Embracing the Future of Data Centers: The Journey Towards Sustainable Liquid Cooling Solutions | Part 2
Rolf Brink
Driving the global growth and adoption of liquid cooling technologies for data centers
This is the second article of a five-part series, in which I am exploring the various aspects of immersion cooling and its potential to revolutionize the data center industry. If you missed the first article, you can find it here. This article addresses challenges in the immersion cooling market. The upcoming articles will highlight the opportunities that lie ahead, the role of Open Compute Project Foundation and how stakeholders can contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.
Part 2: Addressing Challenges in the Immersion Cooling Market
As one of the early adopters and proponents of immersion cooling technology, I have seen its potential to revolutionize the way we approach data center cooling. However, despite the broad immersion ecosystem and the presence of key stakeholders, there are still substantial, practical challenges to be addressed and solutions will need to be developed to overcome these obstacles.
Key Challenges for Immersion Cooling
One primary issue is the lack of standards and certifications for immersion solutions and deployments. Developing such standards is crucial for industry growth. Additionally, there's a limited range of branded IT equipment designed specifically for immersion cooling. The few available systems often lack the warranty typically associated with air-cooled equipment.
Another challenge arises from the multitude of dielectric fluid suppliers, which makes it difficult for IT manufacturers interested in supporting immersion to choose among them. Meanwhile, smaller companies driving industry change are taking significant risks, resulting in complex marketing messages and a struggle for accurate information about capabilities and best practices.
Overcoming Stigma and Encouraging Cross-Industry Collaboration
The volatile nature of this industry transition can be daunting for those looking to participate. Scaling up at the industry level is a challenging journey, with much yet to be accomplished. To effectively address these issues, cross-industry collaboration is essential.
Data center operators prioritize availability and uptime and are often cautious about adopting new technologies. Any doubts raised about a technology can impact not just a single brand, but the entire domain. Overcoming the stigma associated with new innovations requires time and an abundance of factual evidence.
Balancing Intellectual Property and Open Innovation
Sharing industry-wide data can conflict with confidentiality concerns. Innovators must strike a delicate balance between protecting their intellectual property and fostering the growth of new technologies. One approach to resolving this dilemma is to create a rising tide that lifts all boats, as demonstrated by the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP). OCP promotes cross-industry collaboration by providing unbiased facts and data. As a community-driven initiative, encourages the open sourcing of its work, fostering transparency and progress.
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Question: Considering the various challenges in the immersion cooling market, which do you think is the most pressing issue that needs to be tackled to accelerate industry growth? How can these challenges be best addressed?
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for the next article, where we'll delve into the role of the Open Compute Project in spearheading this global industry transformation.
About Promersion
As a company that is at the forefront of the immersion cooling industry, Promersion is well-positioned to support you and provide strategic business support to companies looking to engage with liquid cooling technologies. As part of the on-going commitment to ecosystem collaboration, Promersion collaborates with industry stakeholders and promotes best practices and innovation within the liquid cooling community.
OCP Ready Facilities Lead @Open Compute Project giving recognition to data centers that are OCP Ready for Hyperscale.
1 年Rolf, you raise some great points especially that there is a lack of standards and certifications for immersion solutions and deployments. OCP are certainly playing a role here by also providing the OCP Ready Program https://www.opencompute.org/projects/ocp-readytm-facility-recognition-program? that in the future will be able to give recognition to colocation data centres that meet a set of infrastructure requirements for liquid cooling deployments. These requirements will have been agreed upon by cross-industry collaboration within the https://www.opencompute.org/projects/advanced-cooling-facilities and If any readers are interested in contributing to this effort, please reach out to me John Gross or John Menoche, P.E.
Driving the global growth and adoption of liquid cooling technologies for data centers
1 年I'm excited to share that the full "Embracing the Future of Data Centers: The Journey Towards Sustainable Liquid Cooling Solutions" series is now published! ??The series provides an in-depth exploration of the current landscape and future potential of immersion cooling technologies in the data center industry. ???Here's a summary of what each part covers: ???Setting the Stage for a Green Future: Introduces the promise of immersion cooling for sustainability and efficiency in data centers. ???Addressing Challenges in the Immersion Cooling Market: Examines the hurdles immersion cooling faces and the importance of cross-industry collaboration to address these challenges. ???The Role of Open Compute Project in Advancing Immersion Cooling: Spotlights the significant contribution of the Open Compute Project (#OCP) in the advancement of immersion cooling technology. ???Embracing Change and Seizing Opportunities: Highlights the need to adapt and seize new opportunities that come with technological advances in the industry. ???Leading by Example and Collaborating for a Sustainable Future: Ends on an inspiring note, emphasizing the importance of leading by example and collaborating for a sustainable future. All links in next comment!
Engineer and entrepreneur | Renewable Energy, Project Management
1 年Hi Rolf, Thanks for it, good to see a structured lead for liquid cooling! Will you define how 2-phase immersion cooling can survive to PFAS ban? Can't find much adapted no-fluorocarbon fluid for it ??
CTO @ Open Compute Project Foundation | Advocate and Developer Open Source, Datacenter, AI, 5G, RF, Photonics, Software and Edge Compute
1 年Rolf this is a good summary! To address your question, I think one area that is looming for the future of liquid cooling is the sustainability and toxicity (and handling logistics required) of the coolants. There are unknowns here that cause hesitation. Tackling this head on is also an opportunity to lead.
"Next-Gen Heat? Next-Gen Cool: Liquid Cooling, Ready for Today and Tomorrow."
1 年Nicely done Rolf! To add to your thoughts, one of the things often not discussed in immersion is heat sink technologies. While today, I've not had to resort to any changes, testing has concluded that utilizing a material (such as Indium) that holds a much higher thermal Wm/k value higher than thermal pastes. Or utilizing a heat sink based on two-phase in single phase cooling such as the heat pipe or vapor clamber designed. I say this because I've heard the intel/AMD/etc. is the world talk about the ceiling of single-phase cooling capabilities, but I've not yet hit that ceiling in my designs. IMHO the concept of combining good technologies has truly not been fully unfolded just yet.