Gulf Data Hub

PREMIUM DATA-DAY SERVICE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

HOUSING THE FUTURE O F DATA Gulf Data Hub offers a premium range of data centre solutions and safe storage within its state of the art facilities. We find out more from Chief Information Officer, Himmath Mohammed Writer: Ed Budds | Project Manager: Dennis Morales

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GULF DATA HUB TECHNOLOGY

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ith initial roots stretching back to the cavernous computer rooms of the 1940s, the true boom of data centres arrived during the hectic inception of the internet era from 1997 to 2000.

Collectively, companies required faster connectivity and non-stop operational capacity to deploy systems and establish a presence online.

Businesses subsequently began to construct large facilities, first called internet data centres. Flash forward and the data centres of today exist as industrial-scale operations, often using as much electricity as a small town.

A data centre is a dedicated space within a building, facility or often a group of buildings, used to house complex computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.

At present, an increasingly pressing worldwide concern in the field of data is the subject of information security.

Navigating this serious issue is Gulf Data Hub, whose centres must offer a secure environment that minimises any possible downtime or outages as well as the chance of a security breach for its clients. Therefore, the complex facilities obtained by the company must maintain the highest standards to ensure the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.

WITNESSING THE GROWTH OF DATA Having worked in the data industry for the last 20 years, gathering a wealth of experience, Himmath Mohammed, Chief Information Officer for Gulf Data Hub, has witnessed a vast transition since the company’s humble inception.

Turn back the clock to the year 2012, and this critical period for the company saw Gulf Data Hub searching and scrutinising the market EME Outlook Issue 53 | 3

Fei Zhenfu, President of Huawei’s Data Centre Facility Business, shares Huawei’s insights on the top 10 data centre facility trends.

Smart DC, Building the Green Future | Huawei Unveils Top 10 Trends of Data Centre Facilities As global computing demand continues to grow exponentially in the digital intelligence era, there will be a surge in data centre construction. According to Mr. Fei, to achieve carbon neutrality, the industry must prioritise energy conservation, carbon emission reduction, and green transformation. This presents both challenges and opportunities. Drawing from its experience and industry insights, Huawei has identified the following 10 trends: Trend 1: Low Carbon Data centres will adopt green, lowcarbon solutions and utilise clean energy sources like photovoltaics (PV), wind, and hydropower to minimise their carbon footprint. By 2027, green power utilisation is expected to exceed 50 percent. Advanced energy conservation solutions and technologies, such as waste heat recovery, will be implemented to improve data centre energy efficiency and recovery rates.

Trend 2: Sustainability New sustainability indicators for data centres will be introduced, including renewable energy utilisation, water usage effectiveness (WUE), carbon usage effectiveness (CUE), space usage effectiveness (SUE), grid usage effectiveness (GUE), material recovery rate, and lifetime contaminant emissions, in addition to the existing power usage effectiveness (PUE).

Trend 3: Fast Deployment Data centres must be rapidly deployed to meet skyrocketing computing demands, with construction periods decreasing from 12 months to six months or less.

Trend 4: High Density As chip performance and power

consumption improve, the demand for high-density data centres will increase.

Cloud data centres will become mainstream, and diversified computing collaboration will become the norm. Standard power density per IT rack will increase from six to eight kilowatts (kW) to 12 to 15 kW by 2027. Power density in supercomputing and intelligent computing centres will reach 30 kW or higher.

Trend 5: Elasticity Future data centres will be more flexible regarding upgrades, with one generation of facilities supporting power evolution over two to three generations of IT equipment.

A standard design will facilitate on-demand deployment and elastic capacity expansion.

Trend 6: Prefabrication The prefabricated and simple architecture will tackle challenges like long construction periods and complex operations and maintenance (O&M) faced by traditional data centres. In the future, a data centre building will house over 1,000 racks, and a campus will accommodate over 10,000 racks. The prefabricated design will shorten the construction period for a 1,000-rack data centre from 12 months to six months, enabling rapid delivery and on-demand deployment.

Trend 7: Storage and Backup Integration Renewable energy and energy storage will be necessary for power-hungry data centres. The deployment of energy storage systems (ESSs) in data centres will integrate short-term backup power systems to participate in frequency regulation and peak shaving, enhancing power grid stability.

Peak shaving will also improve GUE so that more IT racks can be deployed to increase revenue.

Trend 8: Distributed Cooling A distributed cooling system uses cooling sources for each data hall and adopts a redundancy configuration as required. In the future, distributed cooling systems will gradually replace centralised cooling as the preferred solution for large data centres, due to their flexible architecture and high reliability.

Trend 9: Smart O&M Smart O&M is crucial for enhancing data centre resource utilisation and reliability.

Intelligent operations will automatically determine data centre asset statuses to maximise asset value. Intelligent maintenance will identify faults and optimise energy conservation in real time to improve O&M efficiency, achieving predictive maintenance and optimal energy efficiency.

Trend 10: Security and Trustworthiness As digitalisation and intelligence advance, data centres will strengthen their hardware reliability, software security, system resilience, safety, privacy, and availability.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will implement predictive maintenance on components, devices, and systems at the hardware level. Hierarchical defence will be provided at the software level. A combination of software and hardware measures will boost data centre reliability.

Moving forward, Huawei will strengthen technological innovation to lead industry development and offer more competitive products and solutions to build a solid digital foundation for a greener, low-carbon future for the data centre industry.

https://digitalpower.huawei.com/en/

GULF DATA HUB TECHNOLOGY

for major business opportunities to invest and expand in, proving to ultimately be a pivotal and highly influential time for the future prosperity of the business.

Subsequently, the company identified data centres as one of the major fields envisioned to grow exponentially in the coming years.

Following this discovery, Gulf Data Hub hired a selection of consultants to carry out a thorough market study of these facilities and their potential, providing the company with key insights into this burgeoning market.

“Once this was done there was no looking back, as the report stated that at the time there were zero purpose-built data centres which were also carrier neutral and competed to international standards to attract major hyperscalers,” introduces Mohammed.

“This led to us setting the base goal of constructing such purposebuilt, Tier 3 certified data centres with specifications comparing directly to the European market.”

Gulf Data Hub has been growing rapidly ever since, with the company currently positioned at an operational capacity of 50 megawatts (MW), with another 120 MW of capacity already under construction.

“A S O N E O F O U R K E Y U N I Q U E F E AT U R E S , W E H AV E A V E R Y F L E X I B L E D E S I G N W H I C H C A N A DA P T TO T H E C H A N G I N G D E M A N DS O F C U STO M E R S ” – H I M M AT H M O H A M M E D , C H I E F I N F O R M AT I O N O F F I C E R , G U L F D ATA H U B

BECOMING BEST IN CLASS Above all else, Gulf Data Hub is aiming to provide world-class carrier and vendor neutral data centres in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company endeavours to maintain neutrality which will increase its customer spectrum, allowing Gulf Data Hub to become the region’s first choice facility to store companies’ mission critical equipment and information.

Since starting operations, Gulf Data Hub has consistently 6 | EME Outlook Issue 53

innovated and looked for ways to lower the risks associated with downtime while simultaneously increasing its operational efficiency.

By embracing simplicity, the company guarantees customer satisfaction with its adaptable, affordable, reliable data centre floor and apparatus space, as well as its many value-added services.

Promising all clients a resilient environment, Gulf Data Hub creates a secure and strong ecosystem that includes hosting, disaster recovery

and workplace recovery, cloud platforms, connectivity, and core colocation.

“As we grow to enjoy a global footprint, we pledge to continue being a carrier-neutral service provider. You can find a combined, cutting-edge, and market-focused set of solutions at Gulf Data Hub that are tailored to any company’s needs,” clarifies Mohammed.

“We are a leading global provider of hybrid infrastructure that is safe, fast, and optimised for both business

EFFICIENCY AND UPTIME HVAC SOLUTIONS FOR DATA CENTRES Trane has introduced a new R1234ze chiller specifically designed to meet the stringent requirements of high temperature data centres.

LEARN MORE ABOUT US

GULF DATA HUB TECHNOLOGY

GULF DATA HUB MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

and tomorrow’s digital pioneers. In this way, on a single technological platform, we combine a data centre and our selection of services,” he states proudly.

By upholding neutrality, Gulf Data Hub wants to become a top-notch carrier and vendor-neutral data centre which will attract a wider range of clients and develop into the region’s top facility for storing businesses’ mission-critical technology.

VISION Gulf Data Hub is committed to supporting and assisting businesses in increasing uptime and minimising operational expenses.

MISSION The company is consistently innovating and looking for ways to lower the risks associated with downtime while simultaneously increasing efficiency.

VALUES Working with integrity, prioritising the needs of the client, encouraging continuous development, and conducting business responsibly and sustainably are the cornerstones of the key values upheld by Gulf Data Hub.

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CAPITALISING ON DEMAND Many valuable lessons have been learnt by companies throughout a multitude of industries in the wake of the immense difficulties encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is no different for Gulf Data Hub. “We have learnt as human beings how critical our systems are and how important it is that these systems possess high availability relevant to specific locations or where data is housed,” Mohammed explains.

“People realised that they should host information with either a cloud provider that is accessible from any corner of the world, or choose to use a secure physical data centre where systems are running constantly, irrespective of the situation globally,” he continues.

This enlightenment across the industry has driven a sudden rush of new users, as more people are continuing to identify data centres as an ideal place to park their data safely.

With this increased popularity,

Mr Mazen Sharaiha, Chief Operating Officer

Mrs Laila El Ghouche, Chief Accounts Manager

there comes a gigantic demand and a rush to build more data centres, especially in the MENA region where Gulf Data Hub operates.

Parallel to this, the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automated driverless cars, all of which are

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Mr Tarek al Ashram, CEO

interconnected devices, means these tools are reliant on edge computing or edge data centres.

“Analysing all these trends and the development of new technologies relating to data means it’s clear to see there is huge potential and growth in our field,” Mohammed assesses.

USHERING IN A THRIVING FUTURE Mohammed explains how Gulf Data Hub’s road map for 2024 is already fixed and under execution.

“For now, we are purely a wholesale colocation provider. We build infrastructure and provide space, power and cooling to our customers,” he sets out.

However, alongside this service, Gulf Data Hub is planning to expand further into the ecosystem of data centres, particularly connectivity and cybersecurity, as the company is building several ancillary business units around its data hubs. Meanwhile,

concurrent to this, Gulf Data Hub is also interconnecting its assortment of centre locations in the Middle East, aiming to help its customers in reducing their latency.

“It is mandated that we will reach 200 MW of IT capacity and almost half of this projection is under execution already, as you can physically see the structures rising up and our projects being delivered in a physical manner.

“With each new initiative, we learn and enhance ready for our next project. We carry forward lessons learned, whether in terms of implementation, design or efficiency,” he continues.

Additionally, diversity sits top of the agenda for the future, and exists as a key government strategy and mandatory requirement in the Middle East, as businesses must now host a spread of diverse nationalities in their teams.

Dedicated to this positive

self-enhancement, Gulf Data Hub employs high levels of agility and flexibility in deploying bespoke solutions for its clients.

“As one of our key unique features, we have a very flexible design which can adapt to the changing demands of customers. Whether this is in terms of rack densities, high efficiency cooling or sustainable solutions, these services are helping our technology deployment,” Mohammed adds.

Capitalising on this ability to pivot and adapt, Gulf Data Hub is planning to expand across five new locations to reach its 2024 ambitions, securing its position as a trustworthy and dependable guardian of digital data for the modern age.

Tel: +971-4-2940070 support@gulfdatahub.ae www.gulfdatahub.ae EME Outlook Issue 53 | 9

PREMIUM DATA-DAY SERVICE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

GULF DATA HUB Tel: +971-4-2940070 support@gulfdatahub.ae www.gulfdatahub.ae

PRODUCED BY EME OUTLOOK MAGAZINE