European cloud provider OVHcloud, one of the largest cloud and bare metal providers in the world, has launched its second data center in Singapore. Simultaneously marking the deployment of its most sustainable data center in the Asia-Pacific region to date, the launch comes as part of OVHcloud’s global strategic plan to establish 15 new sites by 2024.
The expansion would increase regional availability of open, sovereign cloud solutions for clients to address their growing digital demands. Expanding its presence in Asia, OVHcloud built its first data center in Mumbai in March and plans to construct another facility in Sydney early 2024.
The newly completed data center in Singapore incorporates OVHcloud’s most advanced water cooling technology, setting a new standard for environmentally friendly data centers in Singapore with “best-in-class” sustainability metrics and even higher server density. Singapore recently tightened its requirements for new data centers to support a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3 or better, after it had removed the data center ban previously imposed in 2019.
“As the Asia-Pacific’s foremost digital capital, Singapore remains a critical market for OVHcloud,” said Michel Paulin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at OVHcloud. “There is a clear need for data centers, particularly sustainable ones, that can both lower the overall carbon footprint of digitalisation and support the compute needs of emerging technologies, like Generative AI, for Singapore to retain its position as a leading digital innovation hub. As a pioneer in water cooling technology for more than 20 years, we are confident in our ability to reliably meet customers’ needs for sustainable cloud solutions as their digital needs evolve.”
With more than 450,000 servers spread over 38 data centers on four continents, OVHcloud is a major player in the worldwide cloud market, serving more than 1,6 million clients in more than 140 countries.
Proprietary Server-Level Water Cooling
OVHcloud has been refining and implementing its own water cooling technique at scale, using two decades of industrial innovation with an eye towards resource efficiency. OVHcloud claims to be a leader in optimizing water consumption in data centers. Their latest data center in Singapore has an integrated water cooling system integrated into a vertical rack.
This innovative cooling system allows for server-level cooling, negating the need for air conditioning in server rooms, which would have a substantial positive impact on both costs and the environment. While many servers on the market would need seven times more water to cool, the architecture of the OVHcloud server will allow for accurate and effective cooling, using just one glass of water to cool the server over a ten-hour period, according to OVHcloud itself.
Thanks to these technical advancements, OVHcloud says it has achieved exceptional sustainability standards Its PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) would be as low as 1.29 and its WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) as low as 0.30l/kWh, both significantly below the industry standard. By manufacturing its own racks and servers, OVHcloud has developed an integrated industrial model with an alleged CUE (Carbon Usage Effectiveness) of 0.18 that would enable a sustainable cloud by design. In particular, as OVHcloud’s infrastructure has been adjusted to operate sustainably in both temperate and tropical climates, these innovations would represent new advances in the technological and industrial know-how of the company.
“Our latest data centers, coupled with enhanced compute and storage capabilities, will elevate our ability to provide customers in Singapore and the region with high-performance, sustainable cloud solutions that have optimized and predictable performance-price ratios to support their digital ambitions,” said Terry Maiolo, Vice President and General Manager, APAC, OVHcloud. “For a truly data-secure ecosystem, this must also mean organizations in this region and beyond have the confidence to harness the cloud while maintaining control over their data, all within the framework of Asia’s dynamic and evolving regulatory landscape.”
To find out more about OVHcloud’s Singapore data center, check their website here.
