• GMO chose Ishikari for its GPU cloud expansion, citing renewable-energy access and business-continuity advantages
  • The site’s power capacity, opening date and electricity supply have not yet been disclosed

The fact

GMO Internet has chosen Ishikari Bay New Port in Hokkaido for its next GPU cloud site. The company has also joined the Ishikari Data Center Consortium, which brings together data-centre operators, power and communications providers and the local government to coordinate infrastructure in the area.

GMO said access to renewable energy and the location's advantages for business continuity were part of the reason for choosing Ishikari. The new site is intended to expand the computing resources behind GMO GPU Cloud, although the company has not yet said how much capacity it will add, how much it will invest or when the site will open.

The consortium gives some context to that decision. It was set up before GMO joined, with Sakura Internet among its founding members. Sakura, which has operated a data centre in Ishikari since 2011, said the group would work on shared infrastructure, disaster preparedness, skills and cooperation with the local community.

KCCS, another founding member, has also pointed to joint electricity and communications infrastructure and greater use of renewable energy as areas for cooperation. Those plans apply to the wider Ishikari data-centre cluster, however. GMO has not disclosed how much power it has secured for its own site or whether it will use a shared electricity arrangement.

The assessment

Choosing Ishikari settles where GMO wants to expand, but not yet how the new GPU capacity will be delivered. A large computing site needs dependable electricity and network connections before servers can be installed and sold as a service. The consortium may make it easier for companies in the area to plan those needs together, but GMO still needs its own arrangements.

That becomes important if some of the infrastructure is shared. A new power connection or fibre route can serve several operators, but the companies still have to decide who pays for it, who builds it and when it will be ready. If one shared project slips, more than one data-centre development could be affected.

Renewable power works the same way. Ishikari may have access to renewable generation, but that does not tell customers how much of it will supply GMO's site. A specific electricity agreement would give a much clearer picture of what the company can actually promise.

For BTW readers, the next useful details are straightforward: how large the site will be, when it will open, where its electricity will come from and how it will connect to the network. Those commitments will show whether the advantages GMO sees in Ishikari can be turned into GPU capacity that customers can actually use.

What to watch

Watch for GMO to disclose the site's power capacity, opening schedule and network plan. An electricity agreement or a named shared-infrastructure project would also show how the consortium's discussions are translating into the infrastructure needed for the new GPU cloud site.