INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA
In the search for a suitable geographical location (from a business
point of view), the international data centre industry might now
have found another relevant location: the Middle East. At Submer,
we are confident that the Middle East has all the potential to
become a leader in the next generation data centre business.
With heat and the harsh environment
being the two main challenges with
data centre cooling, it may well be time
to investigate an alternative approach
and fully immersion cooling technology
may well provide the key to solving your
operational and reliability headaches.
Immersion Cooling may not be practical
for every application but for high density
usage and when operating in harsh
unforgiving environments, such as those
found in the Middle East Region, it should
be seriously considered as an option.
Steve Hone, CEO, DCA
If you would like to find out more
The International Data Centre Trade
Association (DCA) has several members
who specialise in this form of cooling
and I am pleased to report that Submer
will be exhibiting at GITEX this year so
please visit Hall 8 Stand D20 to see a live
working demonstration.
In the lead up to GITEX this year the DCA
caught up with Daniel Pope, CEO and
Co-founder of Submer Immersion Cooling
based in Barcelona, and asked him for
his thoughts on why he felt Immersion
Cooling solutions represent such a perfect
fit for the Middle East Market.
22
Issue 08
Daniel Pope, CEO Submer Immersion
Cooling – In recent years, IT and data
centres companies looked at cold-climate
regions as an ideal setting for building
their data centres. In one of Submer’s
webinars, Merima Dzanic of the Danish
Data Centre Industry explained the digital
revolution that is taking place in the
Nordics and particularly in Denmark. The
Nordics are likely to gain market share
thanks to some key advantages such
as abundant renewable energy, carbon
neutrality, reliable power supply, low
energy prices, political stability and faster
time-to-market primarily due to ease of
doing business.
However, moving data centres to
countries with naturally colder climates is
not an option for everyone. For example,
there are companies that need to have
their data close to their business and
customers for security reasons, or there
are those that cannot consider renewable
energy as a first choice due to the nature
of their business. Latency problems
might arise when a data centre is far
from where it is needed. Finally, there
are also those who are concerned by the
impact on the environment and energy
consumption provoked by a potentially
massive migration of data centres in
those relatively contaminated (or almost
uncontaminated) areas.
from 2019 to 2023 and that in a region
such as the Middle East that represents
for data centre cooling an ever-growing
challenge due to its climate conditions
(last June, Kuwait and the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia recorded unprecedented
high temperature).
The solutions data centre operators have
in place today, in the Middle East as well
as in any other part of the world, are
very inefficient: they are using way more
electricity and energy than they should be.
They are also coming to the limit of how
much they can put in the space of one rack
space or one cabinet. With air, they are able
to cool up to 30kW, but only by using a
mix of methods, such as forced air and rear
door cooling. An additional challenge also
being water consumption or the erosion of
sand on exposed cooling technologies.
Submer Immersion Cooling addresses
these issues by thinking outside the
server box – devising an innovative
line of horizontal racks that fully
immerse computers and servers in a
proprietary dielectric liquid that is safe,
environmentally-friendly, (data centres
and cloud providers consume 6% of the
global electricity and generate 4% of the
global CO2 emissions, and by 2025, it is
estimated that this industry will consume
In the search for a suitable geographical
location (from a business point of view),
the international data centre industry
might now have found another relevant
location: the Middle East.
At Submer, we are confident that the
Middle East has all the potential to
become a leader in the next generation
data centre business. Our Immersion
Cooling solutions represent the key to
stand out in a market that is expected to
grow US$56.54 billion, at a CAGR of 13%
www.intelligentdatacentres.com