Fewer operators cite sustainability as DLC driver

For the past few years, applications such as high-performance computing (HPC) and AI training have put pressure on data center cooling systems to accommodate escalating power demands of processors and increasing rack density. Many organizations have responded by deploying some direct liquid cooling (DLC). DLC removes heat from IT more efficiently, potentially unlocking higher IT performance (e.g., overclocking of CPUs) or chillerless and waterless heat rejection (lower capital expenditure and power/water use). These two objectives tend to oppose each other in a trade-off, necessitating the optimization of cooling systems to favor one over the other.

The Uptime Institute Cooling Systems Survey 2025 recorded a slight, but notable, drop in the share of respondents naming environmental sustainability as a driver of DLC adoption compared with past results. Rising rack densities and individual server heat loads retained the top rankings. This suggests that maximizing IT performance is not only a strong incentive to convert to liquid cooling, but also that operators will likely continue to prioritize application performance over sustainability when the two are at odds.