Evobits I.T. continues to deliver data centres for the crypto mining market
Technology has always been a difficult beast. As the world continues to become more and more defined by technological innovation, industry sectors all over the world face the challenge of navigating this complex and challenging space.
In recent years, the eyes of the world have turned towards cryptocurrency, and in turn crypto mining. More and more organisations are investing money into blockchain, bitcoin and other forms of digital currencies, but this is still a relatively unknown realm.
This is where Evobits Information Technology SRL comes in. Created in 2014 on the back of a spike in demand for cryptocurrencies, Evobits IT worked primarily in programming the systems and solutions behind cryptocurrencies.
“We created different cryptocurrencies for clients and different software for cryptocurrency miners,” says Silviu C. Balaci, CEO of Evobits IT.
“But last year the company evolved and Evobits IT branched into the actual mining of cryptocurrency itself but doing it a little differently.”
Silviu has spent his entire career in the IT and technology space, working specifically in programming and IT consulting. Evobits IT is the second company Silviu has founded, the first being centred around systems programming before moving into the blockchain programming and cryptocurrency business.
Where Evobits IT intends to act differently and disrupt this growing market is in combining its hosting with its software abilities, allowing customers to receive full control and transparency. Evobits IT builds real, physical data centres and hosts crypto miners within them.
“We’re not just building warehouses and throwing a bunch of gear in there,” he says. “Hosting crypto miners in a professional data centre and allowing full control of them is the difference. We build some of the most efficient data centres in the world by using innovative technologies such as the new Indirect Evaporative Cooling System from Vertiv (a technology used by big names in the industry: Microsoft). Where most mining operations struggle to keep GPU temperatures at under 65C, we have an average GPU temperature of under 50C and we do this while keeping the PUE under 1.10. We also offer full miner control: our clients decide what to mine and where to mine, they can even decide the software that they want to run. There is no other crypto mining operation that does this in the world.”
Cryptocurrency is a commodity, and like any commodity, it’s cyclical in nature. The company was founded off the back of a spike in cryptocurrency, but Silviu admits that the cyclical nature is something that he and Evobits IT must be prepared for.
This is where Evobits IT can work closely with clients, as this is still a growing and somewhat unknown technology. Silviu feels that people and companies are investing into cryptocurrency without understanding the technology behind it.
“Everyone cared only about the cryptocurrency side of things and the value of it,” he says. “Nobody was really interested in the technologies behind it. At Evobits IT, we work to make clients understand that there is much more to this crypto-world than just the digital coin.”
Silviu points to a number of companies that have almost redefined their strategies to incorporate blockchain or cryptocurrency, going as far as adding the two into company names in order to tap into this booming market.
This has changed how Evobits IT works with companies. No longer is it a case of just explaining what the technology behind cryptocurrency and crypto mining is, now Evobits works with customers to help them understand that the technology is no silver bullet and it should be used when there is a clear business case.
“You cannot use it for everything just because it’s now in your company name, or strategy,” he says. “It’s just not made for that.”
As Evobits IT continues to develop the programming technology behind cryptocurrencies, currently working on a beta stage payment system for the transfer of funds, the company is significantly expanding its data centre capabilities.
Evobits IT currently has a couple of data centres finished and operational: a 1 MW facility and a highly efficient 3.5 MW facility, for a total of 4.5MW. By the end of this year, Evobits IT hopes to expand this further by adding an extra 15 MW before looking to build another facility in excess of 20 to 30 MW, but this is something that Silviu admits is “further down the line”.
As with most data centres all over the world, location is king.
“Location can be split into two important areas – proximity to utilities such as power stations and fibre for network connectivity,” says Silviu.
“But we also need to be located near a major city. This helps bring in a workforce and if it’s near an international airport, this opens new doors in terms of attracting clients.”
Attracting clients is crucial. Silviu notes that the cryptocurrency market is very opaque, meaning it is susceptible to scams. To this end, Evobits IT will invite potential partners and clients to its data centres in order to dispel any fears and to highlight what the company does that no other currently claims to do. “A lot of important potential partners already visited us: nVidia, AMD, XFX, Sapphire, Gigabyte, Vertiv. When they see what we build and how we do things their tone changes completely, it simply opens a lot of doors that otherwise would have been shut.” Says Silviu.
Evobits has struck a key strategic partnership with Innova Engineering SRL, a Romanian company which provides consulting, design, implementation and maintenance across all ranges of IT (hardware and software) and telecommunication equipment, turnkey data centre execution.
Through this partnership, in which the company has already built a 3.5 MW data centre in Romania (which is almost the entire yearly data centre market share of Romania), Evobits IT has been able to cement its status as key player in the data centre space.
“When we first started out in data centres, nobody wanted to talk to us because we had no proven experience in this market,” says Silviu. “Everybody wanted to take advantage of us and nobody was really interested in building a long term partnership, they were just interested in short-term gains.”
“But working with Innova on our second Romanian project, everything changed. There are many challenges in what we do because we always operate our data centres to maximum capacity, so everything needs to be properly planned: from cooling capacity to power distribution to air volume. It’s extremely important to have partners like Innova, ones who will look at you as a long-term partner and will join you along this growth journey.”
As Evobits IT looks to the future, with a number of data centre facilities already planned for construction and to come online over the next few years, Silviu is keen to note that the company is finely positioned should there be a sudden shift in the volatile market of cryptocurrency.
Silviu notes that even as a man with such an extensive history in the technology space, there is always an uncertainty surrounding the future of cryptocurrency.
But it’s not something he fears.
“It’s both scary and beautiful,” he says. “There is literally nothing stopping everything from changing tomorrow but we are well positioned, and that’s because we have real data centres and a strong development team behind it.
“If everything did crash tomorrow and cryptocurrency vanished entirely, we can turn our attentions to repurposing our data centres into colocation hubs or data processing centres.
“That’s what’s key and what separates us from others: if something happened, it wouldn’t kill us and we wouldn’t put a lock on it and walk away. We invest more today to have the security of tomorrow, no matter what tomorrow will bring.
“Having highly efficient physical data centres allows us to, with minimal investment, open up the door to another sub sector of this market, and that gives us an incredible edge moving forward.”
