Kao Data, a prominent developer and operator of data centres specializing in AI and advanced computing, has recently announced an exciting new partnership with Jisc, the UK’s digital, data, and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research, and innovation.
This groundbreaking collaboration arises from a data centre referral agreement, through which Jisc has chosen to collaborate with Kao Data, specifically its Harlow campus, due to its high-capacity connectivity to the Janet network. The partnership aims to provide Jisc’s extensive user-base of over 18 million members with access to scalable, sustainable, and highly connected data centre capacity.
Following a thorough due diligence process and the support of Jisc’s legal and procurement teams, this commercial partnership will enable organizations using Janet, the UK’s national research and education network, to utilize Kao Data’s Harlow campus as a shared, high performance data centre resource. This move is poised to accelerate pioneering UK research and support the government’s ambition to become a world-leader in science, technology, and AI by 2030.
As a member of Jisc’s data centre referral service, Kao Data’s Harlow campus will offer unparalleled opportunities for scalability, alongside a simple, easy-to-access reference model that includes pre-agreed, preferential pricing.
The partnership further enhances Kao Data’s world-class connectivity capabilities, including its location as the closest hyperscale on-ramp within the London-Cambridge Innovation Corridor. With both Megaport and Console Connect on campus, public sector, academic, and research organizations can benefit from secure, high-speed connections to key cloud providers.
Notably, Kao Data’s sustainability credentials, such as its 100% certified green energy provision, operational and SLA-backed PUE of <1.2, and its HVO-powered back-up generators will play a critical role in helping Jisc's users significantly reduce the environmental impact of their compute, particularly as AI-related electricity consumption is predicted to rise by up to 134 TWh annually. Alec Wright, Cloud and Data Centre Services Manager at Jisc, expressed, “AI-powered computing is advancing academic research at an unprecedented pace, but as both energy demands and datasets increase in size and scale, they compound the requirement for access to scalable, resilient, and highly connected infrastructure." Kao Data's NVIDIA DGX-Ready Harlow campus, the UK’s largest data centre development, has become synonymous with all forms of high-density, GPU-accelerated computing, and is home to some of the UK’s leading and large-scale bioinformatics, life sciences, and research workloads, including NVIDIA’s Cambridge-1 Supercomputer. Through this new partnership, organizations from across London, Cambridge, and beyond can plan their infrastructure deployments for the Future of Compute, positioning them to capitalize on the upcoming wave of AI-supported technologies and propelling UK research efforts onto the world stage. Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer at Kao Data, expressed his delight in forming this unique commercial partnership with Jisc, providing its academic and research communities with high performance infrastructure designed to deliver the highest levels of sustainability. “We look forward to working with Jisc to support its members’ lifesaving research efforts, and to help them establish a new high performance data centre resource in close proximity to major technology hubs, which will benefit its users for years to come," he said. Kao Data and Jisc are set to exhibit at Computing Insight UK (CIUK) alongside members of the UK research community, which takes place at the Manchester Central Convention Complex on the 7th and 8th December 2023. The event is organized by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), bringing together the UK’s leading experts in data-intensive science and home to the sophisticated high-performance hardware systems that support their cutting-edge research. For those interested in learning more about Kao Data’s high-performance data centre platform and its partnership with Jisc, the Kao Data team will be available at CIUK, or visit their website for more information.
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