Your mobile phone data may be hidden in the western region of our country! ! ! | Great Power Technology Fan

Cloud computing, big data, 5G, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain... With the advent of a new round of technological revolution, my country's digital economy has ushered in a new era of vigorous development, and all industries are facing digital transformation and upgrading. To achieve digitalization, it is necessary to have huge data storage, transmission, and computing as support. For this reason, my country has launched another super project - "East Data West Computing".

1. What is “Eastern Counting and Western Calculation”?

The "number" in "Eastern data, western computing" refers to data, and "computing" refers to computing power, that is, the ability to process data. "Eastern data, western computing" means storing and computing data in the eastern region in the western region, so that the computing power resources in the west can empower the development of the data industry in the eastern region and the whole country.

Source: pixabay

Unlike agricultural and industrial societies, the "fuel" driving the development of the digital age has become computing power, which is needed for data processing and value mining. Taking China's supercomputer "Shenwei TaihuLight" as an example, its computing power is 12.54 kilobytes per second (1 kilobyte is 100 trillion), which can greatly accelerate large-scale data calculations and analysis. Therefore, the size of computing power directly affects the development speed of the digital economy. According to research statistics, for every 1 point increase in the computing power index, the digital economy will grow by 3.5‰.

In accordance with the layout of the national integrated big data center system, the construction of eight national computing hub nodes has been started in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, and Ningxia. Within the computing hubs, 10 national data center clusters have been further planned and established.

Source: National Development and Reform Commission

Among them, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei hub, the Yangtze River Delta hub, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area hub and the Chengdu-Chongqing hub are located in the eastern region, and the western region includes the Guizhou hub, Inner Mongolia hub, Gansu hub and Ningxia hub.

Guiyang Big Data Security Industry Exhibition Center

Source｜See watermark

So, do all the "Eastern data" need to be "Western"? Actually not. We all know that due to the physical distance, there will be a delay in data transmission. Different data types have different requirements for network delay. E-commerce, disaster warning, financial securities, and video calls have high requirements for network real-time performance and are suitable for deployment in the east; while the west is suitable for deployment of data services with lower latency requirements, such as storage backup, background processing, website maintenance, etc.

Source: unsplash

2. Why do we need “Western mathematics” when we use “Eastern mathematics”?

Why should data centers be built in the west? The fundamental reason is that the distribution of computing resources and data in the east and west of my country is uneven, and the contradiction between supply and demand is prominent. The eastern region has a developed economy, high technological level, and many Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other companies, and has a strong demand for computing power. However, the user scale in the western region is small, and the demand for computing power market is relatively small.

Source: pixabay

We all know that data computing and storage devices consume a lot of power and generate a lot of heat. The typical characteristics of data centers are high energy consumption and the generation of a large amount of waste heat. According to statistics, in 2020, the electricity consumption of data centers across the country reached 204.5 billion kWh, which exceeded the annual power generation of the Three Gorges Power Station and Gezhouba Dam. This number will continue to grow in the future. Therefore, when selecting a site for a data center, energy costs and environmental factors need to be considered.

Source: unsplash

The eastern region of my country is densely populated and has limited electricity resources. It has to rely on the "West-to-East Power Transmission" to ensure its electricity needs. The high electricity prices and the tight land use are not conducive to the construction and operation of large-scale data processing centers.

The western region has excellent natural conditions. First, the latitude or altitude is higher, and the annual average temperature is lower than that of the same latitude area, which provides natural cooling conditions for computing equipment and reduces heat dissipation energy consumption. Secondly, the western region is rich in resources, especially clean energy (wind power, solar energy, hydropower), which can not only provide energy guarantee for the operation of data centers, but also is conducive to the green development of data centers, which is of great significance for promoting China's carbon neutrality and carbon peak work. At the same time, compared with the eastern region, the western region has sufficient land resources and lower land prices, which can further save costs.

Photovoltaic power station in Kubuqi Desert, Inner Mongolia

Source: People's Data

3. The significance of “counting in the east and calculating in the west”

The implementation of the "East Data West Computing" project plays an important role in promoting the development of my country's digital economy and promoting regional coordinated development.

1. Improve the country’s overall computing power

The layout and construction of 8 hubs and 10 clusters of data centers have expanded the scale of computing facilities, continuously optimized supporting facilities such as networks and energy, improved the efficiency of computing power utilization, and are conducive to the intensive and large-scale development of China's computing power, while promoting data innovation in data centers.

Source: pixabay

2. Driving the development of the digital economy

Through the construction of data center clusters, network and energy supporting facilities have been optimized, which is conducive to concentrating resources, expanding effective investment, and driving the development of digital economy industries. The data communication fields such as information technology equipment manufacturing, information transmission, and optical communication will usher in new development opportunities.

Source: pixabay

3. Promote coordinated regional development

For the eastern region, East-West Computing can ease energy shortages, promote the development of high-tech industries such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence, accelerate industrial structure adjustment, and achieve industrial upgrading.

The western region can transform its resource advantages into economic advantages, while driving the construction of digital infrastructure and taking over data-related industries transferred from the east, thereby promoting economic development and increasing employment opportunities. East-West Data Computing is conducive to promoting data circulation between the east and the west, strengthening inter-regional connections and cooperation, and narrowing the development gap between regions.

4. Promote green and low-carbon development

The layout of data centers from east to west will increase the proportion of clean energy, optimize China's energy consumption structure, reduce carbon emissions , and help achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. At the same time, through advanced energy-saving technology changes such as liquid cooling technology and air exchange, we will continuously improve energy utilization and accelerate the green and low-carbon development of data centers.

We are in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With the accelerated development of informatization, digitization and intelligence, data will grow explosively. These massive amounts of data have put forward stronger demands on computing power. As an important infrastructure, the "East Data West Computing" project has opened up the "digital" artery of economic and social development. What achievements will the future digital China make? We will wait and see~