New infrastructure becomes the biggest driving force for China's data center industry in 2020

In recent years, China has been comprehensively deploying the development of science and technology. In particular, since 2020, new infrastructure represented by emerging technologies and new applications such as 5G, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence has played a huge role in promoting epidemic prevention and control and post-epidemic economic recovery, and has become an important engine for adapting to economic development trends and promoting social stability.

Under the new infrastructure policy, my country has clearly accelerated the construction of new infrastructure such as big data centers and 5G networks, which has led to the rapid development of my country's data center industry throughout 2020, during which many events that affected the industry occurred. Therefore, BitNet has reviewed the major events that occurred in the data center industry in 2020.

1. Accelerate the construction of data centers under the new infrastructure

The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting and emphasized that it is necessary to combine the resumption of work and production with the expansion of domestic demand, release suppressed and frozen consumption, cultivate and expand new consumption and upgraded consumption stimulated by the epidemic prevention and control, and make up for physical consumption and service consumption; select investment projects well, strengthen policy support such as land use and funds, and accelerate the construction of major projects and infrastructure that have been clearly defined in the national plan; increase investment in public health services and emergency material support, and accelerate the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G networks and data centers.

After that, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on promoting the accelerated development of the industrial Internet, which once again proposed to accelerate the construction of new infrastructure, accelerate the construction of the National Industrial Internet Big Data Center, encourage local governments to build industrial Internet big data sub-centers, etc., and once again listed the "big data center" as a key development area. As one of the seven major directions of new infrastructure, the big data center provides a solid "digital foundation" for high-quality economic development.

2. China Radio and Television becomes the fourth largest operator and focuses on the data center field

On October 12, China Broadcasting Network Co., Ltd. held its founding conference and became the fourth largest operator in the country, focusing on the 5G and IDC fields.

For China Radio and Television, the interconnection under the "One Network Nationwide" will become an important competitive advantage of radio and television broadband. The construction of data centers in various regions is an important resource and basic work that cannot be avoided, which will save a lot of costs and bandwidth costs. It is reported that Guangdong Radio and Television, Shaanxi Radio and Television, Guizhou Radio and Television, Hunan Radio and Television, Xinjiang Radio and Television and other subsidiaries of China Radio and Television have participated in the construction of data centers.

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According to reports, China Radio and Television (Central) Cloud Data Center has signed a contract to settle in Nanchang, Jiangxi. The China Radio and Television (Central) Cloud Data Center covers an area of ​​about 15,000 square meters, and plans to build 1,600 standard cabinets. It will undertake the functions of China Radio and Television's 5G network Jiangxi node, Jiangxi provincial radio and television transmission backbone node and cloud data center computer room. After the project is completed, it will effectively promote the integrated development of Jiangxi Radio and Television's 5G and smart radio and television.

3. MIIT releases National Green Data Center Advanced Applicable Technology Product Catalog (2020)

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website released an announcement, officially announcing three major energy-saving product catalogs, namely the "National Industrial Energy-Saving Technology and Equipment Recommended Catalog (2020)", the "Energy Efficiency Star Product Catalog (2020)" and the "National Green Data Center Advanced and Applicable Technology Product Catalog (2020)".

According to the published documents, the catalog of advanced applicable technologies for green data centers includes energy and resource efficiency improvement technologies, renewable energy utilization, distributed energy supply and microgrid construction technologies, and green operation and maintenance management technologies, totaling 62 products. Huawei, Kehua Hengsheng, ZTE and many other well-known data center companies have products listed.

4. Alibaba Cloud invests 200 billion in data centers

In April 2020, Alibaba Cloud announced that it would invest another 200 billion yuan in the next three years to tackle the research and development of major core technologies such as cloud operating systems, servers, chips, and networks, and to build future-oriented data centers. "Self-research and self-use" has been put on the agenda for the construction of "new-generation data centers."

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It is reported that Alibaba Cloud will adopt a large number of the latest technologies and research results of the DAMO Academy, XG Laboratory, and Pingtou Ge in the new data center, and will deploy core self-developed technologies such as the FeiTian cloud operating system, Hanguang 800 chip, Shenlong server, self-developed cloud switches, high-performance and low-latency networks, and large computing system clusters on a large scale.

5. Tencent will invest 500 billion yuan in five years to build several large data centers

On May 26, 2020, Tang Daosheng, President of Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group, announced that Tencent will invest 500 billion yuan in the next five years to further develop new infrastructure.

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According to reports, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, servers, large data centers, supercomputing centers, IoT operating systems, 5G networks, audio and video communications, network security, quantum computing, etc. will all be Tencent's key investment areas. In terms of data centers, Tencent will gradually build several large data centers with millions of servers across the country.

6. Huawei Zhangye Cloud Computing Big Data Center Phase II Investment 67.72 billion yuan

On March 23, 371 key projects in Zhangye City with a total investment of 67.72 billion yuan were launched in Huawei Zhangye Big Data Industrial Park, and other projects in various counties and districts of the city started construction at the same time.

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A total of 371 projects were launched in this batch, with a total investment of 67.72 billion yuan and an annual planned investment of 28.18 billion yuan, covering green ecological agriculture, emerging ecological industries, regional ecological tourism and infrastructure, intelligent manufacturing, information technology, trade and logistics, social undertakings, people's livelihood security and other fields.

7. Kuaishou’s first hyperscale data center is located in Ulanqab

On June 6, 2020, the signing ceremony of the Kuaishou Intelligent Cloud Big Data Center project was held at the Kuaishou headquarters. The project was announced to be located in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, with an investment of 10 billion yuan and is expected to be put into use next year.

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The Ulanqab Big Data Center is Kuaishou's first self-built ultra-large-scale Internet data center and the largest data center in China built specifically for "big data and artificial intelligence." It is reported that the size of this data center is second only to Tencent and Alibaba in the industry. It will be independently developed by Kuaishou's technical team and the overall conceptual design will be completed independently.

It is reported that as a leading short video live streaming platform with over 300 million daily active users, Kuaishou's Ulanqab Big Data Center not only meets the needs of rapid business growth, but also more effectively supports the "new infrastructure" layout of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Final Thoughts

In 2020, the promotion of new infrastructure policies and the rapid development of the digital economy under the epidemic have created new demands for data centers. As the "infrastructure of new infrastructure", the data center industry has ushered in greater development opportunities. Since last year, various regions have deployed data center construction, set aside special chapters in new infrastructure or digital economic development plans, or issued special development plans. In addition, industry giants such as Tencent and Alibaba are also competing for layout.

It is expected that under the background of new infrastructure and digital economic development, in order to further optimize the layout and solve problems such as energy consumption and demand matching, the construction of my country's future data centers will further develop in the direction of greening, intelligence, large-scale + clustering.