Today European datacenter specialist DATA4 Group and Qarnot Computing announced a new type of distributed computing system that offers “greener and more efficient computing services.” The system is based on Qarnot’s Q.rad, a smart and connected digital heater. Think of the device as the fusion of an electrical heater and a server.
In the Q.rad model of computing, servers are placed in rooms that need heat. They are then networked together to form a physically distributed cloud computing resource.
Thanks to this new partnership, Qarnot will be able to offer its clients network and storage services in DATA4’s ultra-secure data centers. During intensive computing, the load will be distributed across Qarnot’s decentralized cloud. For peak loads, Qarnot will turn to intensive computing platforms, hosted in the DATA4 data centers. The collaboration will also provide DATA4 clients with easy access to the high performance resources produced by Q.rads.
To ensure the optimum management of this hybrid system, Qarnot created “Q.ware”, the software component for the management and distribution of the IT resources that it developed. This unique platform allows the optimum distribution of calculations between the centralized IT platform and the decentralized cloud and, as such, ensures the high-quality management of computing capacities in terms of needs. DATA4 will rely on this know-how in order to integrate a software layer in its own hosting offers, increasing automation and flexibility.
Both DATA4 and Qarnot are committed to exploiting the heat created by IT calculations in housing and in data centers. Thanks to its digital radiator and a decentralized computing system, Qarnot claims it has reduced the carbon footprint of IT calculations by 75% and is already heating over one hundred homes in France.
DATA4 and Qarnot are a perfect match,” said Olivier Micheli, CEO of the DATA4 Group. “That’s why they decided to join forces and create a solution that is unique to the market and which combines distributed computing capacities and central, ultra-connected hosting nodes. As such we are participating in the transformation of the data center sector, making them faster, more efficient and more environmentally friendly with the aim of providing our clients with the best possible service.”
DATA4’s acquisition of a stake in Qarnot will allow us to increase our growth in France and Europe and promote our “Q.rad” and “Q.ware” technology,” said Paul Benoit, CEO of Qarnot computing. “Working alongside DATA4 will boost the move to the decentralized cloud and green computing.”
