The right cooling technology does more for data centers than just remove server heat efficiently. Liquid immersion cooling is a multifaceted innovation that brings benefits across the board. As such, it’s gaining ground in cloud, edge, and enterprise data centers.
Immersion cooling involves lowering server systems into a tank full of liquid. The liquid then carries off the heat that’s produced by the electronics. The main draws of this cooling system are its higher cooling capacity and lower cost. However, this versatile technology also has a range of unconventional advantages. Let’s explore five ways your data center will benefit from liquid immersion cooling.
1. Liquid Cooling Reduces Your Carbon Footprint and Environmental Impact
Data centers are increasingly receiving unwanted publicity over their environmental impacts. With each year pushing significant economic activity into the digital world, data centers now account for a measurable share of carbon emissions and resource waste.
Immersion cooling addresses this problem. It’s a sustainable solution that’s also known as “green cooling.” Simply put, data centers using liquid immersion cooling accomplish more computation with less pollution.
The noteworthy efficiency of this cooling system shrinks your carbon footprint and environmental impact by using less energy and water than traditional air cooling. More specifically, immersion cooling eliminates the need for fans, chillers, and additional cooling equipment that wastes electricity while generating noise and heat. As a result, with immersion cooling tanks, the resources used and emissions produced are minimal.
What Makes Immersion Cooling Sustainable?
Immersion cooling uses dielectric fluids that flow easily and can effectively absorb and transfer heat. As a result, the system transfers heat much more efficiently than air and without the unwanted byproducts. As such, you can deploy a higher server density at safer operating temperatures.
In short, the data center draws less electricity and emits less waste heat. It’s the confluence of business benefits and environmental conservation.
Additional ecological advantages include a longer hardware lifespan that reduces e-waste. The liquid coolant also enables you to recover the excess heat and use it for other purposes, like to heat your data center. This reduces your environmental impact even more.
2. Immersion Cooling Enhances the Performance and Reliability of Electronic Components
Liquid immersion cooling also improves the functionality of electronic components in servers. The liquid coolant basically acts as a defensive layer, protecting your expensive hardware against a range of environmental threats. This is particularly relevant for edge data centers exposed to the elements, but it can apply to any facility.
For instance, servers coated in Green Revolution Cooling’s (GRC) ElectroSafe coolants have a liquid shield against dust and oxidation. As a result, the sensitive electronic components will survive longer without corrosion. And because you no longer need server fans, you cut out the vibrations that can otherwise cause untimely failures.
Immersion cooling also offers protection against thermal variability. In this situation, devices undergo fluctuations in temperature, affecting performance and reliability. With conventional air cooling, the servers are subject to wildly varying heat loads and hot spots. But a liquid immersion cooling system offers a consistent, protective environment.
3. A Liquid Immersion Cooling System Saves Space and Costs of Infrastructure and Maintenance
The benefits of immersion cooling extend to a data center’s infrastructure and maintenance. A liquid cooling system takes up less space and allows for a denser rack structure. So, you save on expensive real estate.
In general, liquid cooling improves energy efficiency. This has positive effects for both data centers and the environment. For one thing, you have more efficient buildings, equipment, and operations. And because servers are protected against vibrations and corrosion, you’ll spend less time and money on unnecessary maintenance.
Immersion cooling also does away with many of the large and complex cooling systems and related costs of air cooling. Instead, you get streamlined functionality that’s quiet but powerful.
4. Immersion Cooling Supports Emerging Technologies and Applications
Another indirect advantage of immersion cooling is that it supports innovations that depend on high-density server installations. These demanding compute applications aren’t feasible with plain old air cooling. Only liquid immersion cooling can handle the heat generated by these high density deployments.
High-performance computing (HPC) was one of the earliest use cases for liquid immersi cooling and continues to lead the way. Supercomputers use GRC’s immersion cooling to enable unprecedented calculations for scientific and engineering purposes. The density in these systems reaches 15 times higher than conventional cooling would support.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly becoming more widespread, too. These useful technologies demand far greater processing than most other applications. Blockchain and graphics processing are additional areas where low-power systems simply can’t keep up. But liquid cooling keeps these emerging technologies running.
5. Liquid Cooling Enables Future Innovation and Growth
Finally, immersion cooling is a scalable and flexible solution that adapts to changing needs. With industry partners, GRC is pushing toward 1,000-watt chip support—that’s five times higher wattage than many enterprise servers have now.
Data center operators and owners can rely on liquid immersion cooling as a future-proof way to power tomorrow’s creative endeavors. Unlike air cooling, which is already hitting many of its limits, liquid immersion cooling is undergoing fast-paced developments and has capacity to spare.
New technologies such as the 5G telecom standard and high-frequency trading call for immersion cooling. For public clouds and private enterprise data centers, the range of processor- and heat-intensive applications is growing fast.
Whether you’re deploying a crypto rig in a shipping container, assembling a next-gen supercomputer, optimizing an existing facility for high-density computing, or simply adding more servers, you can have total confidence in immersion cooling.
Prepare for the Future With Immersion Cooling From GRC
With so many exciting reasons to use liquid immersion cooling, this solution is spreading to more and more data centers. The adaptability of immersion cooling makes it the data center technology of the future, but it’s available now.
GRC’s liquid immersion cooling system offers better cooling capacity at a lower cost. But it also boasts many unconventional benefits, such as sustainability, a streamlined infrastructure, and support for emerging technologies and future growth.
Take advantage of these big pluses for your facility. Contact GRC today to move forward with a game-changing cooling solution.
