China has started another big project! "East and West" is here

Zhongxin Finance, February 19th:

　　Reporter Li Jinlei

　　"East and West" is here.

　　This is another major project launched by China after the "South-to-North Water Diversion", "West-East Electricity Transmission" and "West-East Gas Transmission".

　　So, what exactly is "counting the east and counting the west"?

How to build "East and West"?

What benefits will it bring to the Chinese economy, enterprises and ordinary people?

Yu Shaohua, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was interviewed by the "China New Observation" column of Chinanews.com to interpret this.

What is "counting the east and counting the west"?

　　The National Development and Reform Commission and other departments have jointly issued documents recently, agreeing to start the construction of national computing power hub nodes in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, and Ningxia, and planned 10 countries. data center cluster.

So far, the overall layout design of the national integrated big data center system has been completed, and the “East and West Calculation” project has been officially launched.

　　In "East Numbers and West Calculations", "number" refers to data (big data), and "calculation" refers to computing power, that is, the ability to process and calculate data.

Computing power, like water conservancy in the agricultural era and electricity in the industrial era, has become one of the core capabilities for the development of the digital economy.

　　Yu Shaohua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Chinanews.com's "China New Observation" column that in simple terms, "calculating the east and the west" is to develop data centers (new infrastructure) in the western region, and put the data and needs generated by economic activities in the eastern region into the Western region to calculate and process.

Why "count the east and count the west"?

　　Yu Shaohua pointed out that "calculating in the east and calculating in the west" is a major strategic layout of China. The eastern region is economically developed, and economic activities generate a large amount of data, which requires huge computing power support.

However, the eastern region is economically developed, and generally lacks electricity and water, and labor costs are relatively high.

　　According to the data of the National Development and Reform Commission, as of now, the scale of China's data centers has reached 5 million standard racks, and the computing power has reached 130EFLOPS (1.3 trillion floating-point operations per second).

With the continuous penetration of digital technology into all areas of the economy and society, the demand for computing power in the whole society is still very urgent, and it is expected to continue to grow rapidly at a rate of more than 20% every year.

　　Yu Shaohua pointed out that the data center consumes a lot of energy and water resources, but the pressure on the supply of energy, water resources, land and other resources in the eastern region continues to increase, and the development of data centers is limited, while the western region is rich in energy resources such as electricity. The price of electricity is cheap; the water resources are relatively abundant and the space resources are vast, which can meet the large demand for computing power in the eastern region. Therefore, the "eastern" and "western" are extremely complementary.

"East number and west calculation" also came into being, which helps to complement each other's advantages and optimize the allocation of resources.

Data map: A visitor experiences in front of the interactive magnetic flip screen of the National Big Data (Guizhou) Comprehensive Experimental Zone Exhibition Center.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Qu Honglun

What is the meaning of "counting the east and counting the west"?

　　In Yu Shaohua's view, "calculating the east and the west" will play an important role in solving many problems.

　　First, energy and water resources.

The energy and water resources in the west are relatively large according to the demand for economic development (a large amount of water is needed for the cooling of the data center), and the price is cheap, while the energy in the east is tight and the cost of electricity is high.

In addition, the eastern region is generally short of water due to its dense population. Building a data center in the western region can save a lot of unnecessary energy transmission and reduce costs.

　　Second, "calculating in the east and calculating in the west" can drive the development of the digital economy in the west.

China has always hoped that the east will drive the economic development of the west, but it is difficult to rely on traditional methods, and the digital economy is a core point of driving economic growth. It will help promote the development of the western region and the balanced and coordinated development of the region.

　　Third, "calculating from the east and the west" will help reduce carbon and achieve green development.

China has put forward a "dual carbon" target, and now the carbon emissions in the east are far greater than those in the west (even in the same province, generally), and are approaching saturation or exceeding the standard, and energy consumption indicators are tight, while thermal power, hydropower, Energy sources such as wind power are relatively abundant. Therefore, the western region undertakes data centers, consumes energy and water resources in the western region, increases the proportion of green energy use, and promotes energy conservation and emission reduction.

How to build "East and West"?

　　According to the layout of the national integrated big data center system, through the layout of 8 computing power hubs across the country, large and super-large data centers are guided to gather in the hubs to form data center clusters.

Around 8 national computing power hub nodes, 10 national data center clusters are Zhangjiakou cluster, Yangtze River Delta ecological green integrated development demonstration area cluster, Wuhu cluster, Shaoguan cluster, Tianfu cluster, Chongqing cluster, Gui'an cluster, Helinger cluster Er cluster, Qingyang cluster, Zhongwei cluster.

　　The National Development and Reform Commission pointed out that, on the one hand, accelerating the large-scale deployment of data centers to the west, especially for back-end processing, offline analysis, storage backup and other services that do not require high network requirements, can be the first to move westward and be undertaken by Western Data Center.

On the other hand, due to the delay caused by long-distance network transmission and related supporting facilities, Western Data Center cannot meet all computing power requirements.

Some businesses with higher network requirements, such as industrial Internet, financial securities, disaster warning, telemedicine, video calls, artificial intelligence reasoning, etc., can be deployed in eastern hubs such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

　　Yu Shaohua reminded that "East and West count" should be avoided in a rush, blind development and repeated investment.

On the one hand, it is necessary to overcome technical problems and ensure that the connection between different entities is more accurate and smooth at the technical level; on the other hand, more work must be done in terms of indicators, standards and norms to ensure high standards and strict requirements.

"Counting the east and counting the west" is a big strategy and a long-term strategy. To start a good game and make a good start, you can't be too hasty.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence applications, the explosive growth of data and the increasingly complex computing models, people's demand for computing power is growing rapidly, and the west also needs to have sufficient technical talent reserves.

At the same time, it is necessary to do a good job in the formulation of relevant laws, rules and regulations, data privacy protection and other aspects.

All levels of society should give support and encouragement, give more time and patience.

　　It is reported that in order to resolutely avoid the blind development of data centers, in the current initial stage, 10 data center clusters have been planned and established in 8 computing power hubs, the physical boundaries have been demarcated, and development goals such as green energy saving and listing rate have been clarified.

For example, the average availability rate of data centers in the cluster must reach at least 65%, and the utilization rate of renewable energy must be significantly improved.

What are the benefits of "calculating the east and west"?

　　After the news was announced, investors took the lead in enjoying the dividends of the "East Number and West Calculation" project, and related concept stocks rose by the daily limit.

　　Yu Shaohua believes that "calculating the east and the west" will bring great benefits, because the data center industry chain is long and the driving effect is strong, enterprises in the related industry chain will benefit from it, and it will bring more benefits to enterprises such as computers, communications, optoelectronic devices, and basic software. More opportunities, but also help to increase employment.

　　In addition, the scale of data center investment is large. According to estimates, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, more than 400 billion yuan of related investment will be added every year.

　　Yu Shaohua pointed out that the current downward pressure on China's economy is great. Driven by the digital economy, it overcomes the shortcomings of energy, carbon emissions and water resources to drive the sustainable growth of the digital economy.

(over)