Alibaba Cloud has pioneered a fully modular design architecture, reducing the data center delivery time to 100 days.

On August 10, based on the pioneering fully modular design architecture, Alibaba Cloud has shortened the delivery time of large AIDC data centers to 100 days, leading the world. For the same delivery period, the traditional delivery cycle in China is 6 to 12 months, while in the United States, it is 12 to 18 months. While significantly reducing the delivery time, the overall construction cost of Alibaba Cloud data centers has also decreased by more than 10%. This year, Alibaba Cloud plans to double the global production capacity of modular data centers. With the explosive demand for AI computing power, the speed requirements for data center delivery have increased. The traditional delivery timeline involves serial construction, with each step relying on the completion of the previous one, such as installing power supply and distribution before air conditioning. Alibaba Cloud has created a fully modular design concept, allowing parallel production of various stages. After manufacturing in factories, the components are pre-assembled into containers and transported to the data center, where they are hoisted into place like building blocks. CUBE 5.0 is Alibaba Cloud's new generation architecture developed for AIDC, with an overall modularization rate of five major systemspower supply, cooling, security, intelligence, and fire protectionimproving from 30% in the early years to 90% through fully modular design. Additionally, high-voltage direct current, wind-liquid compatible technology, and ultra-high elasticity design maximize compatibility with mainstream heterogeneous chips and computing architectures, supporting at least three generations of chip iterations. Based on CUBE 5.0, the data center's 100-day delivery cycle starts from the basic factory building or stacked containers and ends before servers and network equipment are introduced. During this period, there are 30 days for factory production and site preparation, 50 days for on-site installation, and 20 days for debugging and testing, with the deployment of the five systems: power supply, cooling, security, intelligence, and fire protection completed. For similar delivery periods, the traditional domestic delivery cycle is 6 to 12 months, while in the U.S., it is 12 to 18 months. Data centers built with fully modular construction not only reduce the delivery time to 100 days, but also lower the related construction costs per kilowatt by 10% compared to the previous generation, achieving a nearly 100% one-time testing pass rate, while improving delivery time, cost, and quality simultaneously, thus solving the "impossible triangle" in project management. Due to significantly improved space utilization, the computing power density per unit area reaches 5-10 times that of the previous generation. Equipment is also more compact, with the number of transformers nearly halved, and the cooling methods can switch freely between air and liquid cooling, achieving a PUE of 1.15 for air cooling and 1.10 for liquid cooling. Furthermore, with clearer categorization, there is room reserved for future expansions. Since writing the first line of code for Flying Pig in 2009, Alibaba Cloud has been building and operating data centers for 17 years, with 32 regions and 105 availability zones worldwide. The architectural solutions for Alibaba Cloud data centers have also undergone 17 years of iteration. In the era of AIDC, Alibaba Cloud has collaborated with leading industry players on long-term research and development, transforming designs into mass-producible BOM (Bill of Materials), independently designing component layouts and even screw specifications, and relying on China's complete industrial chain for standardized production in factories. Currently, the CUBE 5.0 architecture has been pilot-tested in Alibaba Cloud's data centers in Ulanqab and Zhongwei, and has obtained European CE certification based on EN standards and product access for Southeast Asia based on IEC standards. This year, Alibaba Cloud plans to double the global production capacity of modular data centers.