DC BLOX, a premier provider of secure and reliable data centers and fiber network solutions throughout the Southeast, announced the completed expansion of its Birmingham, Alabama data center.
This expansion entails a new data hall design, tailored to meet the burgeoning demand for High-Performance Compute (HPC) applications, and marks a significant milestone in DC BLOX’s commitment to foster technological growth and innovation in Birmingham and the surrounding region, according to the company.
The innovative mixed-hall design not only streamlines the allocation of floor space and power between high-density and standard cabinets but also sets the stage for adaptable configurations catering to specific regional requirements across the company’s data centers.
By accommodating both high-density cabinets and standard cabinets within the same space, the new design enables researchers to deploy GPU clusters in close proximity to traditional retail racks, both for convenience and for shorter cabling for data transfer.
The state-of-the-art infrastructure provides the ability to support up to 2.4MW of 3N/2 distributed redundant power, aligning with the concurrently maintainable Tier III design of our standard data halls. The data hall can house up to 240 standard retail cabinets and 36 HPC-capable cabinets, each supporting up to 35kW of power.
The expansion responds to the surging demand for HPC applications driven by several factors, including the availability of cost-effective HPC systems based on commodity hardware, specialized processor accelerators such as GPUs, and the escalating utilization of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) applications, according to the company.
HPC technology is vital for a wide range of industries, including government, universities, manufacturing, and bio-sciences, yet is often inaccessible due to the lack of data center infrastructure to support its power and connectivity requirements.
“This expansion underscores DC BLOX’s steadfast dedication to empowering the technology-based economy of Birmingham and beyond,” said Jeff Uphues, CEO of DC BLOX. “Our innovative mixed-hall design and HPC capability are testaments to our commitment to respond to the specific needs of our customers in Birmingham. And our new HPC-enabled data hall can be added to the data centers in any of our markets, as demand requires.”
DC BLOX’s Birmingham data center originally opened its doors in July 2019, unveiling 13,000 square feet of office space and 18,000 square feet of data center space.
For more information about this news, visit www.dcblox.com.