Green Practices for Global Switch's Hong Kong Data Center
Global Switch is a leading data center owner, operator, and developer with 13 large scale data centers centrally located in key cities across Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC), offering a total of 428,000 square meters of world class technical space with further developments underway. Global Switch Hong Kong is the largest carrier and cloud neutral data center in Hong Kong, with 70,000 square meters of world class infrastructure services. Stage one of the data center's development achieved a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Rating. The data center is also targeting the Hong Kong Green Building Council's BEAM Plus New Build Gold rating.
Huawei supplied static Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPSs) and down-flow Computer Room Air Handling (CRAH) units to Global Switch Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has a warm climate, so it is more challenging to reduce the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) for a data center located there compared to, say, Northern Europe. Global Switch Hong Kong uses Huawei's high-efficiency CRAH units with Electronically Commutated (EC) fans for cooling, which can vary the speed to suit the load to reduce energy consumption. With its efficient cooling system, including a free-cooling strategy, the data center has achieved an independently verified annualized design PUE of 1.3, making it a leading example of Hong Kong's sustainable architecture.
The power supply system is an important part of the operation of the data center. Global Switch Hong Kong uses Huawei's SmartLi UPS solution, comprising Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) UPSs and lithium batteries, which saves 50% of the footprint compared with a traditional power supply system. The space saved allows for approximately 42 additional cabinets to be deployed, increasing the revenue potential of the data center. In addition, the efficiency of the highly effective modular UPS reaches 97%, which is 2% higher than a traditional tower UPS, resulting in savings in electricity fees. The modular UPS also has a full redundancy design, eliminating any Single Point Of Failure (SPOF) and significantly improving system availability.
