Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced a new managed data centre hosting service in the UAE in partnership with Khazna Data Centres (Khazna), a leading provider of state-of-the-art hyperscale data centre solutions.
The new service supports the UAE’s national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, which includes a series of AI projects with leading institutions in the region. The service provides access to a data center facility fitted for end-to-end high-performance computing (HPC) technologies, purpose-built for AI, spanning compute, accelerated compute, software, networking and direct liquid-cooling (DLC).
The investment in a DLC data center, a significantly energy-efficient method compared to conventional air-cooling[1], supports the UAE’s effort to address rising power demands in the age AI, which is expected to grow by tenfold by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency[2].
The new data center facility addresses power consumption challenges by efficiently absorbing more heat with a liquid-based coolant solution, offering 20.7% higher performance per kW than air-cooled solutions[3]. With DLC the data center facility can reduce the need for space up to 77.5%[4] by allowing customers to place fewer, more tightly packed servers into the racks.
To accelerate time-to-production, HPE Services, which provides worldwide, 24/7 onsite and remote support to install and deploy systems, worked closely with Khazna to optimize its Abu Dhabi data center to run AI and HPC workloads. Through HPE GreenLake, new or existing customers gain flexible options to scale and pay for services monthly.
“HPE is bringing its world-leading direct-liquid cooled HPC capabilities to launch the first data centre facility of this kind in the UAE to make it widely accessible for customers in the region to run AI and other compute-intensive workloads”, said Ahmad Alkhallafi, managing director, Emirates & Africa at HPE. “With a broad spectrum of technology, deployment, and payment options, organisations have a choice to responsibly accelerate AI adoption, while they work towards the UAE’s goal and timeline to adopt patterns that reduce environmental stress”.
Compatible with a large variety of GPUs and CPUs, the integrated liquid cooled data centre technology gives customers a wide range of choices, allowing them to meet current and future system requirements. By lowering the energy consumption per workload, the efficiencies from direct on-chip liquid cooling will help customers on their journey to be responsible for managing the carbon emissions from AI’s power-intensive demand.
“We are pleased to be helping HPE’s customers maximize their compute power to advance key initiatives in areas such as energy, financial services, health and life sciences, and manufacturing, while adopting IT sustainability best practices”, said Hassan Alnaqbi, CEO at Khazna. “Access to highly efficient data centre systems will play a key role in helping the UAE anticipate and take advantage of revolutionary technologies such as AI and to support its goal to make the economy more environment-friendly by providing world-leading data centre facilities”.
HPE has decades of liquid cooling leadership expertise and continues to build massive liquid-cooled systems worldwide that scale to tens of thousands of accelerators for optimal efficiency. According to the recent Green500 list, HPE built 70% of the world’s top ten energy-efficient systems with liquid-cooled solutions. The new data center hosting service, fitted with HPE’s liquid-cooling capabilities, supports the UAE government’s goal to reduce the country’s emissions to less than 100 kilowatt-hours.
[1] Source: Bridge Ocean Science Education Resource Center: “Water has a specific heat of 4.186 J/g degreesC, versus air, which has a specific heat of 1.005 J/g degreesC.
[2] Electricity 2024 – Analysis and forecast to 2026 (iea.blob.core.windows.net)
[3] Example compares air cooled HPE Cray XD2000 Air cooling vs DLC Benchmark is SPEChpc 2021, tiny, MPI+OpenMP 64 ranks, 14 threads (est)(per HPE Cray XD2000 chassis). Results shown are estimates based on internal performance testing conducted by HPE in April 2023. Study link.
[4] These calculations are based on a 10,000 server data center. Assumes $0.105 per kWh. The air-cooled scenario assumes 18 servers per rack. The DLC example assumes 80 HPE ProLiant XL225n servers per 48U rack. Power savings for cooling are based on the same HPE estimates.
Image Credit: Hewlett Packard Enterprise
