Intelligent Data Centres Issue 08 | Page 22

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