Bridging the IT-Facility Divide: Navigating the Management Challenges of Liquid Cooling in Data Centers | Part 2
Rolf Brink
Driving the global growth and adoption of liquid cooling technologies for data centers
When Liquid Penetrates the System
Welcome to the second installment of this series. In the previous article, we traced the history of the IT-Facility divide and how liquid cooling challenges this paradigm. As we continue, we will delve deeper into how liquid cooling blurs the lines between IT and facility management and raise critical questions regarding the changes needed in roles and responsibilities within data centers. In later articles, expect insights into collaborative operational models, complexities in co-location data centers, and the potential opportunities that integration brings.
Identifying the Intersection
In the era of liquid cooling, one pivotal question forms the heart of the discussion on IT and facility management: will the cooling liquid penetrate the IT equipment's chassis? When the answer to this question is yes, we're stepping into a new paradigm where traditional roles and responsibilities blur. The familiar divide between the IT and facility domains starts to dissolve, replaced by a more intricate and interconnected landscape.
Liquid that penetrates the chassis, such as in cold plate or immersion cooling solutions, becomes an integral part of the IT environment, directly affecting the most expensive and critical components of the IT equipment and its functionality. Thus, its management should fall under the IT department's purview. This fundamental change calls into question the protocols surrounding equipment access. Is a facility team, traditionally responsible for managing the cooling infrastructure, now authorized to access the internals of IT equipment? Conversely, is IT personnel, who are responsible for the IT equipment, now required to interact with the fluid management system?
These are challenging questions that arise when we traverse the boundaries of conventional data center operations, indicating the need for a shift in our mindset and operational guidelines. It's clear that, when it comes to liquid cooling technologies, the demarcation line between facilities and IT is no longer as straightforward as it once was.
Redefining Boundaries: The Fluid Body as a New Frontier
With liquid cooling technologies, we must consider a paradigm shift. To identify appropriate demarcation points between facilities and IT, we can consider the shared fluid body as an extension of the IT domain due to the intricate direct relation with the IT equipment. In other words, any system that the cooling liquid directly interfaces with should be under the responsibility of the IT department. This proposal is driven by the fundamental principle that the IT team is best equipped to handle the intricacies of the hardware it manages. After all, the fluid in this context isn't just a coolant—it's a functional component of the IT equipment itself.
The concept of a 'fluid body' challenges us to think beyond individual components and consider the entire system that the cooling fluid interacts with. In an immersion cooling tank, all the IT equipment immersed in the shared fluid can be seen as a single, unified IT system. Similarly, a single rack fitted with cold plates and served by a rack-level Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) can be viewed as a single IT system. In these scenarios, the demarcation point lies with the heat exchanger or CDU that separates the Technology Cooling Circuit (TCS), which interfaces with the IT equipment, from the Facility Water System (FWS).
This perspective on IT systems remains straightforward in these cases, and it's an understanding most people will readily agree with. However, complexity increases as we scale up the operation.
New challenges: Scaling The Fluid Body
Consider, for instance, a scenario where a CDU supplies multiple immersion tanks or multiple cold plate racks with the same, shared fluid. They are now collectively forming a unified IT system. The boundaries of the IT domain extend beyond individual pieces of IT equipment to encompass all the components that the cooling fluid interfaces with.
Further increasing the complexity, envision a situation where cold plates share the cooling fluid with door heat exchangers in a single system to improve overall efficiency. As the system scales up, the demarcation point moves further from the individual IT components and takes on characteristics of a mini facility. Several systems typically managed by the facility team are now in the IT sphere. This includes the cooling distribution system, heat exchangers, coolant supply and much more. All these components become intrinsically linked to the IT hardware. This underscores the intricate challenges that arise as we move towards more integrated and comprehensive liquid cooling solutions.
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As we redefine IT systems and their boundaries, it becomes clear that we're charting new territory. Navigating this complexity will require a fresh approach and innovative solutions to manage these increasingly intertwined systems effectively.
Transitioning towards liquid cooling in data centers is an exciting yet challenging journey. It demands a significant shift in our traditional understanding of data center management. As we redefine the scope of the IT system to include the 'fluid body,' we have to develop new protocols, adapt existing practices, and foster collaboration between IT and facilities teams. In the next article, we will dive into effective strategies for collaboration and leadership roles in this transition.
Question: Will we be able to redefine our conventional roles to accommodate such a shift? Will our future data centers see an even more intertwined and cooperative IT and facility management, or will a new division arise from these changes?
Share your insights below and join us next week as we explore strategies for effective collaboration.
About?Promersion
Leading the way in immersion cooling, Promersion provides strategic business support to companies engaging with liquid cooling technologies. Dedicated to collaboration, Promersion works with industry stakeholders to promote best practices and innovation in the liquid cooling community.
??Mechanical Engineer ? ??Research Analyst ??? Data Center Facility Technology Enthusiast ?
1 年“As the system scales up, the demarcation point moves further from the individual IT components and takes on characteristics of a mini facility. Several systems typically managed by the facility team are now in the IT sphere.” You could also argue that the mini-facility is actually an expansion of the facility team’s sphere of responsibility.