The Samsung Group is currently building a cloud data center with an ambitious goal to challenge mature cloud computing providers Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
Chuncheon, which is building a cloud computing center, has a natural advantage. The Y-shaped building is located on a hill surrounded by Buddhist temples, pine trees, and military bases, and is located in the least prone to the earthquake in Korea.
The average temperature in the area is 2 degrees Celsius lower than Seoul, helping to reduce cooling costs by up to 80%, which is about 50 kilometers from the North Korean border.
As the relationship between Seoul and Pyongyang continues to improve, the Samsung Group even hopes that the future data center can be located in North Korea, beyond the demilitarized zone, and perhaps one day this may happen.
“The era of cloud computing is coming, so if we don’t, we will be eliminated,” said Kim Ho, vice president of Samsung SDS.
The company has multiple data centers in the country to track its products sold globally. But they are not tailored for external customers such as Chuncheon Center.
Because it seeks to win the customer’s edge, Samsung’s goal is to provide services to more than 80% of large enterprises in multiple cloud providers, allowing them to manage data like a single cloud.
The company also sees potential customers shifting from public clouds to private clouds to protect their information and reduce long-term costs.
“Efficient operation of the data center is a major challenge, and it will be very difficult to go beyond Google or Amazon’s data center,” said Guillaume Pierre, a professor of computer science at Rennes University. “If Samsung’s specific hardware expertise can be used to go beyond the data center of mainstream cloud operators, Samsung’s own data center is likely to lead the way.”