KT builds Seoul’s biggest data center in Yongsan

KT opened its largest Internet data center (IDC) in Seoul’s Yongsan district on Thursday. The South Korean telecommunications company announced Thursday that it has completed the construction of its 13th IDC, “KT DX IDC Yongsan,” and has begun the operation.

The Yongsan IDC is a seven-story building with six basement levels that spans 48,000 m². Equipped with eight server rooms that can accommodate more than 100,000 servers, it is the biggest data center in the metropolitan area. “100,000 servers can store 30,000 times the information the National Library of Korea has,” said a source from KT.

The new IDC boasts the fastest data processing speed of 100 Gbps by using its own network and a single line. KT has also connected data centers in Yongsan, Mok-dong, Gangnam and Bundang, allowing data to pass through a data center in close proximity to the one with a sudden surge in data traffic.

The data center in Yongsan has much lower utility costs thanks to efficient cooling systems. By cutting cooling costs by 20 percent, KT plans to reduce its annual carbon emissions by 26,000 tons. “It is equivalent to saving 3.85 million trees,” said a source from KT.


Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com