Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The AI craze is surging, and the era of computing is coming. As a computing infrastructure, servers are developing in the direction of high performance, low energy consumption and diverse computing, promoting the prosperity of server subdivision tracks. In particular, in the context of "double carbon", green low-carbon liquid-cooled servers ushered in explosive growth, and was actively praised by brokerage research institutions.

According to the report "China semi-annual liquid-cooled server market (first half of 2023)" released by International data Corporation (IDC) on October 12, China's liquid-cooled server market will continue to grow rapidly in 2023. China's liquid-cooled server market reached US $660 million in the first half of 2023, an increase of 283.3% over the same period last year, and is expected to reach US $1.51 billion for the whole of 2023.

The liquid-cooled server has become the "vanguard" of calculating power and reducing carbon.

Behind the explosive growth of liquid-cooled servers, the demand for computing power continues to rise under the wave of AI, which in turn leads to the expansion of computing infrastructure such as large data centers. As the infrastructure of big data Center, the demand for servers increases accordingly. However, with the vigorous development of data centers, their high energy consumption brings the problem of carbon emissions, which poses a challenge to the development of green computing.

According to the National Energy Administration, the power consumption of China's data centers exceeded 200 billion kilowatt-hours in 2020, accounting for 2.7 percent of the country's total electricity consumption, a record high. IDC predicts that data centers will account for more than 5% of society's electricity consumption in 2024. It is imperative to save energy and reduce emissions in data centers.

In this regard, the national policy layer has put forward clear index requirements for the construction of the data center. According to the "three-year Action Plan for the Development of New data Centers (2021-2023)" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the PUE of new large-scale and above data centers should be reduced to less than 1.3. the closer the PUE value is to 1, the greener the data center is, and strive to reduce it to less than 1.25 in cold and cold areas. " In the "East-West calculation" project, the PUE of data center clusters set up in Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia should be controlled within 1.2. the PUE of data center clusters set up in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and Chengdu and Chongqing should be controlled within 1.25.

In order to reduce the PUE value, the development of liquid cooling technology is inevitable, and the liquid cooling server, as an important part of the data center, has become the vanguard of computing "carbon reduction". Some data show that the power consumption of liquid cooling system is about 30% to 50% less than that of traditional air cooling system. In addition, the liquid-cooled server can also eliminate the differences in altitude, region and temperature, ensure operational efficiency and performance, and have the ability to scale.

Under the requirements of the development of green computing power, various industries have increased the application of liquid-cooled servers. According to the IDC report, Internet manufacturers were the largest buyers of liquid-cooled servers in China in the first half of 2023. 54% of shipments in the first half of the year were purchased by Internet companies, and are expected to continue to increase the procurement of liquid-cooled servers in the next few years; the government, public utilities and education occupy a secondary market share; telecommunications, services and other industries also have a steady increase in deployment.

Under this background, the liquid-cooled server not only develops ferociously, but also has a broad prospect. IDC said that more and more mainstream IT equipment manufacturers have publicly indicated that they will step up research and development and speed up the iteration of liquid-cooled products, and China's liquid-cooled server market will continue to grow at a high speed in the future. IDC predicts that from 2022 to 2027, China's liquid-cooled server market will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 54.7%. The market size will reach US $8.9 billion in 2027.

This subdivision of the track has also become the focus of the secondary market, brokerage research institutions are also optimistic about this. Great Wall Securities Research News pointed out that AI computing power put forward higher requirements for refrigeration equipment and technology in the data center, traditional air cooling technology presents a bottleneck in the face of high heat density scenes, liquid cooling technology will effectively solve the heat dissipation pressure and energy saving challenges with the characteristics of ultra-high energy efficiency and ultra high heat density, and become a new tuyere for industry development, and liquid cooling is expected to become a new track with high growth.

Market leading manufacturers are the first to benefit

Based on the broad growth space of liquid-cooled servers, enterprises with leading advantages are expected to be the first to benefit. According to the IDC report, Lenovo is one of the leading manufacturers in the liquid-cooled server market. At present, the warm water cooling technology independently developed by Lenovo Group can effectively solve the problem of high energy consumption in the process of data center heat dissipation. It is reported that, compared with ordinary water cooling technology, Lenovo warm water cooling technology can achieve up to 90% heat recovery in the data center, reducing the PUE of the data center to less than 1.1. This value is not only lower than the domestic average PUE value of 1.69, but also lower than the PUE value required by the East-West calculation for the east-west nodes.

It is worth noting that Lenovo Group is also a leader in the server field. As the world's leading ICT technology company, Lenovo Group is supported by the "new IT" technology of "end-edge-cloud-network-intelligence", deeply ploughing the server field, and continues to lead the market with the characteristics of high performance, high quality and low energy consumption. As of May 2023, Lenovo servers have won 463 world records for performance tests, and Lenovo servers have been ranked third in the world for three consecutive quarters, according to IDC.

In the face of the changes brought about by AI technology and the outbreak of demand for computing power, Lenovo Group is taking "Puhui" computing power as the strategic direction, starting from the two major characteristics of "AI intelligence and green empowerment" to create highly competitive server products. In terms of "AI intelligence", Lenovo Group promotes comprehensive AI technology to cover global AI applications, and launches dual-brand AI servers of "Lenovo ask Heaven" and "Lenovo ThinkSystem" for server products; in terms of "green empowerment", it comprehensively distributes liquid-cooled server products to create a new benchmark for energy efficiency.

Based on the dominant position in the server field, the prospect of Lenovo Group is optimistic by a number of brokerage institutions. Guosheng Securities Research report said that Lenovo Group, as the third largest server manufacturer in the world, has customers all over the world. Microsoft, Amazon and other global leading Internet and cloud manufacturers are the company's main customers, and it expects Lenovo Group's market share to further increase in the future, and is optimistic about Lenovo Group's new expansion and long-term development in the field of AI computing.

Soochow Securities Research News covers Lenovo Group for the first time and has a "buy" rating. Soochow Securities pointed out that computing power construction as a vital part of the development of AIGC, the server market is expected to achieve rapid expansion, Lenovo in the traditional and AI server layout to ensure that it will continue to benefit.

It is not difficult to see that, with the continuous evolution of AI technology and the steady progress of national strategies such as "double carbon", the servers in the computing era and the liquid-cooled servers in its subdivisions will be driven by high demand and are expected to become a high-growth track with a broad market space. Lenovo Group, as a leader in this field, will take advantage of the situation and usher in a period of golden growth.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.