The heat is on for data centers. That’s true in more ways than one.

Today’s increasingly powerful server infrastructure—driven by the exponentially increasing demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence software, and other data-intensive processes—necessarily generates more heat than IT equipment of eras past. It’s driven the need for advanced cooling options, like immersion cooling, in order to maintain optimal temperatures.

Simultaneously, it’s no secret that the planet is warming. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency as global average temperatures rise, creating a greater need for enhanced resiliency for all built environments—data centers included.

It’s a critical moment, and advanced cooling options will be required for data centers to navigate more frequent and intense weather patterns. Adaptation is critical to ensure reliability of data processing to serve customers, even under extreme weather conditions. With all of this in mind, here are a few considerations to make for the near- and long-term future, and how immersion cooling can be an important part of your contingency plan.

Examining the Cost of Downtime

According to the Uptime Institute, 45% of data centers in the United States reported experiencing extreme weather events in 2022 that hindered their ability to operate. Further, one in six respondents said data outages from weather events cost more than $1 million on average.

It’s clear that the consequences of a downtime event are severe for both data center operators and their customers. Modern data centers are commonly designed to withstand temperatures of around 111 F (44 C), but older ones were designed for lower ranges topping out at around 100 F (38 C), making them a challenge to retroactively prepare for extreme heat.

And there is reason to expect summer temperatures to rise even higher in the coming years, and data centers need to be prepared. This is especially true in warm Western climates in the United States, where some of the newest and largest data centers are being built. Proactive measures need to be taken, and they should involve how data centers keep their server infrastructure cool.

Why Traditional Cooling Options Can Fall Short

Air cooling systems, which allow the IT hardware to draw in cool air through the front of the hardware and across the components before ejecting it into the hot aisle, have been around for decades. But they are quickly becoming inadequate to manage the growing workloads and heat production of modern data center equipment—and that’s before factoring in rising temperatures and extreme weather events.

Traditionally, server configurations reaching 10 kilowatts of power were considered high-density, but tomorrow, extreme-density configurations can top out at 40 kilowatts—a number fundamentally untenable for traditional air-cooling methods. Simply put, the amount of heat coming from higher-power systems is too great for air cooling to be effective or efficient .

Liquid immersion cooling technology, by contrast, offers a more practical solution for todays and tomorrow’s data centers to keep temperatures down. Immersion cooling can overcome heat issues and subsequent loss of rack density. And because immersion cooling systems can be installed on specific data center devices that need it the most, it can be a more efficient and effective option for data centers, especially during the dog days of hotter summers.

In the Face of Global Warming, Contributing to Sustainability

You may be surprised to learn that today’s data centers emit as much carbon dioxide as the commercial airline industry. Today, data centers and data transmission networks are responsible for nearly 1% of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which of course contribute to rising global temperatures and climate change.

It’s here that immersion cooling can have another positive impact. By offering superior energy efficiency, increased computation density, and improved cooling characteristics compared with conventional systems, immersion cooling can deliver performance that contributes to enhanced sustainability and lower carbon emissions.

For example, immersion cooling enables data centers to house and maintain more powerful server infrastructure to increase their power density.

Elsewhere, more effective thermal management can lead to less equipment throttling or downtime, as well as extended IT equipment lifetime by better mitigating thermal degradation of server components. This means IT hardware can be replaced less frequently, saving excess materials from heading to the landfill.

Meanwhile, immersion cooling can help data centers significantly improve their power usage effectiveness (PUE) by eliminating power-hungry air-cooling systems, enabling facilities to divert more kilowatt consumption directly to hardware.

Altogether, immersion cooling technology can help a data center positively affect energy consumption and better withstand extreme temperatures and weather events. Modern fluid engineers are investigating the potential for heat recapture and energy reuse that could one day power data centers themselves or even nearby communities.

Interested in learning more? As data center owners, operators and managers seek to create more resilient infrastructure in the face of climate change, immersion cooling can be a true solution. And at Lubrizol, we’re ready to help you take the plunge.

Our CompuZol™ immersion cooling fluid solutions can enable data centers anywhere—and of any size—to achieve more effective and efficient cooling. We’ve worked closely with leading IT companies to help future-proof forward-thinking infrastructure, helping meet rising demand for data production while maintaining long-term resilience.

Ready to get started? Contact your Lubrizol representative to find out how CompuZol can transform your operations today.

Preparing Your Data Center for Extreme Temperatures