CSC is proposing Kajaani, Finland as a location for a new European datacenter due to its cost efficiency and environmental sustainability. Key reasons include very competitive electricity prices that are approximately 3 times lower than parts of Europe, access to green and renewable energy sources, ideal climate for free air cooling that results in a PUE of 1.03, and an existing ecosystem of expertise in areas like data management and high-performance computing. Implementing smart specialization through a distributed model across regions allows different parts of Europe to leverage their strengths and build excellence through synergies and economies of scale.

1. CSC – Finnish research, education and public administration ICT knowledge centre
Building European competitiveness:
Smart specialization for European
datacenters
Case Kajaani
10.4.20171

2. On a European scale
smart specialization
means locating
common, Pan-
European structures in
those regions of
Europe where it is
most optimal.
10.4.2017 CSC – Tieteen tietotekniikan keskus2

3. What is smart specialization?
The EU Member States have different characteristics:
oScope and volume of major industries
oAvailable skills and competencies of the workforce
oNatural and climatic conditions etc.
“We can build state-of-the art world-class eco-efficiency
systems around our mutual challenges, which gives opportunities
for several European players to bring in their strengths,
complement each other and find synergies.”
(Kimmo Koski,
CSC blog post)

4. Basic principles
1. Regional strengths
Optimal exploitation of strengths of different countries and regions
2. Focusing and optimizing
Enabling actors to focus efforts on their strengths
3. Cost-efficiency
Services should be produced where it is most cost-efficient
4. Synergies through ecosystems
Building excellence in regions, providing synergies and cost- efficiency
on the European level
5. Building skills
Competence building and skills development in multi-actor ecosystems

5. 10.4.2017 CSC – Tieteen tietotekniikan keskus5
Europe should
act now – or
let Amazon
or Google
take over?

6. Why does Europe need smart specialization?
• Research, science and innovation in connection with
the e-infrastructures and e-services are accelerators
in turning knowledge into growth. Data plays a key
role in this rapid development.
• Europe needs to compete in this global race,
leveraging growing volumes of data and turning
them into jobs and economic growth.

7. Added value with datacenter smart specialization
• Practical way forward in the datacenter area: Europe can build
competence by using existing infrastructures and skills.
• Cost-, energy- and eco-efficiency go hand in hand –
by locating datacenters optimally we can save significant amounts of
taxpayers’ money and be environmentally sustainable.
• Energy costs are the biggest run-time cost element (40–60%) that
depends primarily on energy prices, secondarily on nature and
climatic conditions, and thirdly on energy effective technologies.
• The energy prices vary greatly in the EU – the highest price might be
even three times as high as the lowest.

8. How to implement smart specialization
of datacenters on a European scale?
Clearly-defined selection criteria
and step-by-step selection will
help to select the optimal region

9. Suggestions for criteria

10. 1. Cost- and energy efficiency, energy reliability
• The energy price (EUR per kWh) should be as low as possible,
and long-term fixed energy pricing should be available
• The energy effectiveness level should be optimal
oThe effectiveness of energy consumption characterised by
the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) should be less than 1.2
• The electricity reliability should be above 99.99%
• Diverse power supply should be possible
PUE =
Total Facility Power / IT
Equipment Power
PUE is the ratio of total
amount of energy used by
a computing infrastructure
facility to the energy
delivered to the computing
infrastructure. An
ideal PUE is 1.

11. 2. Environmental sustainability
• Green power options preferred, the possibility of using carbon
neutral energy
• Natural resources for cooling (air and water) should be
available on a regular basis
• To ensure this, average annual temperature should be below a
given constant (3℃)
• Near-zero carbon footprint during operational lifetime, the
Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) should be close to zero
CUE =
Total CO2 emissions
caused by the Total
Data Center Power/
IT Equipment
Power

12. 3. Scalability, ecosystem thinking, expertise
• Modular expansion to the existing infrastructure should be
easy, flexible and cost-efficient
• There should be good possibilities for building interoperable
services (cloud, disciplinary layers etc.) on top of existing
structures
• There should be sufficient expertise available for services and
support in e.g. HPC, networks, data management and
analytics

13. 4. Operational conditions
• High connectivity should be secured, a fibre connectivity should
be located near
• 24/7 operation, connectivity and other services should be highly
reliable
• The location should be stable and safe for preserving and
processing large amounts of data
• ISO 27001 and ISO 14001 certificates are preferred
• A highly-skilled staff should be available for preparing, operating,
maintaining and further developing state-of-the art technology
and world-class eco-efficiency systems
• There should be high availability of high performance computing
services (a percentage constant should be defined)

14. Kajaani – a smart European solution

15. CSC datacenter in Kajaani
• 3 000 m2 (option to 4 000 m2 additional datacenter space)
• Redundant green power scalability up to hundreds of MW,
based on customer need. Existing power capacity: 10 MW
(redundant)
• Local and competent partner network guarantees rapid
scalability and secure operations
• State-of-the-art datacenter technology (modularity of the
datacenter, easy expansion, free air cooling all year round)
delivering world-class eco-efficiency and zero carbon
footprint. Annual PUE 1,03 (2015)
• Also traditional water cooling datacenter facilities are
available for certain supercomputer type of services
• High-end availability on both power supply,
cooling and core network connectivity

16. Very competitive pricing – substantial savings for Europe
PRODUCT Electrical energy
CONSOM Band IC : 500 MWh < Consumption < 2 000 MWh
UNIT MWh
TAX All taxes and levies included
CURRENCY Euro
GEO/TIME 2014 2015
European Union (28 countries) 149,10 149,60
European Union (27 countries) 149,20 149,70
Denmark 260,60 258,90
Germany (until 1990 former territory of the FRG) 199,20 197,90
Ireland 153,20 160,10
France 109,00 120,80
Netherlands 107,40 110,60
Finland 89,50 87,70
United Kingdom 160,60 178,80
Norway 101,00 96,20
Source: electricity trader company Enegia (www.enegia.com)
In Finland tax reduction reduces the prices further by approx. 15€/MWh
In CSC Kajaani
datacenter the
energy price is
even lower –
70€/MWh in
2016!

17. World-class eco-efficiency
• Annual PUE 1,03* (2015) bringing
tangible energy cost savings to customers. (*free-air cooling)
• Cool climate: Kajaani has only a few days each year when the
temperature is over +25℃ (annual average temperature below +3℃).
No compressor based cooling is required to maintain the required
temperatures for the direct free air -cooled datacentre (CSC has both
direct free air and cool water-cooled datacentres in Kajaani).
• High capacity green power is provided within the Renforsin Ranta Business
Park with four links to the national grid. Green energy production in the
region, three local hydro power plants and a wood burning biomass
power station.The region is also investing heavily to the Wind farms
and Solar Energy.
• CSC uses 100% certificated hydro power (CUE close to zero) in all its
data center production and office environments.

18. Modularity, scalability, ecosystem implementation
• State-of-the-art datacenter technology: modularity of the
datacenter, easy expansion, free air cooling all year round
• Strong local datacenter ecosystem: local authorities,
university, funding organisations, industry – all onboard
• Scalability, also in power
• Room and possibilities for growth…

19. Competent staff and services available
• Skilled staff on-site:
oHPC operations since 1989, including a wide area of technologies,
environment upgrades and changes, scientific software and databases,
support & training, Research network (FUNET) managed by CSC
oData: storage, archival, long-term preservation of data, data analysis,Open
science
• CSC is a Prace AdvancedTraining Center (PATC)
• CSC is a trusted and reliable European actors and partner in various
European projects, e.g. currently coordinating EUDAT.
• Availability of additional services like local smart hands, reception
and un-packaging of HW, HW installations, data / storage services,
additional network services, remote monitoring, DCIM …

20. Reliability: small risk of power failures
• No power failures on site since year 1982.
• CSC has leveraged this capability in current production
without an investment in backup generators. UPS provided,
on-demand. For generators we have ready-made contact
points, so those can be added based on customer request.
• Scalability also in power.

21. Network management
• CSC as FUNET (the Finnish national research and education
network) operator => Competent network management,
quick problem solving, change management available
• Funet provides congestion-free connectivity through
100 Gbit/s national IP/MPLS backbone. 2x 100 Gbit/s
connections to NORDUnet, which connects Funet to Géant
and other research networks. Dedicated connections
available through Funet Light path service (lambda) and
National and international MPLS services (MDVPN)

22. Security & stability
• No risc of seismic / volcanic
activities, hurricane/tidal or other
foms of severe weather
• Finland is a country of political stability
and predictability
• CSC has expertise in service development
for storage of sensitive data

23. Sustainable datacenter service management
• CSC was founded in 1971, and it is a company governed and
owned by the state
• IT service management according to FitSM – a clear,
pragmatic, lightweight and achievable standard that allows
for effective IT service management (ITSM)
• CSC has continuity in service quality
• ISO27001 certificate for Kajaani datacenter since 2013 security,
datacenter management processes. Annual audits
• Datacenter Infra management (DCIM) tool in use and
customer specific access for their own services development

24. CSC offers IT services and
resources for research, education,
culture and administration. CSC is
a state-owned, non-profit
company administered by the
Ministry of Education and Culture.
10.4.201724

25. https://www.facebook.com/CSCfi
https://twitter.com/CSCfi
https://www.youtube.com/c/CSCfi
https://www.linkedin.com/company/csc---it-center-for-science
CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd.
P.O.Box 405, FI-02101 Espoo
phone +358 9 457 2001
servicedesk@csc.fi
www.csc.fi
Photos used in presentation: iStock,
Shutterstock ja CSC photo archive