Page 41 - Climate Control News magazine Dec-Jan 2023

Data Centres
energy-intensive infrastructure powering our expanding digital economy. The tech industry will need to respond with solutions to meet these challenges,” he said.
2OFF THE RACK
According to a recent Omdia survey, 99 per cent of enterprise data centre operators say prefabricated, modular data centre designs will be a part of their future data centre strategy. That’s more than a trend; it’s the new normal. In 2023, Vertiv’s experts anticipate a continuing shift in the same direction among hyperscalers as they seek the speed and efficiencies standardisation delivers.
This is a newer concept for the world’s leading cloud providers, and they will be returning to colocation providers – who have been standardising for years – to make it happen.
Specifically, those cloud providers are outsourcing their new builds to colos to leverage their expertise, proven repeatability, and speed of deployment. In short order, standardisation – ranging from modular components, such as power and cooling modules and skids, to full- fledged prefabricated facilities – will become the default approach not just for the enterprise, but also hyperscale and the edge of the network.
3FUEL CELLS
The diesel generator has long been an imperfect but inescapable piece of the data centre ecosystem. It represents stored energy that largely goes unused while still requiring maintenance or fuel replacement after periods of inactivity.
Then, when pressed into service, generators produce carbon emissions operators are desperately trying to avoid. Already, some organisations are relying on batteries for longer load support – up to five minutes in some cases – and even designing their data centres with minimal generator capacity.
These are transitional steps to minimise the role of the generator as the industry searches for other options – including new battery technologies – for extended backup power. In 2023, Vertiv’s experts anticipate a preferred alternative will emerge – specifically hydrogen fuel cells.
These fuel cells will function much like a generator at first, providing momentary load support, and eventually hold promise for sustained or even continuous operation.
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ties, data centre operators are increasingly requesting higher-density racks. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2022 Global Data Centre Survey more than a third of data centre operators say their rack densities have rapidly
increased in the past three years. This is especially true among larger enterprise and hyperscale data centres, where nearly half of those operating facilities at 10MW and above reported racks above 20kW and 20 per cent claimed racks higher than 40kW.
This is consistent with the maturity of liquid- cooled server technologies and increasing acceptance and adoption of such technologies. The aforementioned increases in server power consumption are happening as the need to add capacity quickly is growing, challenging operators from all sides.
“THE THIRST FOR INCREASED DATA CONTINUES TO ESCALATE ENERGY USE.”
This leaves them little choice but to explore the boundaries of existing facilities by adding computing in tight spaces, increasing rack densities, and creating thermal profiles that require liquid cooling. While liquid cooling is not a new technology, the early wave of successful, efficient, problem-free deployments in high-density environments has provided proof of concept that will boost adoption in the coming year. The addition of direct-to-chip cooling to new OCP and Open19 standards will only accelerate this trend.
5
subscriptions – more than 5.8 billion – to be 5G by 2027, pushing computing closer and closer to the user. The metaverse is an application in search of an ultra-dense, low-latency computing network.
In 2023, we’ll see these two activities intersect, with metaverse implementations leveraging 5G networks to enable the ultra-low latency features the application demands. Ultimately, this will require higher powered computing in those 5G edge locations, and we’ll see that happening soon – with early forays in 2023 followed by more widespread deployments in the years after. As the edge of the network becomes more sophisticated, so will the infrastructure needed to support it.
This will include technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality planning and management systems and increased adoption of lithium-ion UPS systems at the edge – an ongoing trend that saw share increase from two per cent of sales in August 2021 to eight per cent in August 2022, according to IDC. ✺
The average hyperscale facility consumes 20-50MW annually.
It’s happening in some places already. Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore have taken steps to control data centre energy use, and massive data centre water consumption – especially in areas prone to drought – is likely to trigger similar scrutiny.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the water usage effectiveness (WUE) of an average data centre using evaporative cooling systems is 1.8L per kWh. That type of data centre can consume .5 million gallons of water per day.
Vertiv ANZ managing director, Robert Linsdell, said organisations across Australia have spent the last few years focusing on how to effectively consume data to fuel innovation, growth, and expansion.
“But the thirst for increased data continues to escalate energy use, so while policy makers drive progress in Australia’s climate response, we expect to see them seriously consider the regulation that exists in the underlying,
HIGHER DENSITIES
After years of relatively static rack densi-
5G METAVERSE
Omdi forecasts nearly half of all mobile
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS DECEMBER 2022
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