Thinking Inside The Box: The Latest In Data Center Cooling Tech Is Full Immersion

Before the advent of generative artificial intelligence, data centers were kept from overheating by circulating chilled air through the facilities.

“Air cooling was the industry standard because air is abundant and the way it works is simple,” said Brian Haught, director of engineering at Airedale, a cooling solutions company. “Air is literally everywhere.”

But AI’s growing need for power and the server rack densities it requires has pushed data center cooling demands beyond what these conventional systems can handle.

“Air cooling was fine for server racks of 5 to 15 kilowatts,” Haught said. “The new generation of server racks that are being rolled out over the last two years are 100 kilowatts. At those densities, air is no longer able to carry the heat load because it's not a good enough conductor of heat.” 

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RSK: This could be a game changer for water use in data centers and overall cooling of the racks.