- Multiplexed data and duplicated main systems, such as electricity, communications, and cooling system∙∙∙ a data center that can operate uninterruptedly for 24 hours
- Prepared for all natural disasters and accidents∙∙∙ submitted a patent application for an independently developed fire response system
- Constructed an eco-friendly data center∙∙∙ Reduced water usage by 98% and total energy usage by 30%
- Joined with the City of Ansan and Hanyang University ERICA Campus to implement community and academia partnership projects
[June 12, 2024] Kakao held a press meet-up event at their new Kakao Data Center Ansan located in Hanyang University’s ERICA Campus in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do on June 11 to reveal their first independent data center.
Kakao Data Center Ansan, which is situated in Hanyang University’s ERICA Campus in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, is a 47.378 square meter-wide hyperscale data center (massive data center that can operate more than 100,000 servers) with 4,000 racks that can hold 120,000 servers that saves 6 EB (exabytes) of data. Kakao completed the data center in September 2023 and started operation in January 2024 to expand infrastructure that can safely protect users’ daily lives.
In the meet-up event, Kakao’s CEO Chung Shin-a said that “since Kakao’s services are used by the entire nation to connect peoples’ lives in real-time, the utmost priority was placed on stability when building the Kakao Data Center Ansan, to build a safe data center that does not stop during any disaster or emergencies.” She also added that Kakao will “actively invest in infrastructure to ensure that (the data center) can support Kakao’s new services and all new technology and changes that are to come in the next decades.”
# Entire system has been duplexed to provide uninterrupted service 24/7∙∙∙ Built a foundation for stable service provision
The system in Kakao Data Center Ansan was built to operate 24/7 without any interruption, creating a foundation that allows Kakao to provide services in a more stable environment.
▲The power grid that supplies electricity from the power company and the entire process of finally supplying the electricity to servers, ▲ along with the process of transmitting data from the telecommunications company to the server, and ▲the operating facilities that supply cold water from the refrigerator system to the server room have all been duplexed, and data and operation tools have been multiplexed. This ensures that user inconvenience is minimized even in cases when failure occurs in parts of the system, and recovery time is shortened.
Kakao Data Center Ansan also has an uninterruptible power grid that can operate large scale servers without any problems. A reserve electricity grid that can instantly provide 100% of the main power has also been put in place to prepare for any interruption in the power supply. The data center has also been designed so that it can run with an emergency generator, even if problems arise in both substations.
Connectivity and stability between data centers has also been reinforced. Copies of data and operation tools are created and updated in real-time in at least two data centers that are physically separated from the main data center that is used for Kakao services, which means data is being triplicated. To make this possible, sufficient space and servers were secured in each data center, and a bandwidth of around 10 Tbps* was reserved to provide seamless connection between data centers.
*Tbps : Terabit per second, the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted
# Prepared for all natural disasters and accidents∙∙∙ Submitted a patent application for an independently developed fire response system
Kakao Data Center Ansan is equipped with an enhanced disaster prevention design that can allow the data center to the operate services without interruption during various natural disasters and accidents, including fire, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and typhoons.
Kakao placed an emphasis on implementing a response system that extinguishes fires in its early stages. The Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) room and battery room are built separately with fire protection bulkheads and all electrical panels installed with temperature detecting sensors to immediately respond to abnormal increase in temperature.
Kakao also developed and implemented a fire response system for lithium battery fires that are extremely difficult to extinguish and has currently submitted a patent application for that system.
The fire response system developed by Kakao consists of four stages. If the battery catches fire, the internal detection system automatically detects the fire, disconnects power from the battery that is impacted by the fire, then stops the fire from spreading with a fireproof fabric. The system then gradually sprays extinguishing agents to extinguish the fire in its early stages, lifts up the fireproof fabric and continuously sprays a coolant to block the source of the fire. If this does not work, then the fire department is contacted and a fire suppression plan that is customized for data centers is executed by the fire department.
Superior quality seismic design was also applied to the data center to respond to earthquakes. The seismic design meets the standards required of Korea’s nuclear power plants and is able to withstand strong earthquakes that record over 6.5 on the Richter scale.
The first floor of the data center sits approximately 1.8 meters higher than the surrounding surface to ensure that the data is protected during floods. Servers, batteries, UPS, and other major facilities are all located above ground level to minimize the possibility of being submerged. The data center is located in a location that is on average 10 meter above sea level, and positioned more than 18 km away from the Sihwa Seawall, making the data center safely operable during tsunamis.
# Constructed an eco-friendly data center∙∙∙ Reduced water usage by 98% and total energy usage by 30%
Since the early stages of designing the data center, Kakao placed top priority on stability and eco-friendliness, resulting in a data center with various energy saving technologies and high energy-efficiency facilities. Kakao was especially mindful in minimizing the use of water when operating the data center. Water is used to cool down hardware in a data center and is used as much as electricity.
Kakao is one of the few data centers in South Korea to implement Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), a metric used to assess the efficient use of water, to manage their data center operations. Kakao Data Center Ansan uses a highly efficient Free Cooling system, which runs on three modes that align with the changes of the season to increase WUE. Rainwater and makeup water, which is retained for emergency situations, is reused for landscaping or to extinguish fire, reducing water usage by around 98% compared to other regular data centers.
Kakao Data Center Ansan uses energy efficiently by operating high-efficiency equipment and LED to minimize the use of electrical energy, reusing waste heat that is recovered from cooling servers to heat the facility, and installing solar panels on exterior building materials and rooftops to generate electricity. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE
) is below 1.3, which is less than 1.91, the average PUE of data centers in South Korea, as announced by the Korea IT Service Industry Association.
These efforts have decreased total energy usage by 30%, and are expected to reduce annual energy costs to approximately 3.1 billion KRW. By reducing 30 GWh (gigawatt hour) annually, Kakao expects to reduce the carbon emission rate by 15%, which equals to saving electricity worth two times the total amount of lithium batteries produced in South Korea in a year. (Approximately 15 GWh)
In recognition of using energy efficient technology and energy-saving architecture, Kakao Data Center Ansan acquired Grade 1 in the Building Energy Efficiency Rating Certification System and earned the highest rating from the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED).
# The City of Ansan and Hanyang University, enter into a local community and academia partnership
Kakao is communicating and cooperating with Hanyang University ERICA Campus and the City of Ansan to create a foundation where companies, universities and local communities can engage in joint growth. Funds for university development were contributed to Hanyang University ERICA Campus and a space for industry-academia cooperation was provided in the data center.
Programs to encourage communication and cooperation with the local community is also being executed. Kakao, in cooperation with Hanyang University ERICA Campus and the City of Ansan, plan to operate a tour of the data center for the people of Ansan City. The Kakao Ansan Impact Challenge with ERICA IC-PBL project, which is conducted with Hanyang University’s IC-PBL* training so that ERICA Campus students can identify and resolve problems in and around Ansan by themselves, is also in progress.
*IC-PBL(Industry Coupled Problem Based Learning) : Problem resolution training model conducted by Hanyang University
Moreover, Kakao, Hanyang University and the City of Ansan will develop future growth projects by supporting youth IT training programs, including the Ansan Science Valley Science Festival, and actively contributing to industry-academia partnerships and the revitalization of the local economy to nurture excellent talents.
Koh Woo-chan, performance leader of Kakao Infrastructure Technology, said at the press meet-up that “Kakao Data Center Ansan is Kakao’s first independent data center that puts eco-friendliness and prosperity with the local community into consideration while never undermining the top priority value of stability”, and added that “Kakao will make all efforts to ensure that users’ lives are maintained in a safe and convenient manner.”
Meanwhile, Kakao is also slated to build a new data center apart from Kakao Data Center Ansan. The new data center will be designed as a high-performance computing (HPC) data center that can effectively respond to future technology environments, including the operation of AI-based services. Like the Kakao Data Center Ansan, the new data center will also have multiplexed power, communications, and cooling to provide uninterrupted operations 24/7, and will be equipped with a customized natural disaster response system. [End]
