巴西企业AI预算转向：令牌成本与延迟成数据中心选址新标准

Controlling the cost of artificial intelligence applications, accelerating data traffic, and strengthening cybersecurity are priorities for technology executives at public- and private-sector organizations such as Petrobras, Rappi, Riachuelo, and Prodam, all of which purchase data center services in Brazil. Petrobras is currently developing small edge computing centers located near its field operations. “With the demands of AI and industrial automation, as well as the need for rapid decisions, we need technology capacity close to our plants,” said Renzo Malini, Petrobras’s information technology consultant for cloud infrastructure. He spoke at the first Data Center World Brasil event, held Tuesday (6) in São Paulo. To meet its substantial computing needs, the oil and gas company combines technology infrastructure hosted on its own servers at third-party data centers—a model known as colocation—with contracted data center capacity for cloud computing services. A small share of its infrastructure remains at company-owned data centers. “We began using the cloud in 2019, which gives us faster access to innovative technologies,” Malini said. Rapidly growing global demand for graphics processing units (GPUs) for AI projects has created challenges for Petrobras. “In the past, we even built a processing cluster [a group of networked computers] using PlayStation 3 video game consoles as a way to access GPUs,” Malini recalled. Today, the challenges include high energy consumption and rising costs caused by a shortage of memory chips. “We want to buy them and have the budget, but they cannot be delivered within the timeframe we need,” he said. Energy use and the cost of cloud services and AI tokens are also concerns shared by executives in other industries, including retail and delivery services. “We are already discussing the 2027 budget, taking into account token costs and [AI software] licensing, but always considering how that translates into results,” said Elio Nazareth, head of information technology infrastructure at fashion retailer Riachuelo. “Infrastructure is no longer a commodity. Today, we are at the center of business decisions,” he noted. Nazareth said the relationship between cost and service offerings is an important criterion when choosing a data center, particularly because retail profit margins are tight. Decisions involving projects lasting at least five years must take into account “the provider’s capacity to expand computing resources and provide access to new technologies.” Riachuelo has now moved beyond the AI experimentation phase and uses the technology in different areas of its business, according to Nazareth. “The consumer experience is changing, particularly for people who shop for clothing online,” he observed. “Imagine how we could use AI to make someone feel as though they were wearing an item while shopping.” High-speed data delivery drives Colombian company Rappi’s infrastructure decisions, said Bruno Tibúrcio, Rappi’s technology director in Brazil. “We receive thousands of requests in milliseconds, and any latency issue [a delay in data transmission between the data center and the user] can bring an operation down,” he said. The choice can be more expensive, Tibúrcio acknowledged. “I have different internet costs in different countries. But it is a matter of understanding the business and knowing where to allocate more money,” he noted. Prodam, the São Paulo city government’s technology company, operates under intense pressure to protect more than 1.7 petabytes of stored data processed in environments ranging from mainframes to the cloud. Carlos Eduardo Trindade, the company’s infrastructure and technology director, said compliance with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) requires additional layers of governance for sensitive information, particularly in critical services such as electronic invoicing and tax systems. “We use strong encryption and anonymization, working with a group of partners to shield and protect this data,” Trindade said. Prodam’s infrastructure faces as many as 18,000 attempted attacks a day, with seasonal peaks associated with public campaigns such as vaccinations and the issuance of municipal property tax bills. Trindade explained that its security strategy includes international partnerships with other cities to anticipate cyberattack tactics. Translation: Todd Harkin