INDUSTRY VIEW
HOW ARE NEW TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING THE TRANSFORMATION OF DATA CENTER EFFICIENCY IN LATIN AMERICA ?
CÉSAR LINARES SOLÓRZANO , OFFERS MANAGER FOR THERMAL MANAGEMENT AND SOFTWARE AT VERTIV
César Linares Solórzano , Offers Manager for Thermal Management and Software at Vertiv , discusses how emerging technologies are catalyzing the efficiency evolution of data centers in Latin America .
The accelerated advancement of digitalization in all aspects of life – from e-commerce to banking , from education to healthcare – has led to an increase in demand for data processing and storage capacity in Latin America .
According to a study by EMR , in 2023 , the data storage market is expected to have reached a value of approximately US $ 7.32 billion in the region , with a compound annual growth rate of 12.8 % for the period between 2024 and 2032 , and is expected to reach US $ 21.63 in 2032 .
This expansion presents challenges for data center infrastructure , especially to support user demands on technologies such as the IoT , video streaming or AI , which imply the adoption of high-performance computing ( HPC ) and more efficient infrastructure systems to power and cool the vast amount of data and heat it generates .
How to deal with high densities and their thermal impact
Given this situation , the question is : How can data centers cope with the wave of demand generated by AI and other emerging technologies , which will increase computational density and its thermal impact ? The answer lies in the adoption of liquid cooling in the rack or on the chip , in addition to traditional data center air cooling . We have identified several benefits of liquid cooling :
• Sustainability : Liquid cooling reduces heat in the rack and chip more effectively , improves efficiency ( PUE ) and can even enable reuse of the heat generated .
• Greater energy savings : Liquid cooling directed at the heat source is more cost-effective than rack and space cooling with traditional air cooling systems alone .
• Lower total cost of ownership : Can improve total cost of ownership through very high cooling system efficiency or heat removal despite higher density .
• Space utilization : Liquid-cooled doors installed at the rear of high-density racks in existing data centers make it possible to cool equipment without the need for expensive expansions or new construction . Direct-to-chip cooling applications in new constructions allow for even greater optimization of space utilization .
Direct-to-chip liquid cooling
One of the most efficient methods of liquid cooling ( LC ) is the directto-chip cooling ( DTC ) method , which consists of placing cold cards directly on top of the processors or chips that generate most of the heat inside the IT equipment , removing the heat efficiently .
This type of cooling offers considerably higher efficiency compared to traditional air cooling systems . For example , estimates show that this DTC method can remove between 70 % and 80 % more of the heat generated by servers and accelerators . Leftover heat can be effectively removed by traditional air-cooled data center systems . This combined approach allows data centers to handle more intensive and demanding workloads without compromising performance or reliability .
These advantages make DTC attractive to data center operators to meet the cooling needs of high-density workloads in the age of AI and Big Data .
In this sense , direct-to-chip liquid cooling not only offers greater energy efficiency and better performance , but also contributes to long-term sustainability goals through lower carbon emissions . •
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