Digital Realty Grows Asia-Pacific AI Data Centre Presence
Digital Realty has announced the expansion of Apollo, its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) platform to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
As one of the largest global providers of cloud and carrier-neutral data centre and colocation solutions, the company has made this strategic decision to enhance energy efficiency across its global portfolio.
This move comes shortly after its collaboration with Mitsubishi, where both companies embarked on a joint data centre venture to support the development of two new data centres in Dallas, Texas. Both companies are working to combine the expertise of both companies to provide better growth opportunities in AI and data centre services.
Apollo AI platform: Supporting customer growth targets
Digital Realty first piloted its Apollo AI platform in 2019 in Europe, having built it to leverage facility-level data to support data-driven decision-making. It aims to help businesses make energy efficiency improvements across its portfolio
Apollo AI is now deployed to 16 sites across six countries in Europe, with Digital Realty planning to double Apollo’s footprint by the end of 2024. This recent expansion is a company first in the APAC region, with one site in Melbourne, Australia and one in Singapore.
It highlights a commitment from the company to leveraging technology to drive sustainable growth and operational excellence.
“We're delighted to expand the usage of our Apollo AI platform to the Asia Pacific region,” says Digital Realty Chief Technology Officer Chris Sharp. “We're dedicated to continually improving the energy efficiency of our data centres in order to reach our global science-based emission reduction targets. Apollo helps us to achieve these goals while also supporting our customers' sustainable growth and scalability targets.”
According to Digital Realty, the AI platform has already demonstrated its success, having identified 18-gigawatt-hours (GWh) of expected and realised energy savings across the 16 sites. This is the equivalent of approximately 1,600 households across the United States over the course of one year.
Enhancing business operations and energy efficiency
The platform has the ability to autonomously detect anomalies and suggest optimisations to operational settings without the need for human intervention. As a result, it works to enhance the effectiveness of Digital Realty’s site managers and engineers, freeing them up for more essential and specialised tasks.
In recent years, data centre operators are using the power of AI to help them streamline their services. In a recent survey, cited by Digital Realty, 57% of data centre owners said they would trust an AI model to make operational decisions - marking an increase of almost 20% from the previous year.
As new technologies like AI and cloud-based services overhaul the data centre industry, businesses like Digital Realty are now starting to more effectively capitalise on these technologies.
The Apollo program also utilises machine learning technology to provide a dashboard that self-learns based on its findings. These are then audited and applied to new facilities, enabling every new site to contribute value to the overall portfolio.
As a result, the company is able to align better with its future energy efficiency targets. Digital Realty's focus on energy efficiency and continuous improvement remains at the forefront of the data centre industry, delivering value to customers and contributing to a greener future.
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