Datacenter migration using liquid cooling obstacles

Datacenter migration，The rise of machine learning has led to higher and higher power densities in data centers, where a large number of servers are deployed, with power densities ranging from 30 kW to 50 kW per rack, prompting some data center operators to switch to liquid cooling instead of air cooling.

Although some data center operators use liquid cooling to improve the efficiency of their facilities, the main reason is the need to cool more power-intensive racks.
But the conversion from air cooling to liquid cooling is not simple. Here are some of the major obstacles encountered in using liquid cooling technology in data centers:
1. two cooling systems are required.
Lex Coors, chief technology officer of data centers at European hosted data center giant Interxion, says it makes little sense for existing data centers to switch to liquid cooling at one time, and the operations teams at many data center facilities will have to manage and operate two cooling systems, not one.
This makes liquid cooling a better choice for new data centers or data centers that require major modifications.
But there are always exceptions, especially for very large manufacturers, whose unique data center infrastructure problems often require unique solutions.
Google, for example, is currently converting air-cooling systems from many of its existing data centers into liquid-cooling systems to cope with the power density of its TPU 3.0 processor, which its latest machine learns.
2. lack of industry standards
The lack of liquid cooling industry standards is a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of the technology.
"Customers must first have their own IT equipment for liquid cooling." "And the standardization of liquid cooling technology is not perfect, and organizations can't simply adopt it and make it work," Coors said.
Interxion's customers do not currently use liquid cooling technology, but Interxion is prepared to support it if necessary, Coors said.
3. electric shock hazard
Many liquid cooling solutions rely mainly on dielectric liquids, whose medium should be non-conductive and free from electrical shock hazards. But some organizations may use cold water or warm water for cooling.
"If a worker happens to touch the liquid at the moment it leaks, there's a risk of electrical shock and death, but there are many ways to deal with it," Coors said.
4. corrosion
Corrosion, like any system involving liquid pipes, is a major problem facing liquid cooling technology.
"Pipeline corrosion is a big problem, which is one of the problems that people need to solve." Coors said. Liquid cooling manufacturers are improving pipes to reduce the risk of leakage and automatically seal pipes in case of leakage.
He added, "at the same time, the rack itself also needs to be containerized. If there is a leak, just sprinkle the liquid on the rack, so there is no great harm. "
5. operational complexity
Jeff Flanagan, executive vice president of Markley Group, said the biggest risk of using liquid cooling might be increased operational complexity, and the company plans to launch liquid cooling services in high-performance cloud computing data centers early next year.
As data center operators, we prefer simple technologies, and the more components we have, the more likely we are to fail. When using liquid cooling technology to cool the chip, the liquid flows through each CPU or GPU in the server, requiring many components to be added to the cooling process, which increases the possibility of failure.
In operating data centers, there is another complication: immersing servers in dielectric fluids, which requires higher insulation technology.