The state-owned yet independent institute operates throughout Sweden with data centre research based in Luleå. Its founding partners include Facebook, Ericsson, Vattenfall, ABB, LTU and the Norrbotten region.
The cooperation between Vertiv and RISE will see Vertiv specifically supporting the Infrastructure and Cloud research and test Environment – also known as ICE – which is a data centre testbed providing access to study results and experts, as well as publications and demonstrations by RISE and engagement in small research and development studies. Vertiv will also help develop sustainable solutions, including as data centre heat re-use and alternative power sources.
“RISE demonstrates technology leadership in applied research, which makes them a perfect partner for us at Vertiv. This will help us lead the industry into the new era of sustainable large-scale cloud data centres, enterprise and edge applications,” said Vertiv CTO, Stephen Liang.
Giordano Albertazzi, Vertiv president, EMEA, said: “Data centres are a critical part of the digital infrastructure. Efficiency and sustainability are a strong focus for the industry and are becoming increasingly important. New technologies, system solutions and components need to be ideated, developed, tested and verified before hitting the market. We see our partnership with RISE being a big part of that.”
Some of the other projects in Vertiv and RISE’s research pipeline include load balancing, full life-cycle assessments of data centres and all their components, homomorphic encryption machine learning, autonomous digital infrastructure and self-healing systems, fuel cells, a digital carbon counter for end-users, new cooling methods and thermal management systems that support heat reuse and circular economy.
“We want to come closer to the industrial needs and a partnership helps the dialogue and direct bi-lateral collaboration. This way we can continue to develop our thought leadership together with our partners,” said Tor Björn Minde, director ICE Data centre at RISE.
The news builds on Vertiv's established sustainability credentials and earlier work. It is already part of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) and the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) and contributes to Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact with the aim to meet the European Commission’s goal for climate-neutral data centres by 2030.
Vertiv and RISE are also members of the E2P2 Tech Consortium, leading low-carbon fuel cell development to power data centres.
