Unikie Group, Finland

Unikie Group, Finland

Creating sustainable data centres for a global technology provider

“Avoiding the need for mining is high on our list of priorities. Price is one thing, but it’s not the most important factor. Let’s not continually use new if you can find something that is well made, well checked and works like a charm.” 

- Jari Mononen, CIO & CSO, Unikie Group 

BESPOKE DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS

Servers and hardware to fit exact business needs

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

Up to 87,250 kg CO2e saved compared to buying new IT equipment

SIGNIFICANT
COST SAVINGS

Cost effective, quality hardware with three-year warranty

Background

Unikie Group is a deep tech company with sites across Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland and the USA. They provide solutions for complex technologies including automotive industrial software like self-driving cars, AI and machine vision for mining and forestry infrastructure, and smart port logistics. To keep all logistics in their own hands and avoid the expense of virtual services, the company owns and maintains its own data centres. It has a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, aims to buy sustainably and reuses equipment internally wherever possible.

The Challenge

Unikie Group is responsible for technological projects for their clients across the world. To support its services, the company needed to create its own data centre solutions that could store data securely and be used for test and development. The IT equipment needed to be of the highest quality and very reliable but also fulfil Unikie’s commitment to minimising its environmental footprint. In common with many members of the IT sector, the company is aware of the high carbon and material cost of buying new equipment so was looking for a solution that would deliver on performance and reliability, with an as-new solution that would fit its compute needs.

Techbuyer's Solution

Techbuyer worked closely with Unikie Group’s Technical Lead to deliver a large number of refurbished HPE ProLiant Gen8 servers as well as 35 HPE Gen8 blades. These were installed at the company’s two data centres in Tampere and Oulu, Finland. By reusing materials already in use and so avoiding the need for mining and manufacture, the refurbished solution saved up to 87,250 kg CO2e as well as a significant amount of precious metals and critical raw materials identified by the EU as in low or politically unstable supply. In addition, the cost saving was significant compared to the new alternative, meaning that the company made financial as well as environmental savings.