Naver bets big on cloud with Gak Sejong data center

Naver has unveiled its Gak Sejong data center in Sejong, Gyeonggi, which boasts 65 exabytes of storage capacity and can accommodate over 600,000 servers. The center features other innovative technologies including robots and autonomous vehicles.

A GaRo and SeRo robot carry and manage servers at Naver's Gak Sejong, the largest data center in Korea [NAVER]

SEJONG — Robots monitor and manage data, rushing between server rooms and storage. Driverless shuttle buses ply around, carrying engineers from building to building.

This is a day at Naver's Gak Sejong, the largest data center in Korea, which the company says will be the “brain” of its newly launched generative AI, HyperCLOVA X.

“Gak Sejong, with its massive size, is not just a data center, but a complex of Naver’s various innovative technologies, like robots and autonomous driving,” said Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon during a press conference at the center on Monday. “It will work as an engine to Korea's all digital industry, not only for Naver.”

Situated on a 294,000-square-meter site in Sejong, Gyeonggi, Gak Sejong can accommodate more than 600,000 units of servers. The center is named after the Janggyeong Pavilion at Haein Temple in South Gyeongsang. Gak is a shorthand for pavilion in Korean. Haein temple houses the Tripitaka Koreana, the complete collection of Buddhist scriptures carved on more than 80,000 woodblocks and stored for more than 760 years.

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon speaks at a press conference Monday at Gak Sejong. [NAVER]

Gak Sejong's data storage capacity stands at 65 exabytes, or 65 billion gigabytes, which is around 1 million times the capacity of the National Library of Korea.

It has a total power capacity of 270 megawatts, around 6.75 times the capacity of the company’s first data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon, which was opened in 2013.

Naver has invested a total of 650 billion won ($498 million) in the data center so far, with at least 350 billion won in additional investment planned.

A wide glass window offered a view of the Control Center, with a few massive monitors almost entirely covering one of the walls.

Naver engineers looks at monitors in Control Center [NAVER]

The four monitors on the left track the internet usage from four server rooms. The ones in the middle indicate the temperature and humidity of each unit, while others show a digital map of the world displaying Naver's data global data centers. Around 14 people were in the room, each viewing around six monitors at a time.

A SeRo robot moved around a storage room to display and organize servers, which could weigh multiple kilograms each. A GaRo robot moved horizontally at two meters per second, carrying up to 400 kilograms of servers from storage rooms to server rooms.

The two robots, both developed by Naver Labs, cut the necessary delivery time in half, according to Roh Sang-min, head of Naver's cloud data center.

A server room at Naver’s Gak Sejong. Gak Sejong can accommodate more than 600,000 units of servers. [NAVER]

“Around 70 percent of systems in Gak Sejong are managed automatically, as Gak Sejong is designed to maximize efficacy with minimum resources,” said Roh.

Then the press tour continued to a server room. The air was warm, and machines roared.

The room was reminiscent of a large refrigerator. Various servers, including two for graphics-processing units (GPUs) were connected with hundreds of cables.

“The GPU servers are used in processing Naver’s HyperCLOVA AI service,” Roh said. “An upgraded GPU server will also be running soon.”

In August, Naver unveiled the HyperCLOVA X, an updated version of the HyperCLOVA service the company revealed in 2021, as the ChatGPT storm has rocked the tech scene.

A self-driving shuttle bus at Gak Sejong [NAVER]

“Due to the rapidly running servers, the room temperature goes up to 60 degrees Celsius at the maximum,” Roh added. “Our server room is designed to embrace cold air at rapid speeds to make the room maintain cool.”

The Naver Air Membrane Unit, or NAMU, plays the role of an air conditioner in these rooms. It pushes air through cold, flowing water to lower temperatures. Waste heat is not lost; it is run through lines under the roads to prevent freezing and to cook sweet potatoes eaten by new recruits.

Gak uses only 30 percent of the power that conventional data centers use.

Two self-driving shuttle buses were also roaming around the center, carrying workers from building to building. The driverless buses have Level 4 autonomy technology, which means that they can operate on their own under ordinary conditions.

Naver’s Gak Sejong is built to withstand typhoons, fires and earthquakes of up to 7.0 magnitude.

A night view of Gak Sejong [NAVER]

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]