He Baohong, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology:
Date：2022-02-16 | Hits：1968
Along with the rapid development of new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, the increasing demand for data resource storage, computing and application in China has driven the rapid growth of data center scale: in the past five years, the average annual growth rate of data center racks in China has exceeded 30% (Source: National Data Center Application Development Guidelines). The rapid expansion of data center scale has brought serious problems such as rapid growth of various energy consumption and carbon emission, and data centers have become the "electric tiger" in everyone's mind. On the one hand, we need to face the double carbon target, and on the other hand, we need to face the unbalanced resource demand, so the construction and layout of data centers are facing new challenges.
In May 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Arithmetic Hub of the National Integrated Big Data Center Collaborative Innovation System", which clarifies the answer to the question - through the "East Data and West Arithmetic ", China systematizes and rationalizes the layout of data center resources to realize the integrated development of national data centers.
Opening Start, Eight Hub Nodes Approved for Construction
Just like "South-North Water Transfer", "West-East Electricity Transmission" and "West-East Gas Transmission", "East Data and West Accounting" is another important strategic project of the country. important strategic project. The "East is West" emphasizes the global optimization thinking, from the past single, discrete to the current overall, synergistic direction change. Through the idea of integrated layout, improved standards and integrated implementation, national hub nodes are deployed in eight regions: Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area, Chengdu and Chongqing, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu. The focus is on promoting the synergistic development of data centers and networks, clouds, computing power, data elements, data applications and security.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Network Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Energy Administration of the four departments jointly issued a letter of reply, agreeing to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta region, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing region to start the construction of a national integrated arithmetic network national hub nodes. So far, eight hub nodes have been approved, each hub node cluster starting area boundary is clear (see table below). The approval of the construction of the starting area is an important start to the implementation of the strategy of "East Digital West Computing".
Coordinated layout, "East Data and West Computing" is of great significance
From the construction of data centers to the cross-domain circulation of data elements, the realization of "East Data and West Accounting" is a systematic issue, which requires not only the continued consolidation of technical strengths such as infrastructure, network and computing power, but also the realization of perfect and scientific policies and mechanisms.
The east is counted in the west, which can improve the imbalance between supply and demand of data centers. China's western region is rich in resources, but the demand for data centers is not high and there is an oversupply. The demand for data centers in the eastern region of China is strong, but the supply is limited by resources and energy, and the supply exceeds the demand. The "East Data and West Computing", through the effective docking between the east and the west, uses the computing power resources in the west to undertake the overflow demand of computing power in the east, establishes a national integrated collaborative innovation system, and promotes the integration and convergence of data resources, circulation and trading between the east and west towards. In this way, it can gradually improve the imbalance between supply and demand of China's data centers, promote the national scheduling and use of computing power, achieve resource balance, and help cultivate China's super large-scale data factor market.
East data and west computing can improve the level of national network interconnection. The reason for the oversupply in the west is not only the lack of demand, but also the limitation of data center network transmission quality to a certain extent. Through the project of "East Data and West Computing", we can improve the network capacity between major regions and data centers in China. Actively promote the collaborative development of data centers and networks, build high-speed data center bearer networks, optimize cross-network and cross-regional data interactions between data centers, and prioritize the formation of direct network connections between new data center clusters in national hub nodes to meet the demand for arithmetic scheduling. Actively enhance cross-regional arithmetic scheduling capability and intra-regional cloud-side end collaboration capability, meet the demand for high-frequency real-time and flexible scheduling data interaction and business interaction, and continuously improve the level of network interconnection.
The eastern digital and western computing can drive the collaborative development of the national digital economy. China's eastern region digital industrialization and industrial digital development process is faster, while the western region industrial foundation is weaker, for the western region, "East Digital West Computing" is a new development opportunity. As the saying goes, "To get rich, first build a road", the importance and strategic position of data center is self-evident, the bearing and operation of AI, cloud computing, blockchain and other applications need the underlying support of data center. The western region has natural resources and cost advantages, and data center construction can not only bring investment to the local area and help local industrial restructuring and economic transformation, but also pry up the attraction and development of upper layer applications through arithmetic infrastructure construction.
In November 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Implementing the Target Requirement of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutral Promotion of Green and High-Quality Development of Data Centers and New Infrastructure such as 5G", which clearly proposed that "the average PUE of new large and super-large data centers nationwide will be reduced to 1.3 or below, and the national hub node will be further reduced to 1.25 or below, and the green low-carbon grade will reach 4A or above".
Usually, the power consumption of a mega data center reaches the level of billions of kilowatt hours a year. Under the double carbon target, the problem of energy consumption and carbon emission growth of data centers is increasingly prominent, so the energy supply of data centers urgently needs to shift to green and low-carbon, and more use of renewable energy is an ideal way. Compared with the eastern region, the western region is rich in renewable energy, and the intensive, green and efficient development of data centers in the western region through a localized approach will help achieve China's dual carbon goals.
The road is long, and the "East is West" is just a beginning. By leading the flow of capital, talent and technology through the flow of data, "East Digital West Computing" will not only help open the arteries of digital industry in the east and west of China, realize the reasonable layout of digital resources, digital computing power, digital industry, digital services and other series of ecology, but also inject a constant source of new dynamic energy for the development of China's digital economy.
The Institute of Cloud Computing and Big Data of China Academy of Information and Communication Research has long supported the work of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on "Integrated Big Data Center" and "New Data Center". In order to implement the relevant policy documents, promote the deployment of various projects, promote the new data center's digital network synergy, layout optimization, green and low-carbon, take multiple measures to promote the high-quality development of the industry, and better empower the digital economy and social development, the Institute of Cloud Computing and Big Data of CII, together with the main units of the data center industry, established the "New Data Center Promotion Plan" in December 2021. The "New Data Center Promotion Plan".
The purpose of the "New Data Center Promotion Plan" is to promote innovative technology research and industry application of new data centers, develop new data center-related standards, support national and provincial and municipal governments' decisions, and promote the high-quality development of new data center industry.