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ABB: why are data centers more important than ever?
Indonesia is moving towards a digital economy, as are many countries around the world, and data centers are an integral part of the digital transformation journey.
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Jorge Aguinaga, Head of Electrification, PT ABB Sakti Industri, Indonesia. (Courtesy of ABB)
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ndonesia, like many countries around the world, is moving towards a digital economy, and data centers are an integral part of the digital transformation journey.
Electrification and control & automation are key components in the infrastructure that keeps data centers running 24 hours/ seven days a week and ensures uptime of these digital factories.
Ensuring continuity of operations without disruption is the major concern from the business perspective. To ensure data centers keep companies’ applications running smoothly, it is crucial to adopt safe, reliable, and efficient electrical and automation systems in the data center. Otherwise, some industries may face the cost of downtime, which can be extremely high. Research and adversary company, Gartner estimates the average cost of downtime at $5600 per minute.
But other factors must be considered. When it comes to data centers, sustainability and speed of deployment are also critical. As data demand grows, so can the electrical needs of the data centers that serve that demand. Today's data centers are highly focused on energy efficient solutions and new technologies to reduce their power consumption and improve sustainability.
To address speed of deployment, many data centers are considering design references, modular equipment, and a strong supply chain to ensure the equipment is delivered on time to meet critical project milestones.
Effective solutions to the above challenges are, surely, needed as data centers in modern business set up are increasingly becoming an indispensable factor for success.
This is where ABB, a global leader in electrification and automation systems, has come to help Indonesian organizations and industries cope with today’s data challenges and set up a reliable, efficient, and sustainable data center ecosystem.
“We have the possibility to supply state-of-art technologies with the latest advancements in safety, performance, and efficiency,” Jorge Aguinaga, head of ABB Electrification of PT ABB Sakti Industri, Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post in a virtual interview recently.
According to Aguinaga, ABB continues to innovate in new product and solutions that push the efficiency boundaries. “For example, our recently launched MegaFlex Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems can operate 97.4 percent in default mode and 99 percent in Eco-mode reducing energy losses significantly,” he said.
“Our digital switchgear can save up to 150 tons of CO2 for a typical configuration during its lifetime. Our ABB Ability Data Center Automation system provides a suite of analytical tools to monitor and analyze in real-time power consumption across the entire data center (electrical, mechanical and building systems) so that customer can continuously improve their energy utilization and thus reduce their environment footprint,” he explained.
According to Jorge, small savings in efficiency can have a significant impact on CO2 emissions during the lifetime of the data center. Sustainability is certainly front and center at the agendas of both the government and our data center partners.
“So, having the right infrastructure and automation systems in place will help customers to achieve sustainability targets,” he said.
Aguinaga went on to say that ABB’s global reach and technology leadership allowed the company to help global customers moving to Indonesia to quickly deploy reference designs and solutions from other parts of the world for in their local data centers.
“Another key area is our domain expertise and ability to work closely with our customers. We have a large engineering team that we can leverage as we work together with customers and help them to optimize their designs to reduce cost, footprint, and speed of deployment. Another important factor is our strong manufacturing footprint both locally and regionally.”
“We have factories in both Indonesia and across the Asia-Pacific region that we can leverage for specific solution, technologies. This provides flexibility to fulfill stringent delivery times and ensure a solid supply chain when it comes to deploying electrical infrastructure.”
According to Aguinaga, ABB’s solutions are suitable for all types of Data Centers. ABB serves Hyperscale, Colocation, Enterprise, and Edge Data Centers.
“In Indonesia, we currently see a growing number of both hyperscale and colocation data centers. Currently, Indonesia's colocation data center market is at an early stage,” he said, adding, “Furthermore, the surging volumes of data drives the demand for the hyperscale data centers in Indonesia.”
To ensure data centers are highly efficient, reliable and secure, Aguinaga said, “It is paramount that designers, operators, and end-users collaborate with the right technology partners to deploy state-of-the art technologies, optimize designs, and ensure the equipment selection is of the highest quality and reliability.”
“If we look at efficiency for example, Data Centers have evolved at a break-neck speed. If you would apply the same level of evolution in terms of efficiency to the airline industry, this would mean you could fly from New York to London in 8 minutes and with 2.8 liters of fuel,” he pointed out.
“To achieve this, the equipment selection is extremely important,” he said.
He further explained that selecting the most efficient Uninterruptible Power Supply, digitalizing the Medium Voltage/Low Voltage switchgears, and having the real time tools to analyze power consumption will ensure data centers continue to push the envelope on efficiency.
It comes no surprise, therefore, to learn that ABB has been serving the data center industry for 25 years, providing technologies for data centers in numerous countries across the globe.
ABB’s technologies can also be found in Indonesia data centers. They include Medium Voltage Switchgear, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and Data Center Automation systems delivered for one of the country’s largest colocation facilities in Indonesia and Medium Voltage Switchgears and Data Center Automation systems that have been installed in multiple hyperscale sites of one of the largest e-commerce and cloud providers.
“ABB is currently delivering Medium Voltage and Low Voltage Switchgear as well as our recently launched MegaFlex UPS systems for a large hyperscale data centers in the telecommunication sector in Indonesia,” Aguinage noted.
Aguinaga advised that to fully embrace the new technologies available, as organizations embark on their digital transformation journeys, it is important that they understand the technologies and critical infrastructure that keep their business operations running.
“ABB will be pleased to work together with all stakeholders to find optimal solutions for their specific needs,” he said.
With its expertise in digitalization, sustainability, speed and scalability, ABB offers the best solutions to Indonesia’s data center challenges.
