The collaborative white paper by ACE and Huawei addresses the challenges and opportunities in the ASEAN data center industry, advocating for energy efficiency, sustainability, and innovation. With a focus on reliable, simplified, sustainable, and smart data centers, the paper sets a roadmap for the region’s transition towards a low-carbon and intelligent future.
19 May 2024 – The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Huawei unveiled the White Paper on Building Next Generation Data Center Facility in ASEAN at the Global Data Center Facility Summit 2024 in Singapore last Friday. The collaborative white paper aims to drive the green and low-carbon transformation of the data center industry in the ASEAN region.
The document addresses the surge in digital transformation across ASEAN, highlighting the significant increase in data and compute demands. Due to the tropical climates of the region, data centers face challenges such as high cooling requirements and energy consumption, prompting ASEAN governments to advocate for renewable energy and energy conservation technologies.
Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director of ACE, emphasized the paper’s focus on tackling data center challenges and providing insights into technology trends and energy efficiency strategies. Dr. Andy Tirta, Head of Corporate Affairs at ACE, highlighted the importance of energy efficiency in achieving energy security, underscoring the need for advanced technology, supportive financing mechanisms, and policy standardization.
The white paper outlines four key characteristics of next-generation data centers: Reliable, Simplified, Sustainable, and Smart. It advocates for the use of efficient and energy-saving products and solutions to enhance energy efficiency throughout the data center lifecycle.
Reliable operation is prioritized through modular design and AI preventive maintenance, ensuring safety and reliability at all levels. Simplification is achieved through minimalist architecture and hardware convergence, addressing the growing scale and complexity of data centers. Sustainable practices are promoted through the adoption of innovative products and solutions to build energy-efficient and low-carbon data centers. Smart solutions leverage digital and AI technologies to automate facility operations and address operational challenges.
The paper also emphasizes the importance of utilizing clean energy to power data centers, recommending incentives such as discounted electricity rates or tax breaks for operators using clean energy sources. With carbon neutrality gaining global traction, the white paper sets a roadmap for ASEAN to develop reliable, sustainable, and smart data centers, with Huawei committed to partnering with ACE to drive low-carbon and intelligent transformations across the region’s data center industry.
