An Irish consortium known as dRedBox – which comprises Kinesense and IBM Research Ireland – has won €6.4m in EU funding to develop a next-generation cloud computing server.
The funding towards the next-gen cloud server will be provided as part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and, once completed, will aim to have a server capable of faster processing, better resource allocation and overall lower costs.
When it comes to the dRedBox design specifically, both Kinesense and IBM Research Ireland aim to speed up memory access using fibre-optic connections while lowering electric power consumption by up to 20pc.
The dRedbox consortium is not just limited to Ireland, however, and is a pan-European organisation, with members including Telefonica, University of Bristol, University of Thessaly and the Institute of Computer Science in Greece, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and NAudit from Spain, Sintecs, Virtual Open Systems from France and Mellanox from Israel.
While IBM’s work in Ireland has become particularly well-known, Kinesense is an Irish company based in Dublin known for developing CCTV video retrieval and analysis solutions for the surveillance and security markets.
Reducing Ireland’s energy consumption
The pair has targeted the reality that data centres in Ireland use, on average, 414 MW – or 7pc of our energy – per year and this is projected to more than double by 2020.
If Ireland’s data centres were to reduce their energy by as much as 20pc, it would have an environmental benefit equivalent to 150,000 cars being taken off our roads.
Speaking of its funding success, Kinesense’s CTO, Dr Mark Sugrue, said: “Kinesense is delighted to be part of shaping the future of the cloud. Our role is to develop our video investigation solutions on the new dRedBox system and prove its efficiency.
“What this means for our customers is faster servers and lower running costs. Access to the right information at the right time is paramount for police, especially in today’s world.”
Cloud concept on chalkboard image via Shutterstock
