China Launched the World's First Commercial Undersea Data Center in Lingshui
Recently, the launching ceremony of the first cabin of the world's first commercial undersea data center, the Hainan Undersea Data Center Project (Phase I), was held in Lingshui Li Autonomous County.
It is reported that the Hainan undersea data center consists of a shore station, an underwater relay station, an underwater data terminal, and submarine cables. The core equipment of the data center is the submarine data module, which is equivalent to the core module of the Tianhe space station, and is currently the largest submarine data module in the world.
What is an underwater data center?
An underwater center is a data center that installs IT facilities such as servers in a sealed pressure vessel on the seabed, uses a submarine composite cable to supply power, and transmits data back to the Internet.
The concept of an underwater data center was first proposed by Microsoft in 2014. Since then, Microsoft has launched the underwater data center project Natick and completed the project trial in 2020.
Among domestic companies, Highlander is the first company in China to develop a underwater data center. In March 2020, Highlander acquired Oceanworks, a Canadian company with nearly 50 years of marine engineering experience. It entered the field of underwater data centers in June of the same year, and now fully possesses the core technical capabilities of underwater data center deployment.
Among the submarine cable companies related to the industrial chain, Zhongtian Technology provided submarine optical cables and accessories for this project. Ocean Optoelectronics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tongguang Cable, is currently one of the main production bases of domestic submarine cables. Hengtong Optic Electric is a full industry chain company in China with research and development, manufacturing of submarine optical cables, submarine connection boxes, repeaters and branching units, and transoceanic ocean communication network solutions.
In addition, the green data center also includes major links such as silicon optical and all-optical networks, which will also bring greater development opportunities to companies such as YOFC.
The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Marine Economy in Hainan Province proposes to build a Hainan undersea data center with 100 data cabins deployed, and gradually build a comprehensive marine new technology industrial park with the undersea data center as the core. The relevant person in charge said that the launch of the world's first commercial undersea data center just responded to the requirements of this policy. At the same time, the Lingshui government department will introduce multiple policies to support and help the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port in many aspects such as the construction of submarine international optical cables and talent training.
The future is promising.
According to Liu Yongsheng, service director of Shenzhen Hailanyun Data Center Technology Co., Ltd., the construction of the undersea data center has realized a new paradigm of data center construction such as full factory prefabrication, on-demand construction, modular deployment, and flexible expansion. There is almost no civil construction, which can greatly shorten the construction cycle. In the future, the undersea data center can be "infinitely expanded" in the offshore areas of coastal areas through standardization and productization.
As a new type of information infrastructure, the underwater data center not only innovatively combines digital technology with marine technology, but also has high strategic significance for promoting three-dimensional innovation of marine economy.
In the sea area where the undersea data center is deployed, it can not only accommodate ecological projects such as marine ranches and fishing cages, but also serve each other with industrial projects such as offshore wind power and offshore oil platforms, and can also build marine monitoring networks to contribute to maritime security.
Source: https://www.wirechina.net/cn/news/show-6235.html
