IIJ Starts Operation from July of the Shiroi Data Center Campus's Second Phase Building

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TOKYO - July 3, 2023 - Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (TSE Prime: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced the start of operation this month of the second phase building on the Company's Shiroi Data Center Campus (Shiroi-shi, Chiba Prefecture; "Shiroi DCC"), which had been under construction since May 2022. The Shiroi DCC's second phase building has a site area of approximately 8,000 square meters, maximum incoming power capacity of 10MW (megawatts), and scale of 1,100 racks. Starting the datacenter service with around 50 percent of the 1,100 racks, all remaining racks are expected to be in service by February 2024.

The second phase building, besides expanding the space housing equipment for IIJ services for which demand is growing, is also able to meet increasingly diverse collocation needs, from companies offering private cloud services and SI service providers to cloud vendors and content providers, including those installing AI platforms, as well as data center service providers needing reseller space with outstanding energy efficiency.

Shiori DCC equipment overview

	The first phase building	The second phase building
Location	Shiroi-shi, Chiba Prefecture
Total site area	40,000 square meters
Racks installed	Approx. 700 racks	Approx. 1,100 racks

• See the following site for details of the Shiroi DCC.
  https://www.iij.ad.jp/en/datacenter/tech/iijdc/shiroidcc.html

Aims of the second phase building

The Shiroi DCC is one of the centers concentrating infrastructure equipment for IIJ cloud and network services. As use of IIJ services has increased lately against the background of growing ICT demand, construction was carried out on the second phase building as a facility for expanding service infrastructure equipment. Another recent trend is the provision of hyperscale data centers, having incoming power capacity exceeding several tens of MW. Most of these are intended for use by"mega-cloud service providers," whereas data center facilities for collocation or housing of other kinds of service providers or enterprises have tended to be in short supply. Against this backdrop, the Shiroi DCC's second phase building aims to meet increasingly diverse collocation needs, from companies offering private cloud services and SI service providers to cloud vendors and content providers, including those installing AI platforms, as well as data center service providers needing reseller space with outstanding energy efficiency.

Further, given that plans have been announced for the use in data centers of server CPUs with maximum power use (Thermal Design Power: TDP) exceeding 300W, along with the expected growth in demand for servers equipped with graphics processing units (GPUs), which consume large amounts of electric power and are needed for data processing in the rapidly growing generative AI services, the new server building meets power demand of 10 to 20kW per rack.

An additional factor is the increasingly challenging demands on the data center industry for initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy use. Examples include the new benchmark system introduced in the Act on Rationalizing Energy Use of 2022, calling on the industry to aim for an energy efficiency level of PUE(*) 1.4 or below; the setting of new measures for switching to non-fossil energy in fiscal 2023; and the revision of technical requirements in RE100 encouraging the spread of energy efficiency with high additionality. In the second phase building of the Shiroi DCC, as well, besides bringing together the existing energy-saving technology built up by the IIJ Group to date, carbon neutrality will be aggressively advanced through experimental introduction of new technology and technology development, while supporting decarbonization by customers.

• (*)PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is an indicator of energy use efficiency in data centers. A lower value means a lower ratio of electric power consumption by equipment other than IT equipment.

Features

Provided power supply (per rack in the case of housing service)

230V 30A as base, with 100V 30A available by request.

• (*)Can be expanded to a maximum of around 20kW per rack (may be limited by the power use situation in neighboring racks)

Main carbon neutrality initiatives

• Direct outdoor air cooling system
• Wall-mounted blowers for efficient cool air circulation
• High-capacity three-phase, four-wire UPS
• Use of lithium-ion storage batteries for peak cut and peak shift of cooling electricity
• Participation in virtual power plant project making use of storage batteries and on-site solar power
• Direct procurement of non-fossil certificates (NFCs) on the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX)
• Power demand matching platform verification project

Automation of data center operations

Expansion of the Shiroi DCC to a second server building is being done without a large increase in operators, thanks to the automation and systemization of data center operations, including the automated reception system carried over from the first phase building.

High affinity with IIJ network services

Besides the ability to connect directly to various IIJ network service and cloud service equipment, a JPNAP (Japan Network Access Point) site in the Shiroi DCC provides Internet exchange (IX) service, realizing interoperability among content providers and Internet access providers in Japan and overseas. The Inzai district where the Shiroi DCC is located is drawing attention for its concentration of data centers, bringing the advantage also of use as a network hub, for connection to various cloud services and nearby data centers.

Overall view of Shiroi DCC

• (*)The Shiroi DCC's second phase building is at the right side in the back.

IIJ is committed to further expanding infrastructure for meeting the vigorous demand for data center services, while aiming to lead the way in the ICT industry's efforts to advance the cause of carbon neutrality.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results.

For inquiries, contact

IIJ Corporate Communications

• +81-3-5205-6310
• +81-3-5205-6377
• press@iij.ad.jp

• (*) All company names and service names used in this press release are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.