Castrol survey reveals that industry experts believe that current data centre cooling systems will struggle to cope with increased computing demand. The finding comes at a time when the AI and Big Data boom piles increased compute demand on data centres.
Data centres could struggle under increased compute demand from AI, Big Data and Edge Computing, according to The Dipping Point, a survey carried out by Castrol, a global leader in lubricants. The survey report is based on responses from 600 data centre industry leaders surveyed across seven geographical regions – the US, China, Germany, the Nordics, the UK, Canada and Ireland.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of business leaders surveyed said that air cooling systems, the traditional method of cooling data centres, will struggle to handle the increase in data traffic. While the same number believe that immersion cooling is now the only option for data centres to meet the current compute power demands. And with compute demand only set to increase due to the boom of AI and Big Data, those that do not adopt new cooling methods now run the risk of data centre failure in the future.
Most business leaders surveyed agreed that their companies must adopt new methods that cool data centres more effectively. In fact, the majority (76%) think that the industry must adopt immersion cooling within the next three years to continue to see performance improvements. Immersion cooling is a method used to keep data centres cool by submerging servers and computer components directly into a special non-conductive liquid. Instead of using air and fans to cool the hardware, the liquid absorbs the heat generated by the servers much more efficiently.
Current infrastructure is reaching its limits
“As the demands on data centres soar, how we cool servers will become increasingly important. However, the industry clearly believes that we are fast approaching the limit of current air-cooled infrastructure. More data processing creates more heat, and rapid or sustained overheating will cause servers and hardware to malfunction or break, resulting in data loss, downtime and disruption to critical dependent services,” said Peter Huang, Global Vice President – Data Centre, Thermal Management, Castrol.
“We have never experienced such rapid advancement in chip density. Over the past 20 years, a CPU generation has typically lasted three-to-five years. Now, we’re seeing two generations per year to meet the demands of increasingly power-intensive applications. This surge brings increased heat and rack density, and while traditional air-cooling systems remain effective for lower power density chips and racks, they struggle with anything over 50 KW. With future requirements approaching 1,000 KW, enhanced cooling infrastructure will be essential for data centres to keep pace.”
Laggards could be left behind early adopters
According to the survey, business leaders expect immersion cooling to become the dominant data centre cooling technology in 2027– suggesting that organisations that are not on track to reach this ‘Dipping Point’ could fall behind competitors who may already be strategically planning downtime and investing in immersion cooling infrastructure. Key findings from the survey that highlight this dipping point include:
- Nearly three-quarters (74%) of data centre leaders surveyed believe that immersion cooling is now the only option for data centres to meet the current compute power demands, with 90% thinking about switching to this method between now and 2030.
- Immersion cooling offers data centre managers an opportunity to reduce resource use; three-quarters (76%) of data centre experts believe immersion cooling will help data centre owners significantly reduce their energy and water consumption.
- 77% of data experts believe that immersion cooling systems effectively support current network demands, enabling data centres to handle large-scale data processing, storage and distribution.
Huang concludes: “Data centre leaders can no longer afford to delay adopting modern immersion cooling technologies. With the AI boom pushing infrastructure to its limits, improving efficiency and resilience is now a necessity, not a choice. The future of our digital world depends on taking action today to ensure data centres are ready for tomorrow’s demands.”
