Penta Infra houses the first Tier-1 supercomputer by VUB in its BRU01 data center. The data center specialist has only recently become active in Belgium, but already has considerable international experience in operating often sustainable data centers. What distinguishes Penta Infra from other players in the market?
Last week, the first Tier-1 supercomputer managed by VUB received its name. The powerful system was christened Sofia, after the Greek word Sophia, meaning wisdom. Sofia is housed in Penta Infra’s BRU01 data center: a new, ultra-modern site that is part of the Green Energy Park in Zellik.
European player
Penta Infra is a relatively new player in the Belgian market, but has already built up considerable experience in Europe. “Penta Infra is a fast-growing European data center operator, headquartered in Amsterdam,” summarizes CEO Bob Sprengers. The company originated in the Netherlands, and now has data centers in France, Germany, Denmark and with BRU01 also in Belgium.
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A focus on energy efficiency and limiting the ecological impact of data centers can now be found among most operators. However, Penta Infra goes far in its ambition to achieve net zero. To this end, the company equips its often modern data centers with numerous original solutions.
From rainwater well to grid support
All Penta Infra data centers exclusively use green energy. Solar panels on site can be found at five sites (Leeuwarden, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Brussels), a focus on natural refrigerants is also widespread.
Penta Infra BRU01 has two additional sustainability advantages: rainwater collection and electrical grid support. The rainwater collection allows Penta Infra to cool the IT infrastructure through misting on the large coolers on the roof, without using additional water for this purpose. This misting is efficient, but only sustainable if it doesn’t impact the available water supply.
The connection to the Belgian electricity grid ensures that Penta Infra’s emergency generators can also supply power to the grid. This requires close cooperation with the grid operator. Through this cooperation, Penta Infra can supply power to the grid during generator tests, or other emergencies. This feedback is not self-evident.
New construction or renovation
In the case of Penta Infra BRU01, it helps that it’s a brand-new building. “New data centers offer the opportunity to design from the ground up for maximum energy efficiency, sustainability and flexibility,” says Sprengers. “This allows us to realize facilities that are ready for future technological developments and have minimal ecological impact from day one.”
However, retrofitting is also possible. Sprengers: “In other cases, we choose to thoroughly modernize existing data centers and upgrade them to the latest standards. A good example is our data center in Copenhagen: this existing location has been completely modernized and integrated into the local resource community. It returns waste heat to about 1,500 homes and plays an active role in the stability of the local energy network.”
Energy and heat network
This integration into the local environment can also be found in Zellik, where Penta Infra BRU01 becomes part of a network to share energy including waste heat with other companies in the Green Energy Park. Conversely, solar panels on the other roofs in the park will partly contribute to the power supply for the data center and thus also the Sofia supercomputer.
This cooperation goes beyond consuming green power or returning waste heat.
Bob Sprengers, CEO Penta Infra
Sprengers clarifies: “This cooperation goes beyond consuming green power or returning waste heat. The goal is to connect the entire business park and share resources efficiently. The buildings in the park generate solar energy and supply part of it to the facility, while rainwater is collected and used for cooling.
“The data center in turn returns heat to the buildings, contributes to the stability of the electricity grid and can even provide energy to the entire park during power outages,” he continues. “This integrated model functions as a blueprint for the role that data centers can play in local energy and resource ecosystems.”
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“We develop and manage our data centers according to principles of sustainability and future-proofing,” says Sprengers. “Penta Infra BRU01 illustrates this approach as one of our largest facilities and our most advanced in terms of sustainability. With this project, we are setting new standards for future-oriented data center design, community integration and managing both operational and long-term impact.”
Ready for AI
Future-oriented, in the context of a data center, means it’s ready to support liquid cooling. Sofia makes eager use of these capabilities. The supercomputer has a very high density of components, making liquid cooling by far the most suitable and efficient way to keep the temperature under control.
“The rapid rise of AI underscores the role of data centers as crucial infrastructure for economic growth and knowledge development,” says Sprengers about this. “We respond to this with facilities where AI workload requirements have been incorporated from the design phase. By supporting higher power densities and integrating advanced water cooling and energy systems, we make our data centers future-proof and AI-ready, while significantly limiting the sustainability impact.”
Well located
Besides the growing demand for AI infrastructure, which according to Sprengers is partly illustrated by the Sofia supercomputer, the CEO also sees location playing an increasingly important role. “Organizations are increasingly choosing to place their AI clusters locally or regionally, so they comply with European regulations, retain control over their data and limit latency.”
Penta Infra is a fully European company and therefore falls exclusively under EU legislation. “We see that this aspect plays an increasingly important role in customers’ strategic considerations when choosing their infrastructure partners,” notes Sprengers.
Brussels is centrally located in Europe and forms an important hub between the data-intensive FLAP hubs.
Bob Sprengers, CEO Penta Infra
Penta Infra BRU01 also has an interesting location: “Belgium is an emerging and fast-growing market. Brussels is centrally located in Europe and forms an important hub between the data-intensive FLAP hubs.” By this he refers to the concentration of data centers in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris.
European expansion
Penta Infra hopes to further expand its presence in Belgium and Europe. Penta Infra BRU01 therefore has room for much more than the Sofia supercomputer, which has been given a place of honor behind a showcase. The rest of the data center is available for both VUB, which wants to move its IT infrastructure there further, and other customers.
“Our data centers serve a broad spectrum of customers, ranging from governments and large corporates to fast-growing companies within sectors such as cloud, machine learning and AI, e-commerce and internet platforms,” clarifies Sprengers. “Penta Infra facilitates diverse organizations: from startups beginning with one rack to customers with high demands for capacity, power density and scalability.”
In experienced hands
VUB’s supercomputer is thus housed in a modern data center of a European party with experience and a focus on sustainability. Both aspects were important for VUB.
Penta Infra BRU01 is nevertheless not an outlier. With a collection of both new and modernized data centers in different countries, Penta Infra tries to distinguish itself in Europe through a major focus on efficiency and sustainability. With Sofia, Penta Infra already has a very visible flagship for its first Belgian data center.