IT ’ S EXPECTED THAT DATA
CENTRES WILL
TRANSITION FROM 100 % AIR COOLING TO A HYBRID MODEL ENCOMPASSING AIR AND LIQUID-
COOLED SOLUTIONS . reached its limits and if liquid cooling is the long-term solution . The answer is not as simple as yes or no , however .
FEATURE
IT ’ S EXPECTED THAT DATA
CENTRES WILL
TRANSITION FROM 100 % AIR COOLING TO A HYBRID MODEL ENCOMPASSING AIR AND LIQUID-
COOLED SOLUTIONS . reached its limits and if liquid cooling is the long-term solution . The answer is not as simple as yes or no , however .
Moving forward it ’ s expected that data centres will transition from 100 % air cooling to a hybrid model encompassing air and liquid-cooled solutions with all new and existing air-cooled data centres requiring containment to improve efficiency , performance and sustainability . Additionally , those moving to liquid cooling may still require containment to support their mission-critical applications , depending on the type of server technology deployed .
One might ask why the debate of air versus liquid cooling is such a hot topic in the industry right now . To answer this question , we need to understand what ’ s driving the need for liquid cooling , the other options and how can we evaluate these options while continuing to utilise air as the primary cooling mechanism .
Can air and liquid cooling coexist ?
For those who are newer to the industry , this is a position we ’ ve been in before with air and liquid cooling successfully coexisting while removing substantial amounts of heat via intra-board air-towater heat exchangers . This process continued until the industry shifted primarily to CMOS technology in the 1990s and we ’ ve been using air cooling in our data centres ever since .
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