Equinix, NUS Partner on Data Center Sustainability Solutions
Equinix Inc. and the Centre for Energy Research & Technology (CERT) under the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering (NUS CDE) have announced its plan to set up a Co-Innovation Facility (CIF) in Singapore to accelerate the testing and development of innovative solutions focused on low-carbon energy, high-efficiency cooling, circularity, and energy efficiency optimization for data centers. Accelerating these innovations will shape the future of digital infrastructure and services in Singapore and other tropical locations, as well as address sustainability goals.
To be built inside Equinix’s upcoming SG6 International Business ExchangeTM (IBX®) data center, the CIF aligns with Equinix’s Data Center of the Future Initiative toward building cleaner, more efficient data centers around the world. This CIF will be an open research hub for leading global technology innovators, data center technology partners, academia, and customers to co-develop and trial core and edge technologies that deliver reliability, energy efficiency, and cost efficiency.
With an initial investment of US$4 million from Equinix, the CIF will serve as an incubator to trial innovations such as enabling the integration of clean and renewable energy sources and alternative power generation, with the aim of assessing their ability to operate at scale. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will also be utilized by the facility along with other advancements, such as liquid cooling, which is becoming more vital as AI makes data processing more compute intensive. The facility will also trial Cognitive Digital Twin (CDT) capabilities of predictive maintenance and upgrades to address challenges faced by current data center models.
Yee May Leong, Managing Director, Singapore, Equinix, said, “The effects of climate change are being felt around the world, and it is becoming increasingly urgent to embed best practices in every aspect of our operations. By replicating our successful Co-Innovation Facility from Ashburn and expanding our collaborative efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, we are reaching a significant milestone in advancing our “Future First” sustainability agenda. It will accelerate the development of cutting-edge technologies and apply real-world solutions to help reduce the carbon footprint of the growing number of data centers worldwide.”
