CBRE adopts artificial intelligence to help troubleshoot issues across 800-plus client datacentres

CBRE Data Centre Solutions (DCS) is rolling out artificial intelligence (AI) to the 800-plus server farms it manages to help its clients cut costs and boost site reliability.

Working with AI provider Litbit, the organisation has created a cloud-based assistant called REMI – short for Risk Exposure Mitigation Intelligence – that is being fed data to educate it on what a normal datacentre environment looks like.

“[REMI] will aggregate the knowledge of CBRE’s worldwide service experience, thousands of technicians and millions of machines into a single system,” said CBRE DCS in a statement.

This, in turn, will pave the way for REMI to start helping CBRE’s site reliability teams carry out predictive maintenance tasks and diagnose problems within its clients’ datacentres.

It will achieve this by feeding back its knowledge to the team’s smartphones or edge computing devices located in the facilities they are responsible for managing.  

“REMI will provide improved coverage for manned locations and basic coverage in sites that are not currently viable for human staffing,” the statement added.

CBRE DCS further claims this work will put it on course to create the world’s largest AI-generated repository of machine operating data.

Paul Saville-King, president of CBRE DCS, said AI is having a transformative impact on many parts of the economy, and the datacentre industry is no different.

Indeed, a number of organisations are known to be actively using the technology to improve the operational and energy efficiency of their server farms above and beyond what human engineers can achieve alone, including Google and HPE.

“CBRE has always had a commitment to using technology to provide better results for our customers at optimal cost to value, and we believe this technology will allow us to further this agenda,” he said. 

“The idea that expert knowledge of all the facilities, assets and equipment we manage can be in the back pocket of every CBRE technician is exciting and revolutionary.” 

Litbit CEO Scott Noteboom said the size and scale that CBRE DCS operates at makes it a good fit for AI.

“Its global scale, varied client base and mission-critical remit mean that it needs complete flexibility of implementation, massive scalability and a completely non-invasive way of implementing AI,” he added.