Supermicro
Powering a New Era of Environmental Friendly IT Infrastructure Save Tens of Millions of Dollars for Data Center Deployments

The Earth is home to 7.7 billion people today—more than 60 percent of whom have access to electronic appliances and communication devices. By 2020, estimates suggest that over 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet. Couple this with connectivity innovations like 5G and ongoing advancements in artificial intelligence; we stand to witness a massive growth in data generation in the coming years. But where does all this data eventually go? The answer is simple: to the data centers. Being the backbone of the IT and server infrastructure needed to deliver advanced technologies, data centers increasingly play a vital role in the enterprise ecosystem today. However, the massive scale and growth of data centers are negatively impacting the world we live in.

Consider the following:

Today, data centers account for two percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of the airline industry. These emissions are predicted to increase by 9-13 percent in the next ten years. Next in line is the power consumption by data centers that accounts for three percent of the global electricity supply. The vast pile of e-waste generated by data centers is another concern. The EPA reported that although e-waste represents only a small two percent of U.S. solid waste, it accounts for a very high percentage (70percent) of hazardous waste. There is a turnover cycle of outdated electronic systems every three to five years, which end up in landfills. These impacts of data centers on our environment will continue to scale up unless tech companies step up with innovative technologies. And thanks to Supermicro, for innovation has already begun.

"The key to success in the technology realm is designing a company around people committed to work that they love"

As a global leader in designing, developing, and providing end-to-end green computing solutions for the data center, cloud computing, enterprise IT, big data, HPC, and embedded markets, Supermicro is leading the path of "sustainability" in the industry for many others to follow.

Keeping the IT Green

"As citizens of the Earth, we are making valuable and result-driven steps to protect this great planet for future generations," says Charles Liang, the Founder and CEO of Supermicro. The trump card for Supermicro is its Resource-Saving Architecture for data centers. This Resource-Saving architecture marks the beginning of an eco-friendly approach to building large-scale data centers that not only helps companies reduce the TCO but also limit the total cost to the environment. Supermicro's first-to-market, high-performance, high density, and energy-efficient server innovations deliver superior performance while helping enterprises reduce environmental impacts.

For several businesses, we serve as a reliable partner, helping them mitigate their challenges associated with computing power, resource management, and environment

Be it for building a new data center ecosystem or for rendering one as a resource-saver, Supermicro adopts a disaggregated design approach where enterprises can conduct independent upgrades of computing subsystems. It leverages a unique rack-scale design to manage racks of disaggregated servers, pooled compostable storage, and networking gear while operating in large-scale data center environments. This disaggregated rack-scale design delivers higher performance servers with enhanced efficiency compared to the traditional rip-and-replace models. In addition to the TCO benefits of 44 percent lower refresh cost over a full acquisition (rip-and-replace) refresh, reduced provision time of 77 percent, and reduced shipping costs, disaggregated servers have total cost to the environment (TCE) benefits of 82 percent reduction in material shipping weight and significantly reduced e-waste.

For example, in one instance, Supermicro collaborated with a Fortune 100 high-tech company that was looking to provide its business units with the best Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) and Quality of Service (QoS). The client wanted to minimize their IT infrastructure costs and increase the resource utilization of infrastructure assets. By leveraging its vertically integrated full-service capabilities, Supermicro worked hand-in-hand with the client and delivered a solution that fulfilled their needs. The Fortune 100 company deployed 200,000 MicroBlade computing nodes, and disaggregated Intel Xeon processor-based servers in many of their data centers located worldwide. Post collaboration, the client evolved as the world's most energy-efficient data center with a PUE of 1.06. The data center achieved a 55 percent improvement in overall energy efficiency, saving around 40million dollars on electricity per year for the client. Supermicro's solution also reduced the client's overall IT operating costs and improved space utilization by 56 percent. Furthermore, the offering's disaggregated rack-scale design optimized their refresh cycles and delivered better overall performance at 45-65 percent reduced CAPEX costs.

Building on the Legacy

Since its inception in 1993, Supermicro has been integrating its novel Building Block Solutions approach into its business model, which Liang dubs as the primary reason for the company's success. The Building Block Solutions approach enables the firm to provide a broad range of products, allowing it to build and deliver application-optimized solutions based on clients' requirements. The approach also enables Supermicro's clients to choose from the industry's broadest selection of high-quality hardware for fully application-optimized server, storage, embedded/IoT, and workstation solutions.

Clients can choose complete solutions, maximizing subsystems depending on their requirements. The company's US-based in-house design capabilities enable it to rapidly develop, build, and test server systems, subsystems, as well as accessories. This helps reduce the design time from the conventional one-year period to just two-to-six months, enabling Supermicro to offer newer technologies to clients ahead of the competition.

The Building Block Solutions approach also helps to reduce product development costs, and minimize the cost of spare parts as well as global services. Such an innovative and value-bound strategy enables the firm to deliver a handful of high-quality hardware for fully application-optimized solutions.

The Silicon Valley Advantage

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Supermicro's strategic location allows it to work closely with technology and semiconductor partners while providing clients easy access to most recent technology innovations. Supermicro also has campuses around the world, including one in Taiwan for the Asian markets and one in the Netherlands for European markets. This allows the company to stay at the forefront of market trends and deliver solutions leveraging its rapid “time-to-market’ capability for challenges faced by businesses, and design solutions accordingly. "What we offer customers is partnership,” comments Liang. “We serve as a reliable customer partner for several types of businesses and help them mitigate their challenges associated with computing power, cost reduction, resource management, and environmental protection." The philosophy that Supermicro follows while collaborating with its partners, as well as customers, is based on developing a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

A Culture that Drives toward a Resourceful Future

"The key to success in the technology realm is designing a company around people committed to work that they love," says Liang. Supermicro always believes that this principle is a major driving force behind its success. The firm deploys a dedicated and expert team that works in tune with its clients' goals and strategies and helps them solve critical issues.

Envisioning the future, Supermicro is continually aligning with the technological advancements for adding more value to its customers as well as increasing its market share. While most of its competitors deploy lagging technologies to deliver products at a lower cost, Supermicro has a core focus on optimizing performance per dollar. As technology is advancing at a greater pace, Supermicro is also driving toward improving its engineering skills and management capabilities. The innovation lab at Supermicro works tirelessly to enhance its solution portfolio and provide more efficiency, automation, and problem detection capabilities to its clients.

"While doing all this, we are on an endless fight against the factors that negatively impact the Earth. Therefore, we continue to pay greater attention to our green computing initiatives and research activities," concludes Liang.