How Vertiv Keeps Boosting Cooling Offerings to Support AI
The global provider of critical digital infrastructure solutions Vertiv has announced a significant expansion of its liquid cooling product portfolio.
Two new coolant distribution unit systems are designed to support hyperscale, colocation and enterprise applications. The Vertiv CoolChip CDU liquid-to-liquid and liquid-to-air solutions stand to enable modular, cost-effective liquid cooling deployments in data centres - hoping to make it possible to operate high-density computing for AI alongside traditional air-cooled racks.
“The AI-focused data centre necessitates advanced cooling technologies.”
Vertiv boasts a significant liquid cooling product portfolio and already enhances AI and power cooling solutions with Vertiv 360AI, a pre-engineered infrastructure for HPC workloads.
Supporting AI applications
The Vertiv CoolChip CDU family is designed to deliver the much-needed flexibility to data centres and colocation providers. It has the capabilities for fast, modular growth and the ability to support multiple high-density racks from a single CDU, supporting the increasing demand for AI deployments.
AI continues to make its mark on the data centre industry, causing many operators and governments alike to confront more robust strategies to handle the technology. In fact, according to Gartner research, IT services spending tied to AI is projected to rise by 21% as companies shift to more partner-built solutions in order to keep up.
Liquid cooing is therefore required to keep AI systems cool, whilst avoiding increased emissions and environmental impact.
Along its new cooling systems, Vertiv has a broad suite of global service offerings to support the deployment of liquid cooled infrastructure, ranging from solution design to installation to on-going lifecycle and fluid management.
“The AI-focused data centre necessitates advanced cooling technologies,” comments John Niemann, Senior Vice President of the thermal business unit at Vertiv. “Vertiv's expanded liquid-cooled solutions support the densification of the data centre we are seeing as a result of AI.”
The next era of liquid cooling
The Vertiv CoolChip CDU 2300kW model is a liquid-to-liquid system that offers the most compact footprint in its capacity range, with the smaller cabinet enabling it to be placed in the row or in a mechanical gallery outside of the data centre whitespace.
It offers 2.3 megawatts (MW) of cooling capacity, enabling the design to cater to hyperscalers and colocation providers looking to deploy large scale liquid cooling solutions at the highest density.
- Both Vertiv systems can distribute coolant directly to liquid cooled chips and rear-door heat exchangers
- Controls allow for fluctuating temperature and flow to match varying application demands
- The systems leverage unit-to-unit communication for system-level control; redundant power feeds, pumps and filters for improved cooling availability; remote temperature, humidity and leak detection sensors; and integrated controls that enable remote monitoring and management
Likewise, this solution has one of the highest CDU capacity per square foot in the industry, which can enable data centre operators to reduce cost and footprint by deploying fewer CDUs.
In addition, the Vertiv CoolChip CDU 350kW model is a liquid-to-air solution that offers direct-to-chip liquid cooling support with air-based heat rejection. This enables the offering to easily retrofit into existing facilities and to deploy liquid cooling for direct-to-chip applications without a facility chilled water system.
Liquid cooling has been continually touted as a more efficient solution for data centres, due to its ability to draw heat away from high-power-density racks. This system within a facility can address both thermal challenges and increase energy efficiency by allowing more precise temperature control.
John adds: “Our liquid cooling portfolio, complemented by our full solution of air cooling, heat rejection, and re-use solutions and global services capability, enables both new and existing data centres to seamlessly introduce liquid cooling as part of the overall hybrid cooling solution to make AI deployments easier, faster and more cost-effective for customers.”
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