Since datacenters have seen a rise in popularity, more people are looking for ways to cut down of the expenses that come with the upkeep of their products. Thankfully, there are quite a few ways you can increase the efficiency of cooling technologies which will help a bit for the costs you face. They may not be what you expect, but they do work.
- Using smaller and more efficient chip architectures can help improve computing efficiency. IT workers are trying to find a way to get sever racks that are able to both consume and dissipate between 2 and 5 kW in the mid-range. This means you don’t have to rely on traditional air cooling technologies as the sole solution.
- Better fluid and thermo dynamics are coming in and should help improve water cooling methods. Borrowing ideas from NASA, it is a rack-based, direct-to-the-chip cooling idea. In the same sense that the engines of a rocket are cooled, IT workers can use a no-drip hot-swap connecter to remove individual servers with a negative liquid pressure system. It should help cooling by 25%-35%.
- Changing the way waste energy is used by using the heat instead of simply removing it can also change things. You could use the hot water created to be used as an under-floor heater in a different building, then use the cooler water to complete the circuit. This is just one of the examples but there are many different ways to either help out your current cooling system or replace it with a few different ones that cost less. Repurposing energy will definitely lower costs and power used.
- Location can also be key. It is very hard to keep technology cool when the elements outside are working against you. If you are going to be building a new datacenter or thinking about moving, you could take a page from Google’s book and build your datacenter by somewhere with a large supply of water to cool your datacenter. Pump the water in and pump it back out for natural cooling technology that is much more environmentally and cost efficient.
- Think of the datacenter as a heat sink. In the most basic way of explaining, the building is created in such a way that thermally conducting material takes the heat and directly dissipates it from the inside to the outside. This is definitely one of the trends that is more “out-there” but it does have its perks.
References:
- Gruener, Wolfgang. “5 Key Data Center Cooling Trends – Cooling Solutions.” Tom’s IT Pro. N.p., 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.