{"id":836,"date":"2021-11-21T07:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T07:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/?p=836"},"modified":"2025-11-15T07:42:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T07:42:40","slug":"developing-energy-saving-solutions-for-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/2021\/11\/21\/developing-energy-saving-solutions-for-data-centres\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Energy-Saving Solutions For Data Centres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(This article first appeared in the Business Times<\/a> on 29 November 2021)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AS businesses and people become more technologically savvy, the demand for data centres has risen exponentially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these data centres have often been described as \u201cenergy guzzlers\u201d as they come with a massive carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix\u2019s cooling systems, however, focus on delivering energy-saving solutions to cool data centres that will help optimise limited resources while reducing carbon emissions, said its business manager Alistair Nio in an interview with The Business Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data centres collect, store, distribute and manage critical data and applications through a complex system of parts such as routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems and servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some common uses of data centres include cloud storage applications, e-commerce transactions and online gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large amount of energy is needed to keep these data centres running smoothly. In 2020, the International Energy Agency said that global data centre electricity use accounted for about 1 per cent of global final electricity demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe realised there was an urgent need to help data centres find a better way to cool the large quantity of hosted IT equipment, especially since it was ejecting a significant amount of waste heat \u2013 even more so, as data centres grow larger in power capacity,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R&D journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix was founded by chairman KH Lee, chief executive CK Cheong, and chief technology officer Seri Lee back in 2018 to \u201covercome the conundrum\u201d that the data centre industry is grappling with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company embarked on a research and development journey with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research\u2019s Institute of High-Performance Computing in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix eventually came up with a unique and highly configurable solution that will provide customers with \u201cmassive energy and space savings\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is a plethora of solutions available to cool data centres, Nio said KoolLogix\u2019s system has many differentiating features from its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix\u2019s method removes lingering heat energy from the surroundings before introducing cooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This results in lower energy consumption as it reduces the need for cooling overcompensation by computer room air-conditioning units, added Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waste heat energy that is discharged by computer servers within the server rack is also redeployed as a motivator by boiling the refrigerant and then having the refrigerant carry away the heat from the immediate ambience, which allows the operating temperature to remain in an optimal range for computer servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix\u2019s solution also does not use mechanical devices such as pumps or compressors which makes the overall system a low-pressure one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout the use of compressors or pumps, the refrigerant side is totally gravity-driven, making it a physics-based system,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, limited use and and recharging of refrigerants with hydrofluorocarbons makes the system non-corrosive, non-flammable, and non-toxic in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KoolLogix\u2019s solution is also typically installed closest to the heat source without being intrusive to the computer servers, and is expected to introduce predictive analysis capability to support artificial intelligence control in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe data centre industry is facing substantial challenges in the area of sustainability and complex operating conditions, particularly as data centres grow in size that consumes a massive amount of energy,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur opportunities come in providing such a solution to the data centre business, resulting in a more manageable operating cost, and provide a means to address their sustainability goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWithout the use of compressors or pumps, the refrigerant side is totally gravity-driven, making it a physics-based system,\u201dAlistair Nio<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Covid and its challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Covid-19 pandemic was a \u201clitmus test\u201d for KoolLogix\u2019s leadership, said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic flattened the organisation and increased the intensity of communication, and the company\u2019s management had to be candid in sharing both good and bad news with their team, listen to their concerns and continue on their longer-term plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Covid-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. Consumers have moved dramatically towards online channels, and companies and industries have responded as well,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolation, contact restrictions and economic shutdown posed challenges to the ways KoolLogix operated, recalled Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company had to constantly adjust its workflows and schedules in order to meet customers\u2019 \u201cunpredictable demands\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the virus also turned out to be a blessing in disguise of sorts for KoolLogix, he observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital commerce and online meetings drove up the demand for data centre services and opened up more opportunities for the company\u2019s cooling systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo enable digital commerce and online meetings, the digital infrastructure of the data centre gains its importance more than ever before. This contributed to more demands for data centre services and open opportunities for KoolLogix cooling systems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking past the pandemic, KoolLogix has plans to grow and expand its presence both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has thus far been self-funded, but is engaging in various stages of discussion with potential investors, said Nio. KoolLogix also plans to access funding through a public listing, although the market of choice has not been decided as of now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u2018when\u2019 and \u2018where\u2019 will be determined by the prevailing market conditions and our customers\u2019 geographical concentration,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the company\u2019s immediate focus is to grow its presence in Singapore, it plans to enter the Indonesian market next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will help us establish a \u2018beach head\u2019 for expansion into other markets. Our ambition is to address the global data centre market, and we are open to merger and acquisition or other opportunities that can help with our growth objectives,\u201d said Nio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur vision is to be the global leader in creating green and sustainable solutions for the data centre industry. Our priorities are to build up the company\u2019s talent base and to continuously strengthen our in-house capabilities for new product development and creating professional services for the global market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This article first appeared in the Business Times on 29 November 2021) AS businesses and people become more technologically savvy, the demand for data centres has risen exponentially. But these data centres have often been described as \u201cenergy guzzlers\u201d as they come with a massive carbon footprint. KoolLogix\u2019s cooling systems, however, focus on delivering energy-saving solutions to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singaporewebdevelopment.com\/client\/koollogix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}