The coming era of direct liquid cooling: it’s when, not if

This report explores practices, expectations, barriers and drivers for direct liquid cooling (DLC) technology in the data center. Despite promised business benefits, DLC is currently relegated to niche uses and air cooling is likely to remain dominant for some years. However, Uptime Institute’s research suggests that this decade will see a broader shift to DLC in data centers, pushed by a confluence of trends, such as rapidly rising server power and business expectations around data center sustainability. A shift to DLC will not be without its difficulties, but the drive to overcome them is likely to be greater.

KEY POINTS

• Use of DLC is currently scant among surveyed data center operators, but many respondents predict a strong uptake within five years.
• The ability to handle highdensity racks is the top business driver for DLC, but infrastructure cost reduction and improved sustainability are likely to be more important in the future.
• Power and temperature requirements of nextgeneration server silicon will soon force demand for DLC by making air cooling increasingly impractical.
• A lack of standards for DLC technology is a primary factor preventing DLC from displacing air cooling.
• Adoption of DLC will be gradual in most data centers and most operators will run a mix of both air and DLC IT systems. Increasingly, there will be a blend of these systems in the same rack.