Groupe Casino has announced a strategic partnership with Qarnot computing, a provider of cloud-distributed heating solutions.
The move will see new-generation data centres placed in Groupe Casino's warehouses and storerooms, with the heat generated from the servers used to heat the retailer's warehouses and stores, saving energy costs.
Groupe Casino said that the venture will generate additional revenue for Groupe Casino through the rental of available space and the supply of power required to run the data centres, via its GreenYellow subsidiary.
The data centres will be operated by ScaleMax, a company jointly owned by the Casino Group and Qarnot computing.
The first data centre is set to open at a Cdiscount logistics warehouse in the greater Paris region, in the first quarter of 2019, with a further 20 additional sites expected to be fitted out by 2023.
High-Performance Computing
“ScaleMax provides our clients with France-wide access to high-performance computing capacity that is sustainable and secure and can be rapidly deployed on a very large scale," commented Paul Benoit, chief executive of Qarnot.
"This project is a natural extension of Qarnot’s ‘Compute Anywhere’ vision of scalable, environmentally responsible infrastructure. Qarnot is expanding, in line with our strategy, to provide a sustainable response to the strong demand for computing power."
Elsewhere, Martin Calmels, Casino's head of innovation, said that the move represents an "opportunity for the Casino Group to make better use of the surface area in our warehouses and storerooms while redeploying environmentally friendly energy with our GreenYellow subsidiary."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
