KakaoBank powers up AI lab at Digital Realty’s ICN10 data centre

SINGAPORE: Digital Realty, the big player in global data centre solutions, just spilled the beans as the leading mobile bank in Korea, KakaoBank, established an AI lab at Digital Realty’s ICN10 data centre in Seoul, PR Newswire reports.

It’s not just some random decision; they’re tapping into Digital Realty’s data centre expertise to turbocharge their AI game. So, why ICN10? Well, it’s like the VIP suite for AI.

The choice of Digital Realty’s ICN10 data centre stems from its reputation for providing a dedicated, high-performance and resilient environment perfectly tailored to the demands of cutting-edge AI deployments.

KakaoBank is gearing up to accelerate its research and development initiatives, specifically focusing on personalised content creation and the augmentation of its suite of financial services.

ICN10’s unique features, including high-density colocation services capable of supporting up to 70 kilowatts (kW) per rack, align seamlessly with the requirements of advanced AI workloads, such as generative AI.

The data centre’s innovative Air-Assisted Liquid Cooling (AALC) technologies ensure efficient heat dissipation, laying the groundwork for supporting high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) servers crucial for AI applications.

A standout advantage for KakaoBank is the speed of deployment facilitated by Digital Realty’s modular and flexible data centre design. This gives KakaoBank the flexibility to scale its AI operations at ICN10 as needed.

Reliability, a cornerstone in the financial services industry, is fortified by ICN10’s N+1-designed redundant electrical and mechanical infrastructure, ensuring uninterrupted operation.

Digital Realty’s track record is underscored by its Uptime Institute’s Tier 3 rating for maintenance without interruption and an impressive 16 consecutive years of five-nines high availability as of 2023.

Data is the lifeline for AI, and KakaoBank knows it. KakaoBank is set to benefit from PlatformDIGITAL, Digital Realty’s global data center platform. This platform facilitates secure and high-performing access to data sets across an enterprise’s ecosystem with ServiceFabric, Digital Realty’s global service orchestration platform.

Additionally, ICN10’s dedicated access to AWS Direct Connect provides KakaoBank with a low-latency, high-performance, secure, and cost-effective connectivity solution to the AWS Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region.

Location matters, right? Strategically located in Seoul’s Digital Media City, ICN10, with its network-neutral environment, offers KakaoBank a competitive edge by minimising latency and providing connectivity options to domestic financial institutions across the country.

“Through the opening of the AI center, we have created an environment to strengthen collaboration with the Kakao community, external academia, and companies.

We plan to accelerate various AI-based businesses and research requiring complex operations, such as generative AI and language models, to gain more customers and continue to grow by enhancing our technological capabilities,” Chief Research and Development Officer of KakaoBank, Hyun-chul Ahn, said.

Chris Han, the VP and Head of Korea at Digital Realty, sees Korea as an AI hotspot in the Asia Pacific. He said, “Digital Realty has extensive experience as an enabler for global AI enterprises. With this experience, we will spare no effort to support KakaoBank’s AI innovation in the financial sector.”

As the AI journey kicks off, all eyes are on KakaoBank. /TISG

Read related: Maybank launches first Islamic Wealth Management Hub in Singapore