As an honoree in the new Datacloud Power 50 list, what has inspired you recently in your role at Huawei Digital Power?
It inspires me that we’re in an industry that’s now innovating at warp speed. I’ve been involved in building mission-critical infrastructure for 30-plus years – initially relating to computer rooms and process automation, and later data centres. Until the introduction of the cloud, the data centre sector was a fairly predictable, and some might say boring, industry. But its scale has since grown exponentially, and the AI tsunami has seen a technological shift to accommodate scope, scale and speed requirements.
It also motivates me that we’re able to provide customers with evidence-based advice on the best ways forward, given that we at Huawei provide offerings across the complete data centre stack, including cloud and AI services, data centre and IT infrastructure such as chipsets. We have, for instance, been advising clients to consider decoupling power and cooling infrastructure from white space in facilities, and it’s satisfying to see that this trend has latched on.
What are your focuses in your role at the company?
I’ve been at Huawei for over a decade. I initially led the regional business of the data centre stack, which included the virtualised cloud platform residing on IT infrastructure hosted in facilities. As business grew exponentially, I moved to a global role seven years ago.
I now wear two hats at Huawei Digital Power. One is as global head of business development, in which I drive initiatives that help expand our business. I’m also global chief technology officer, working closely with our innovation labs and R&D teams to develop product and solution roadmaps.
What are the main trends you’re seeing shaping the future of data centres?
Power density is rapidly increasing, with the scale of facilities going through the roof and the expected deployment speed as short as possible. All of this is happening alongside the need to confront challenges involving time to deliver, land and power availability, and minimising spend while maintaining sustainability goals.
In this environment, we need to ensure we’re ready to pivot as technology changes or new innovations emerge. Data halls and supporting infrastructure need to have an easily adjustable design to accommodate fast-changing, not-so-predictable demand, and ever-increasing power densities with different cooling options, including air-based, liquid-based and hybrid systems.
How is Huawei ensuring that its data centre offerings are both scalable and sustainable?
At Huawei, we see today’s AI-propelled infrastructure as an amazing opportunity, driving us to prioritise reliability, safety and performance levels in our data centre and cooling solutions. One of our biggest-selling solutions is the PowerPOD, which offers the electrical room as a productised solution, and thus enables standardisation and modularisation, leading to predictable outcomes with short deployment times at a gigawatt scale.
In addition, Huawei has been a pioneer of modular, prefabricated, pre-fitted data centres. This ‘Lego-like’ approach enables factory-quality construction within short building cycles.
Amid this gigawatt-scale growth, we’re also leveraging our renewable energy and battery storage portfolio, aiding the deployment of photovoltaic solar power at grid scale with energy storage capabilities that ensure higher availability and performance to meet sustainability goals.
Other activities have included improving the reusability of materials and efficiency of heat-exchange systems. Furthermore, we’ve been leveraging machine-learning tools to boost the performance of cooling systems, and exploring how to leverage AI and blockchain technology to perform functions like switching to the optimal energy source based on availability, carbon footprint and cost.
How essential is collaboration in today’s data centre space?
It’s crucial because customers often have unique requirements. Our engineering and construction partners are key, as they take Huawei’s base model and tailor it to local standards and needs, allowing better costs and delivery speeds.
At Huawei Digital Power, we have an ecosystem of partners across every geography. We work with local engineering and systems integration companies to make sure that services meet the standards of authorities and utilities. We’ve also worked on circular economy initiatives with partners and local utilities to capture heat from data centres and transfer it for warming homes.
What is Huawei Digital Power’s vision for AI and digital transformation over the next five years?
At Huawei Digital Power, the last decade has been an exciting growth phase. With R&D built into our culture, there’s a lot of innovation that will continue to drive our power and cooling solutions over the coming years, as well as our prefabricated facility designs.
But we’re far from just a data centre company; we’re also involved in areas like making electric vehicle powertrains and charging systems. Furthermore, Huawei is driving innovation in the cloud, AI chipset and telecom infrastructure business, giving us a wide understanding across multiple domains looking ahead.
We’re committed to investing in and leveraging AI, digital and power electronics to drive digital transformation for a greener, more connected world.
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