Server services have always been important elements in today's ICT system implementation. Running a server system in the remote rural area is extremely challenging as the provision of power for the server system determines its implementation feasibility and also the overall cost of implementation. Hence, for ICT adoption in the rural area, the adoption of server systems that run 24/7 has to be well-taken care and its power requirement has to be friendly to the renewable type of energy sources.   

 

For our projects that mainly focus on rural communities, an environment that does not have the luxury of power supply from the grid, we just have to work out something to allow a successful ICT technology adoption. We research into green computing architecture and to figure out a suitable architecture that could accommodate our needs for server services in the rural setup. The challenges not only on the hardware architecture but also on the robustness of server services which should be as stable as possible under the harsh environment and under very minimum physical administration. Power interruption is frequent in the rural, and it is a killer to all server services that are sensitive to blackout.

 

Our first prototype of green server being put to the field was slightly larger than the latest version we have, but it has proven the concept that it can be powered by the modular solar power system that we have been working with. We adapted the modular solar power system from our technology partner and managed to get the green server to operate at 24/7 under normal circumstances. The development of solar-powered green server continues as we embark new projects. The latest design was looking into provision not only local server services to the rural telecentre but also to automate self-maintenance, and automated reporting; that have been deployed for TPOA programs. Current improvements are to implement health evaluation and intelligent content synchronization. 

 

The successful integration and adaptation of our green computing platform into the modular solar power system, the green server can now basically be deployed to the most remote location without any large power structure such as the conventional solar system. The modular solar power system is portable enough to be carried anywhere by human traveling through the jungle trail and be setup within a day. By being able to put the two to work together seamlessly, it open up new step in comprehensive ICT service deployment for the remote rural.