HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE, APPLICATION STORAGE
prnewswire | March 24, 2023
EdgeConneX®, the pioneer in global Hyperlocal to Hyperscale Data Center Solutions, announces the successful execution of $3.3 billion in innovative sustainability-linked financing, which enables the development of critical digital infrastructure to support customers' global data center requirements. The significant scale of these transactions is also recognized by IJGlobal, a leading market intelligence firm for the energy and infrastructure finance industry, with the Digital Infrastructure Deal of the Year Award 2022 in the data center category.
In October 2022, EdgeConneX, the EQT-owned data center developer, reached financial close of a €2.4 billon sustainability-linked (re)financing EdgeConneX pan-EMEA data center portfolio of operational facilities across seven jurisdictions and provided CapEx facilities to support future developments. This financing is arranged across three tranches – a term loan, a CapEx facility, and a revolving credit facility, providing an optional line of credit if needed. Beyond consolidating EdgeConneX pan-EMEA portfolio, this deal allows it to transition from stand-alone project financing to a structured corporate debt package – thereby unlocking more flexibility and funding capacity to support anticipated growth across the region. In addition, this deal represents Europe's first data center platform financing and is rated as a pathfinder sustainability-linked portfolio financing.
Separately, in June 2022, funds managed by Ares Management's Infrastructure Debt strategy, committed a delayed draw sustainability-linked global debt facility to EdgeConneX. The debt facility commits up to $1 billion and can be used to fund the development and construction of EdgeConneX growing global development pipeline. In addition, the innovative funding regime in Euros and US dollars via a structured corporate debt package unlocks more flexibility and funding capacity to support EdgeConneX anticipated global growth.
Both facilities include sustainability-linked margin adjustments, whereby the interest rate payable is directly correlated to EdgeConneX achieving specific pre-determined sustainability targets. These targets align with EdgeConneX holistic ESG sustainability strategy, which includes a goal of becoming a carbon-, waste- and water-neutral data center provider by 2030 and developing and operating a data center platform powered by 100% renewable energy.
"We are honored by the IJGlobal Award distinction for our innovative financing structures that can be replicated globally," comments Joe Harar, Chief Financial Officer for EdgeConneX. "Sustainability is a necessity, and EdgeConneX has adopted sustainability principles across all aspects of our business. These financings leverage EdgeConneX Green Finance Framework and enable us to execute growth plans by reinforcing our commitment to delivering energy-efficient and innovative sustainable solutions for our customers anywhere in the world."
The greenfield element of these transactions wins EdgeConneX an IJGlobal award in this category in conjunction with the refinancings, which played a significant part in the deal and its reason for winning an award. The IJGlobal Awards took place in London on March 9, 2023, celebrating the best-in-class transactions and organizations across the international infrastructure and energy sectors.
EdgeConneX owns and operates 60+ data centers across 50 unique markets throughout 30 countries. The company's portfolio includes 200+ far edge and EdgePop deployments and 500+MW of capacity deployed and/or in development worldwide. Providing excellence and expertise across all deployment phases, EdgeConneX also specializes in build-to-suit data center facilities for Hyperscalers serving as the backbone of their cloud computing products for consumers globally.
About EdgeConneX
EdgeConneX, backed by EQT Infrastructure, part of the global investment organization EQT, EdgeConneX provides a full range of sustainable data center solutions worldwide. We work closely with our customers to offer choices in location, scale, and type of facility, from Hyperlocal to Hyperscale. EdgeConneX is a global leader in anytime, anywhere, and any scale data center services for a diverse portfolio of industries, including Content, Cloud, Networks, Gaming, Automotive, SaaS, IoT, HPC, Security, and more. With a mission predicated on taking care of our customers, our people, and our planet, EdgeConneX strives to Empower Your Edge.
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STORAGE MANAGEMENT,DATA STORAGE
Inspur Systems | January 05, 2023
In a recent announcement, Inspur Information’s NF8480M6 achieved a world record of 359,780 SAPS and is ranked first in SAP SD 2-tier performance benchmark for 4-socket servers using the Copper Lake platform.
The SAP Sales & Distribution (SD) 2-Tier Benchmark is widely recognized as a benchmark in a two-tier architecture based on sales and distribution modules. The SAP SD 2-Tier Benchmark Test has evolved into a crucial indicator of operational performance for the production systems of actual enterprises. Many enterprise users regard it as a more flexible and valuable guide for selecting a server platform, since it considers exact production needs of enterprise users during the architecture design itself. A higher benchmark test score indicates that the server system can accommodate more users and offer more productivity for businesses or a higher SAPS value.
The record set by Inspur NF8480M6 in SAP SD 2-Tier Benchmark for 4-Socket Servers is due to the design philosophy of openness, excellence, extremeness and security, which enables Inspur to increase usability, reliability and performance of its servers.
About Inspur Information
Inspur Information is the second-largest server manufacturer and leading cloud computing, AI, and data center infrastructure provider. Inspur Information addresses crucial technology fields like open computing, cloud data center, AI, and deep learning by delivering cutting-edge computing hardware design and a wide range of products. Inspur Information solutions are performance-optimized and purpose-built, offering customers the tools they need to handle specific workloads and real-world problems.
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HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE, APPLICATION STORAGE
Axelera AI | March 09, 2023
On March 08, 2023, Axelera AI and Advantech declare their strategic alliance as the world's most powerful and advanced solutions supplier for AI at the Edge. Advantech, a leader in embedded and industrial PCs, and Axelera AI, a leader in edge AI technology, have partnered to bring the inference capability of a data center to edge devices, allowing customers to process data in real time while decreasing latency and increasing productivity.
In just a a span of 18 months, Axelera AI:
Taped out 2 chips,
Introduced next-generation Metis AI software and hardware platform,
Raised USD funding of $37ml and
Grew a team of more than 100+ game-changers – (40 PhDs in 12 European countries.)
Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO of Axelera AI, stated, "We are excited to showcase our progress in building next-generation computer vision products. The partnership with Advantech underpins the magnitude of what our Metis AI platform delivers and we are honored to partner with them. As we grow, we're seeking talented people to join our team and develop the future of Edge AI."
(Source – BusinessWire)
During Embedded World, Axelera AI will display its latest offerings, which can be purchased in a variety of M.2 modules and vision-ready systems, as well as other industry-standard form factors. Metis AIPU technology and the intuitive Voyager SDK software stack combine to provide high-powered processing performance at a fraction of the price and power consumption of existing alternatives.
About Axelera AI
Axelera AI, which is providing the world’s most powerful and advanced solutions for AI at the edge, is developing a game-changing hardware and software platform for AI. Axelera AI has research and development facilities in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, in addition to its headquarters in the AI Innovation Center on the High Tech Park in Eindhoven. Its software and hardware professionals in artificial intelligence are recruited from leading AI businesses and Fortune 500 organizations
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