Precision cooling vendors take it to the next level

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Info-Tech

It’s a weird 21^st century phenomenon: we all relentlessly scour the internet to discover the newest trends and technologies, but most of us don’t actually want to be the first to try them out.  Instead, we want to watch the YouTube videos of people who have and think to ourselves “wow, they are so crazy/brave/cool,” and then forward the videos on to our friends and co-workers to show how ahead of the curve we are.  Actually trying them out first though?  I don’t think so…

Most IT organizations are very much the same way, especially when it comes to data center cooling.  Their critical servers are most often entrusted to the tried and tested technologies; not the new kid on the block, who might actually be more efficient, but is still a bit of a wild card.

Several start-ups and established brands have been pushing the IT comfort zone lately.  With rising energy costs and the increasing density of computing, significant energy waste is no longer acceptable, and data center cooling is a notorious culprit of energy consumption.  Vendors, such as Hitachi, Coolcentric and Green Revolution Cooling (GRC) have brought out product lines that challenge IT buyers to choose the greener, more efficient option.

Both Hitachi’s Natural Circulation and Coolcentric’s LiquiCool line offer technologies that utilize the concept of minimal parts.  Hitachi employs natural circulation capabilities in order to replace traditional pumps or compressors, and Coolcentric has no fans whatsoever.  Not only do these products reduce maintenance and replacement costs, but fewer moving parts means decreased energy usage.  Hitachi and Coolcentric’s products are brag-worthy in terms of energy savings and they won’t necessarily terrify the conservative IT buyer, providing a win-win situation for both vendor and consumer.

However, other vendors have thrown caution to the wind and are challenging everything that IT buyers find comforting.  Green Revolution Cooling has one of those products that, when displayed on video, you want to send to friends for the shock value.  GRCs CarnoJet product requires that servers actually be submerged in GreenDEF coolant – a dialectic coolant which GRC claims reduces energy usage by 90-95%.  The CarnoJet is collecting positive reviews and accolades and the savings are impressive, but it is a hard sell to most consumers.  Imagine actually dunking your servers in a green liquid?  Fluid submersion isn’t a new technology, and in fact, it has been used in industrial cooling scenarios since the 1920s, but dunking circuit breakers is a far cry psychologically from dunking servers.

The first adopters of this new technology probably won’t be the conservative IT buyer in the mid-size space; he or she is likely years away from such fluid submersion. For them, fluid submersion probably still seems a little too sci-fi to implement in practice, even though it is cool in theory.  The first adopters of fluid submersion will likely be those in large organizations with high density computing situations who are willing to take risks in order to achieve energy savings.

When choosing a new data center cooling solution (see Vendor Landscape: Data Center Precision Cooling), look into the spectrum of emerging technologies, if you dare!

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