KaKao

- The completion ceremony on September 26 was attended by more than 100 people, including Kakao CEO Hong Euntaek, Hanyang University president Lee Kijeong, Ansan Mayor Lee Mingeun, and Ansan City Council Vice Chairman Lee Jinbun

- Built a hyperscale facility in Hanyang University’s ERICA Campus that can hold 120,000 servers and save 6EB of data

- The data center is equipped with a redundant and fire response system that can provide stable service during extreme disaster situations

- Implemented eco-friendly solutions, to acquire Grade 1 of the Building Energy Efficiency Rating Certification System and the highest rating from the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED)

- Strives for mutual growth by prioritizing orders placed to local companies, sponsoring the Ansan Science Valley Science Festival, and contributing to the Hanyang University ERICA Campus development fund

 

[September 26, 2023]

“The Kakao Data Center, which can perfectly withstand any disaster or accident, is an important cornerstone for Kakao’s commitment and promise to protect everyone’s daily life with stable services” –Hong Euntaek, Kakao CEO

 

Kakao’s first in-house data center, Kakao Data Center Ansan, has completed construction and is ready for full-scale operation. 

 

Kakao (CEO, Hong Euntaek) announced that the company held a data center completion ceremony on September 26 at Hanyang University’s ERICA campus in Ansan where the Kakao Data Center is located.

 

Kakao invited over 100 people to the completion ceremony to express the company’s gratitude and celebrate the completion, including Hanyang University president Lee Kijeong, Ansan Mayor Lee Mingeun, Ansan City Council Vice Chairman Lee Jinbun and other local government and regional community representatives, as well as representative construction site technicians, local welfare facility employees who participated in regional partnership activities with Kakao, and student representatives from Hanyang University’s ERICA campus.

 

Kakao Data Center Ansan, which had its groundbreaking ceremony in 2021, is Kakao’s first in-house data center.

The 47.378 square meter-wide facility is a hyperscale datacenter (massive datacenter that can operate more than 100,000 servers), and can hold a total of 120,000 servers, which equals 6 EB (exabytes) of data.  The datacenter will start operations within the first quarter of 2024 after installing its operating system and completing a stability test. 

 

Kakao Data Center Ansan is equipped with a system that provides maximum stability during natural and other disasters, including fire, earthquakes, and floods. The facility has a four-tiered fire response system that can respond to large-scale fires and is designed to withstand the most devastating natural disasters, including tsunamis, floods, typhoons, and earthquakes, by applying seismic design and redundant power, cooling, and communication systems to prepare for power outages.

 

To build an eco-friendly data center, infrastructure that utilizes renewable energy, high-efficiency energy facilities, systems that reuses rain, heavy water and waste heat, and other various energy-saving technologies that uses natural resources were implemented in Kakao Data Center Ansan. As a result, the data center was recognized for using energy efficient technology and energy-saving architecture and is set to acquire Grade 1 of the Building Energy Efficiency Rating Certification System and the highest rating from the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED). 

 

Since its construction stages, Kakao Data Center Ansan has strived to enable mutual growth between companies, the region, and the school by putting a priority on placing orders from local companies, sponsoring the Ansan Science Valley Science Festival, contributing to the Hanyang University ERICA Campus development fund, and donating a space for industry and academia cooperation. 

Hanyang University and the City of Ansan will develop future growth projects, cooperate to nurture excellent talents, and actively contribute to revitalizing the local economy by holding data center tours, supporting youth IT training programs, and developing other future growth projects.

 

Lee Mingeun, Mayor of Ansan, who attended the completion ceremony, said in a congratulatory speech that he is “grateful to Kakao for its contributions to co-existence by implementing social contribution projects and through various projects where industry and academia can cooperate.” He also added that “Kakao Data Center Ansan is a vital infrastructure that is needed to raise the quality of Industry 4.0 in Ansan” and that the city will “continue to work with Kakao to innovate the industrial ecosystem.” 

 

In his welcome speech at the completion ceremony, Kakao’s CEO Hong Euntaek said that he would “like to express deep gratitude to the City of Ansan and Hanyang University for their support which helped Kakao safely complete the state-of-the-art data center that is eco-friendly, stable and efficient.” He added that the “Kakao Data Center, which can perfectly withstand any disaster or accident, is an important cornerstone for Kakao’s commitment and promise to protect everyone’s daily life by providing stable services.”

 

Kakao is committed to operating data centers that can perfectly respond to any situation and plans to expand its data center while maintaining and adding more leased data centers.