However, the existence of the DC has even more important significance. The green sustainability of the center is an important step forward for the DC industry in Vietnam, which is carrying out digital transformation in all business fields and striving for Digital Hub and Net Zero status. 

FPT president Truong Gia Binh noted that when FPT negotiates with partners about contracts worth millions of dollars, partners all ask him ‘are you green?” Binh stressed that to obtain large contracts, going green is crucial for businesses' future.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, at the Viettel DC opening ceremony said that 16 years ago, in 2008, Viettel set up the first DC of Vietnam. The new DC is not only a new project of Viettel, but also the symbol of the development and progress in the field of new technologies.

“Viettel, like infrastructure developers in Vietnam, must keep a correct vision of the national data infrastructure, so as to turn Vietnam into a Digital Hub in the world,” Hung said.

Viettel’s new-generation DC has many new technological solutions that improve performance, save electricity and reduce emissions. The effects are reflected in PUE (power usage effectiveness) which is calculated by the volume of electricity consumed by the entire DC divided by the electricity volume consumed by calculation equipment alone. 

The lower the PUE is, the higher effectiveness of the DC’s energy usage. This means that electricity is used to serve the calculations, rather than used for supporting systems, such as heat dissipation or backup sources.

The PUE of Viettel Hoa Lac is 1.4-1.5, which is lower than any other DC in Vietnam. This means that every calculation operation implemented at the DC consumes less electricity than an operation implemented at another DC. 

It is estimated that Viettel Hoa Lac would help save at least 1kwh, or 1,000 tons of CO2. If DC is used more, the electricity volume to be saved would be higher.

The high-density and high-capacity of the DC can satisfy the new requirements on AI and Big Data operation for client businesses in the fields of technology and finance.

Meanwhile, the solutions to performance improvement helps DC receive green credit from HSBC.

Viettel’s new-generation DCs, starting with the newly inaugurated center, all will use renewables, at least 20-30 percent. Green DC will also be the trend for Viettel to follow when setting three DCs with total capacity of 240MW in the next two years.

In other countries, the DC industry consumes a lot of power. In the US, for example, DCs consume 2-3 percent of total power consumed by the whole country. In Singapore, another Digital Hub in the region, the figure is 12 percent.

In Vietnam, the power consumption level of DCs is still not high but with AI and Big Data analysis becoming more utilized in all production, and service and business fields, the DC’s demand for power will surely soar in the time to come.

“With the number of orders we have at the new DC, we can see that enterprises operational in Vietnam have increasingly high demand for high-performance calculations,” said Le Hoai Nam, deputy director of Viettel IDC.

While Vietnam is going digitized, it is also striving for net zero emissions by 2050.

“Some big clients who contact us to rent DC have set requirements related to green standards, power optimization and emission reductions,” said Hoang Van Ngoc, director of Viettel IDC.

VIettel’s new-generation DC is considered a turning point in the DC industry as it initiates a new period of green DCs, thus making Vietnam’s digital infrastructure able to keep pace with developed countries.

“Viettel has realized the aspiration that every Vietnamese person, every family and every organization/enterprise will have a data warehouse on Viettel’s platform of cloud computing, so that people and businesses can live and work in digital space,” said Tao Duc Thang, president and CEO of Viettel.

Thai Khang