this data center will receive new equipment, which will increase its capacity by 35 MW.
How much is it
On the "upgrade" of European data centers, of which we spoke above, providers spent $ 800 million (equipment that increases the data center capacity by one megawatt, costs $ 6.5-17 million). To upgrade power plants in New York State (according to preliminary estimates) they plan to attract $ 100 million.
Building hyper-scalable data centers from scratch costs even more. In 2017, Google representatives said that over the past three years, the company has spent $ 30 billion on expanding its data center network. Since then, this figure has only increased.
Recently it became known that the IT giant plans to invest another 1.1 billion dollars in the development of the Dutch data centers. As for other organizations, Microsoft and Amazon spend $ 10 billion annually to develop the infrastructure of data centers.
In addition to the costs of expanding and building new data centers, companies spend money on their maintenance. It is expected that by 2025 data centers will consume a fifth of the electricity generated on the planet.
According to experts from the US Council for the Protection of Natural Resources, US data center operators annually spend about $ 13 billion on electricity.
Photo - Ethen Rera - SS BY-SA
Almost half of the energy consumed is accounted for by air conditioning systems. Therefore, today new technologies are being developed that would optimize the cooling processes in the data center. Examples include immersion cooling and intelligent algorithms for controlling airflow. We talked about them in more detail in one of the past materials .
Alternate Trend - Peripheral Computing
Hyper-scalable data centers require serious investments in infrastructure. Therefore, not all companies have the opportunity to build them. Also in the IT industry there is an opinion that large-scale data centers are not sufficiently “flexible” to solve problems in the financial and educational fields, where it is necessary to process data on the periphery.
That is why in the IT industry, in parallel with hyper-scalable data centers, another trend is developing - edge computing. Data centers for peripheral computing are often modular systems. They have relatively modest computational capabilities, but they are cheaper than hyper-scalable “brothers” and consume less power. Peripheral calculations further reduce the costs of processing and transmitting data due to the fact that their source is closer than in the case of traditional data centers.
The technology is already being used in retail, banking and the Internet of things industry. According to experts , the number of data centers located on the periphery will triple by 2025. At the same time, Markets Insider says that in three years the volume of the peripheral computing market will reach 6.7 billion dollars.
At ITGLOBAL.COM, we provide private and hybrid cloud services and help companies manage their IT services. This is what we write about in the corporate blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/458446/
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