THE EDGE n May 2022 , Proximity Data Centres completed an

Computing platform at its Edge 7 data centre in Swindon . This was for The GRID Factory . The 25kW high-density racks , supported by a highly efficient climate control , use a three-stage cooling system to ensure IT equipment performs efficiently .

Description of application

The GRID Factory is an Immersive Technology Integrator and Cloud Services Provider which specialises in NVIDIA technologies such as CloudXR , vGPU , Omniverse and EGX Server . Its client required a new approach for delivering highly accurate 3D city models which enable designers , architects and engineers to work from a variety of remote locations , enabling a building to be conceived , co-designed , engineered and deployed as a 3D model both on and off site . The 3D city models starting initially in London , Birmingham , Bristol , Cardiff , Detroit and Dublin have been added to the portfolio , with more available on request .

Powered by NVIDIA RTX data centre technology , the application allows high levels of collaboration through the design , approval and build phases and so reduces the associated costs to the client . It allows key stakeholders to quickly visualise and understand any changes and to measure progress without physically being together .

The GRID Factory platform uses a combination of high performance , low latency , Edge networking provided by its partner , BT , which connects customers to NVIDIA RTX 8000 and NVIDIA A40 data centre GPUs to allow highly performant , real time , 3D and immersive experiences .

Key requirements and challenges

The GRID Factory platform requires high levels of power ( 25kW ) in a single rack as well as cooling in a secure environment . Power requirements of this level are still very rare in the data centre market and are challenging to deliver cost-effectively .

Due to the design of the Proximity Edge 7 data centre , Proximity was able to create an extremely comprehensive package that not only allows support for these new 3D and immersive workloads to be delivered but will also support resourceintensive computational workloads such as Blockchain , AI and ML on The GRID Factory platform .

Lastly , The GRID Factory required an Edge data centre partner that could support the deployment of multiple platforms across the UK to ensure a bestin-class service , minimising latency and reducing network costs .

The solution

Commencing in February 2022 , Proximity and The GRID Factory worked closely to understand the unique requirements for the computing platform and to develop the solution .

In April 2022 , Proximity ’ s Edge 7 , 89,000 sqft . Edge data centre in Swindon was chosen as the initial deployment site for the application . Along with significant power , the facility offers easy access to

Ben Jones , Founder and CTO of The GRID Factory , www . intelligentdatacentres . com

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