Operators warming up to dielectric cold plates

Today, only a minority of operators have direct liquid cooling (DLC) deployed in their data centers — but many say they are considering using it in the future. Many of these future adopters are designing dedicated high-density space for DLC and/or gaining hands-on experience with small proof of concept (POC) installations. An organization’s expectations for IT application performance and resiliency will determine their urgency (or hesitance) to deploy DLC, as well as the types of cooling technology it is willing to consider.

Results from the Uptime Institute Cooling Systems Survey 2025 show that more operators are now considering dielectric cold plates in their enterprise data centers compared with the past two years. Attitudes surrounding other cooling types have moved little, and the greatest number are still using (or considering using) water cold plates. Dielectric cold plates have narrowed the gap but remain in second place, ahead of single-phase full immersion.