Cooling to play a more active role in IT performance and efficiency

Data center operators and IT tenants have traditionally adopted a binary view of cooling performance: it either meets service level commitments, or it does not. The relationship is also coldly transactional: as long as sufficient volumes of air of the right temperature and quality (in accordance with service-level agreements that typically follow ASHRAE’s guidance) reach the IT rack, the data center facility’s mission has been accomplished. What happens after that point with IT cooling, and how it affects IT hardware, is not facilities’ business.

This practice was born in an era when the power density of IT hardware was much lower, and when server processors still had a fixed performance envelope. Processors were running at a given nominal frequency, under any load, that was defined at the time of manufacturing. This frequency was always guaranteed if there was sufficient cooling available, whatever the workload.