Keeping standards high

Jiao Gang, GM of China Unicom’s Cloud Data Company, believes today’s explosive trends to be mobile Internet and smart city applications in the areas of governance, transport, healthcare, education, and travel. Enriched by virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics, a new crop of technologies, services, and applications are producing massive amounts of data every day, which requires high-standard cloud data centers to host. To meet the burgeoning demand for cloud data services, China Unicom has shifted its focus to cloud data centers.

Since its launch in December 2013, China Unicom's Wo-Cloud is increasingly regarded by government and enterprise clients as a solution that offers unique strengths in automation, cloud-network integration, and controllable security.

Designated by Guizhou’s local authority as a hub for developing big data and cloud services, Guian New Area will be home to China Unicom’s new cloud data center, adding to the ten that the telco runs in nearby Guiyang. Thanks to good air, a temperate climate, and a reliable power supply, the region is a solid geographical choice for deploying this tech.

Short and green

Designed to meet international standards in performance, clustering, response, and energy efficiency, the data center project is divided into three phases. Already completed, the first phase saw 1,108 cabinets deployed and 22,288 physical frames planned ─ the latter will be used as the basis of renting Guizhou Unicom's data center server room.

To generate revenue as quickly as possible, China Unicom laid down two construction requirements: keep the time short and the scheme green. Although these goals align with the rapid growth of the data center sector and government mandates on protecting the environment, China Unicom couldn’t meet either using traditional methods; however, Huawei's modular data center solution could.

One-stop shop

Strong on simplicity, energy efficiency, and reliability, Huawei’s modular data center solution can easily scale capacity and density to meet services needs. Thus, China Unicom deployed 62 micro-modules in six months to rapidly deploy the first-phase cabinets and swiftly roll out services.

Reliable

The data center meets national A-class standards and international Tier 3+ standards for server rooms by virtue of 2N configuration for power distribution, N+1 configuration for cooling, and 2N configuration for critical loading in other server rooms. Huawei ensures 99.999 percent power system safety and reliability via 52 high-power modular UPS5000-E units. Featuring industry-leading topology, this UPS series provides back-up power for IT equipment and key auxiliary equipment, while the modular design supports hot-swapping between modules, thus minimizing maintenance and service outages.

Energy-efficient

In-row air conditioning, aisle-containment technology, and modular UPS combine to reduce power usage effectiveness (PUE) across the data center to less than 1.3 PUE. Installing the air con system and cabinets side-by-side for near-end refrigeration prevents localized over-heating and precision cooling, which saves energy. Moreover, separating the hot air and cold air increases cooling efficiency, improving PUE and slashing OPEX.

China Unicom chose the Huawei UPS5000-E because of its high efficiency at low-load,: efficiency is 95 percent at 20 percent load rate and 96 percent at 40 percent load arte.

Given that the industry average for UPS efficiency in megawatt data centers is just 90 percent, Huawei's UPS5000-E will save China Unicom at least 3 million yuan in electricity costs annually, and make a real difference in energy savings and emissions.

Looking ahead

With the first phase completed, the Guizhou branch deputy GM Chen Jinghua commended Huawei on its rapid progress and excellent results, stating that, the “Guian cloud data center is a perfect real-world example of Huawei's modular data center.” The solution will help China Unicom on its mission to keep rolling out high-value, innovative services for users.

Huawei's lengthy experience with data center solutions is going from strength to strength, with increased R&D investment in global data center solutions paving the way to further success. To date, Huawei has constructed more than 660 data centers around the world, and made an undeniable contribution to growing the industry.