NTT Com finds balance between performance and greenness at SG data centre
NTT Communications’ new Singapore data centre is probably not the most energy efficient or green facility in its global data centre portfolio. For starters, the new site is obviously targeted at high performance computing requirements, situated next to the city’s stock exchange, and marketed towards financial firms looking for the lowest latency, and highest reliability for their trading platforms.
Singapore Serangoon Data Center is located in northeastern Singapore. The tier III+ data center offers co-location, cloud services, NTT Com’s global network services and other related services. Key features are specifically designed to cater to companies in the financial, information technology and manufacturing sectors. The data center is connected directly to the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), NTT Com’s new undersea cable offering high-speed, high-reliability network environment between Singapore and other Asian locations including Japan. The facility hosts 2,500 racks in a total server room area measuring 5,000 square meters. Investment in the facility is about 12.4 billion JPY (approximately SGD 190 million).
In that way, energy efficiency is probably not on the top of the list of deciding factors when the Singapore site was selected, but it doesn’t mean NTT Com shelved any concept of being environmentally responsible altogether.
In fact, the Singapore site is a stunning example how high performance doesn’t necessarily have to mean compromises in sustainability. True, that the site in the middle of a busy city isn’t ideal for many standard green practices, like customised free air cooling, or accessing renewable energy resources, or even custom construction that improve energy efficiency. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean you can’t still do all you can to ensure a high level of sustainability performance.
For the Serangoon Data Centre, NTT has obviously put in a lot of thought into the design. Green features include closing off a side of the building and painting it gray, as well as deploying so-called horizontal louvers on other facades, just to minimise solar (heat) gain. NTT has also put in a green roof for the main facility and over the parking lot with foliage, a rainwater tank to collect water for irrigating those plants, and a solar panel on the roof for supplemental power.
Category: Cloud computing, Data centres, Green corporations, Green ICT, Networks
