Goonhilly Opens New Data Center – Looks to an AI/ML Future

Goonhilly data center’s immersive cooling in action. Photo: Goonhilly

Goonhilly Earth Station opened its new data center and launched a managed High Performance Computing (HPC) platform for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) computing on demand. Goonhilly’s goal is to create a U.K. hub for AI and ML services that acts as a marketplace and allows academia and enterprise to collaborate and share ideas.

One of the first organizations in the U.K. to deploy a liquid immersion cooling system from Submer Technologies to mitigate the power demands of HPC, Goonhilly’s platform is designed to meet the data-intensive needs of the automotive, life sciences and space/aerospace marketplaces. Additionally, its onsite array of solar panels can support the data center’s full power requirements of 500 Kilowatts (KW). and local wind power will be added.

The new managed platform delivers high performance GPU-based compute and storage for decentralised and centralised AI and machine learning applications to meet the data-intensive needs of the automotive, life sciences and space/aerospace marketplaces.  By provisioning both compute and AI and machine learning resources on demand, customers can reduce the cost of deployment and accelerate time to market.

Further extending its AI capabilities, Goonhilly has joined the NVIDA Inception Programme for businesses that are transforming industries through advancements in AI and data sciences. Goonhilly will use the NVIDIA DGX-1, the world’s first supercomputer purpose-built for enterprise AI and deep learning. Because Goonhilly’s tier 3/4 data centre sits at the junction of global subsea cables, satellite feeds and fiber, customers can analyse data at the edge, eliminating the cost of a leased line to send huge data volumes back to London, or farther afield, for processing.

“There are people working on some clever algorithms to save our planet from climate change. The irony is that these models require heavy processing power. Fortunately new technology is helping, such as immersion cooling which is 45 to 50 percent more efficient than air cooling, cuts electricity demand in half, and also allows us to use the exhaust heat elsewhere,” said Chris Roberts, Head of Data Center and Cloud at Goonhilly.