Powering Digital Learning Responsibly: Mediamaisteri’s Sustainable Compute Journey with Verne Global

In the realm of digital innovation, technological advancements are unfolding in remarkable and productive ways. However, this progress comes at a high carbon cost. In fact, a new International Energy Agency report reveals that the electricity requirements of data centers, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies are projected to double by 2026.

Recognizing this, many tech companies are actively working to improve their operations, aiming to minimize their carbon footprint and contribute to a more sustainable future. Initiatives focused on reducing energy consumption and improving efficiency are becoming core components of their corporate strategy.

But how can sustainability-minded organizations continue to innovate without causing undue harm to the environment?

Background and challenge

Mediamaisteri is one of Finland’s leading specialists in digital learning and sought a more effective, environmentally friendly computing solution to help it grow and scale. The company provides e-learning services, a learning platform, and expert help with planning and creating training courses.

Mediamaisteri’s learning platform has over two million end-users and needs to be able to handle the demand of all those users simultaneously, reliably, and without any significant performance issues – even as the number of its users grows. It’s also crucial to ensure data security and protect user information.

Mediamaisteri was looking for a sustainable, comprehensive solution that met all its needs, with a service provider managing the data center and cloud platform.

Sustainable solution

After careful consideration, Mediamaisteri decided to partner with the sustainable data center provider, Verne Global.

Locating their compute in Verne Global’s ‘The Rock’ facility provides an all-encompassing solution for Mediamaisteri’s computing needs, while ensuring sustainability and security.

Carved into bedrock, the former military underground tunnel network in Pori, Finland was transformed into a modern data center with built-in security. With nine separate tunnel halls, each independent from the other, The Rock has shared data center spaces, as well as fully customized, dedicated spaces.

The facility is powered by 100% green energy. In addition to utilizing wind power, the data center has its own 2600m² solar power plant. Finland’s cool climate and the data center’s location within the bedrock allow for efficient natural cooling. Given that 40 percent of the average data center’s energy consumption comes from cooling its infrastructure, this natural cooling reduces energy expenditure considerably.

Recognizing that the surge in AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing has increased cooling requirements, Verne Global has introduced direct liquid cooling (DLC) to The Rock campus. The deployment features DLC on Dell DLC3000 rack solutions with up to 80kW+ cooling capacity and 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors to maximize performance and cooling efficiency.

Verne Global Finland provides Mediamaisteri with a hybrid cloud platform, which includes servers, storage, and connectivity services, as well as maintenance of server hardware and virtualization software. The server platform is built using solutions provided by Dell Technologies and is both reliable and easy to maintain. The service includes network connectivity, firewall, and security.

The data center has high availability at all times, with generators and a separate uninterruptible power supply system to ensure dependability.

Mediamaisteri’s results

During their collaboration with Verne Global, Mediamaisteri has experienced significant growth, surpassing two million end-users. Mediamaisteri has been particularly impressed by the seamless scalability of Verne Global’s cloud platform. With such a vast audience, scaling services has been essential.

Likewise, with such a large user base, technical functionality and platform availability are top priorities. These were prioritized from the outset of designing the hybrid cloud environment. Security is another critical element for Mediamaisteri, especially for their public sector clients. As a result, Verne Global’s focus on compliance and their highly secure The Rock data center, certified with ISO 27001, 22301, PCI DSS, and Katakri was key.

Digital responsibility and the power of partnerships

Sustainability is a core value for Mediamaisteri and is also something of importance to a growing number of stakeholders, from partners and suppliers to employees and consumers.

“It is important for end-users that our learning platform is powered by renewable energy. I’m pleased Verne Global has been at the forefront of this,” said Mikko Toriseva CEO, Mediamaisteri. Toriseva adds, “The level of service provided has exceeded our expectations in many ways – it has been exceptional. If Verne spots something that should be brought to our attention, they always actively communicate it with us.”

Mediamaisteri’s collaboration with Verne Global demonstrates the power of strategic partnerships in achieving both business goals and sustainability objectives. Verne Global not only meets Mediamaisteri’s security, scalability, and service needs, but the combination of The Rock’s renewable power sources and natural cooling ensures that business growth and innovation don’t come at the cost of a healthy planet. When it comes to striking the proper balance between digital progress and sustainability, it’s crucial to look for partners with shared values and innovative solutions.

As Head of Finland and Managing Director of Verne Global Finland, Kim Gunnelius drives the operations and excellence of the company’s climate neutral certified data center services. Prior to the Finnish data center, Ficolo, operating under the Verne Global brand, Kim oversaw their startup and growth phase as Chairperson, later joining full time in 2017 as CFO. In his role, Kim positions and drives growth, and identifies and manages opportunities globally, ranging from Hyperscale and HPC to enterprise, including working with the largest technology companies in the world. He also oversaw the green certification initiatives that have achieved several industry firsts, such as the first Dark Green rated green bond for a data center company, as well as the first hyperscale-level, climate neutral certification for a Nordic data center.