EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

ast summer saw recordbreaking heat waves

What does this mean for data centre operators ? When it comes to cooling operations , it ’ s safe to say that previously held ideas on the viability of certain cooling solutions will not withstand the reality of today ’ s climate crisis .

When temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius , the amount of energy required to cool a data centre increases as the ambient temperature goes up . This poses a particular issue for traditional air-cooled data centres which can see their energy usage – and costs – skyrocket .

Air cooling has long been the default standard within the industry , but its limits are quickly being reached . Accelerating chip thermal design power , as well as the rise of Artificial Intelligence , highperformance computing and Machine Learning , are all pushing air cooling beyond its limitations .

These systems often rely on the use of evaporative cooling towers due to their heat rejection capabilities . However , this consumes a vast amount of water which is problematic and unsustainable given the environmental pressures we face . This is where liquid cooling technologies come in . There are a variety of technologies available on the market , each with its own set of pros and cons .

Direct-to-chip offers the highest cooling performance at chip level but still requires air cooling . Tank immersion solutions require a complete rethink of data centre design . Precision liquid cooling , on the other hand , removes nearly 100 % of the heat generated by the electronic components of a server , while reducing energy use by up to 40 % and water consumption by 100 %.

It does this through a precise delivery of dielectric fluid to the hottest components of the server . The solution uses the same rack-based architecture as air-cooled systems and fits to existing deployed infrastructure .

This allows for greater flexibility in designing IT solutions as there are no hotspots to slow down performance , no wasted physical space on unnecessary cooling infrastructure and minimal need for water consumption .

Extreme weather events or not , data centre infrastructure being planned must provide more energy efficiency and sustainability benefits and contribute to the corporate bottom line . Reduction in non-IT costs can save the industry hundreds of millions per year and being more energy efficient will enable expansion to brownfield sites , enabling businesses to reuse existing real estate assets . Precision liquid cooling offers a path forward for data centre operators as they tackle the challenges of today ’ s climate crisis . �

JASON MATTESON , DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT STRATEGY , ICEOTOPE

34 www . intelligentdatacentres . com