F E A T U R E

• Increased usable capacity per site, deferring costly expansion or new builds

• Improved energy efficiency at high density, supporting corporate commitments on carbon and energy intensity

• A tighter margin on reliability risk: higher density carries higher impact from a single rack failure, so prevention and predictability become business priorities

These are business metrics senior management teams understand: revenue-constrained capacity, operational expense control and reputational risk.

Design and pre-commissioning: Get it right first time

Much of the risk associated with D2C deployment is avoidable and typically stems from construction and commissioning missteps. Narrow coldplate passages and complex manifolds tolerate almost no particulates, and materials choices interact with fluid chemistry in ways that can accelerate corrosion or deposits if not validated.

From a governance perspective, the following is required of design and delivery teams:

• Clean-by-design. Specify accessible sample ports, drain points and valve arrangements so that flushing and future service are straightforward

• Defined procedure water and acceptance criteria. Before any IT gear is installed, require a documented commissioning protocol( hydrotest → staged filtration → flush → verification) with measurable turbidity, conductivity and particulate targets

• Materials compatibility review. Ensure seals, brazes and coatings are validated against the intended coolant chemistry and operating temperatures

These steps add modest upfront cost but save significant downstream expense. That’ s why it’ s important to insist that commissioning checklists become contract deliverables and acceptance gates are tied to vendor payment milestones.

Operationalising coolant as an asset

An operator’ s traditional mindset is to set the loop and check it once a quarter, but unfortunately, that doesn’ t suit D2C. Coolant health is an operational metric as important as temperature, humidity or power draw. That requires both process and instrumentation:

• Treat coolant like process water. Build routine sampling, record keeping and playbooks for remediation into operations runbooks

• Instrument strategically. Install sample ports, turbidity checks, conductivity and glycol concentration measurement points during commissioning. These are the data sources that let you know whether fluid chemistry is trending towards risk

• Define action thresholds and response SLAs. It is not enough to flag an out-of-spec value; operators need pre-agreed remediation steps and service windows to restore margin before an outage becomes likely

From a CFO’ s perspective, this approach replaces episodic risk with predictable, insurable operational cost: fewer emergency interventions, lower incidence of hardware rework and more reliable uptime.

36 www. intelligentdatacentres. com