With AI placing greater demands on data centres, how they are cooled is of critical importance, and chilled water technology can provide an efficient solution as George Hannah, senior global director for chilled water systems at Vertiv, explains.
The data centre industry is undergoing rapid evolution. As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates and workloads intensify, partners are being tasked with helping data centres to navigate a complex and changing landscape and for channel players, cooling should be a critical focus. The demands of hybrid liquid and air cooling environments, densification and sustainability goals are forcing a rethink of traditional cooling strategies, creating challenges and opportunities for solution providers.
At the forefront of these changes is chilled water technology. These are versatile and efficient solutions that are transforming how data centres manage their cooling needs. For channel businesses, embracing and supporting this transition presents an opportunity to provide more innovative and future-proof solutions to their customers.
Why chilled water cooling matters
AI applications are now central to many organisations’ digital transformation strategies. These applications demand significant computational power, generating far greater heat than traditional workloads. At the same time, data centres are densifying, with operators packing more computing power into less space. This creates substantial thermal management challenges that air cooling systems alone cannot address.
The opportunity lies in enabling customers to implement scalable, efficient cooling solutions that can handle these demands. Chilled water systems are particularly attractive because they support air and liquid cooling strategies, providing flexibility in hybrid environments. This adaptability allows partners to position chilled water as a long-term, future-ready solution that addresses the unique demands of modern data centres.
Addressing hybrid environments and unpredictable workloads
Hybrid data centres, which blend traditional IT infrastructure with AI and high-performance computing, are now the norm. These facilities are characterised by their complexity, with workloads fluctuating in intensity and generating unpredictable heat loads.
Chilled water systems are well-suited to these environments because of their ability to integrate seamlessly with diverse cooling strategies. They provide the foundation for hybrid cooling setups that combine air and liquid cooling methods, enabling optimal performance across varying workloads. For any players in this market, this versatility allows them to offer tailored solutions that meet the specific needs of their customers while enabling investments to be future ready.
The shift toward higher operating temperatures
A significant trend in data centre cooling is the move toward higher operating temperatures. To cope with high performance computing, next-gen chip technology is evolving rapidly, which is causing the water working temperature threshold to increase. Primarily, cooling is necessary to maintain the reliability of IT equipment, but the rising operating temperatures bring additional benefits such as reduced energy consumption and greater potential for heat recovery.
A good example is the Vertiv™ CoolLoop Trim Cooler, one of several new Vertiv solutions that meets this need by offering a platform that can adapt to a wide range of supply/return water temperatures up to 40/50°C, making it ideal for the evolving demands of AI-driven data centres. In its air-cooled version, it provides almost 3MW of cooling in a compact, unique frame, significantly increasing cooling capacity by more than 40% without increasing the physical footprint. This allows data centres to achieve up to 70% greater efficiency at a higher densification.
For data centre partners, helping customers embrace higher operating temperatures opens the door to innovative and more sustainable applications. Heat recovery, for example, enables data centres to capture and repurpose waste heat for secondary uses, such as district heating or industrial processes. Chilled water systems are central to this transition, as they can easily handle elevated water temperatures without sacrificing efficiency.
Supporting densification with advanced cooling
Densification is the most pressing challenge facing data centre operators. By maximising computing power in smaller physical footprints, operators can achieve greater efficiency. AI rack densities have drastically risen over the past few years, moving from 20kW per rack to up to 130kW per rack today. This density is expected to reach 500kW or more in the coming years resulting in significantly more heat. Long-established air cooling methods can fall short in addressing the thermal intensity of these environments.
Chilled water systems offer a scalable solution to the densification challenge. They integrate easily with liquid cooling technologies, such as immersion cooling and cold plates, to manage the high thermal loads of dense environments. Channel partners and resellers that understand the significance of densification will remain competitive in a market increasingly driven by data, connectivity and efficiency. By embracing densification technologies, they can help their customers meet modern connectivity challenges, thereby strengthening their own business growth and market position.
Harnessing intelligent controls
Efficient cooling is no longer just about mechanical hardware. Intelligent control systems are now critical to provide optimal performance. These systems allow data centres to adapt dynamically to changing conditions, monitoring workloads and adjusting cooling output in real time.
Intelligent controls represent an opportunity to add value. By integrating advanced plant manager control platforms with chilled water systems, partners can help customers to see the whole solution as a system and not as individual parts. As these controls are developed, tested and qualified as field-proven to work as an integrated chilled water system solution, energy efficiency will improve, and operational costs will be reduced. These solutions also provide greater visibility into cooling performance, enabling operators to identify and address inefficiencies proactively by predicting maintenance issues.
Sustainability and heat recovery: a unique opportunity
Sustainability is a top priority for data centres, driven by rising energy costs and growing regulatory pressures. Heat recovery has emerged as one of the most effective ways to reduce environmental impact, allowing operators to capture waste heat and repurpose it for secondary applications.
Chilled water systems play a pivotal role in enabling heat recovery. By efficiently capturing and transferring thermal energy, they support circular economy initiatives and help data centres reduce reliance on external energy sources. For channel businesses, offering solutions that support sustainability goals not only meets customer demand but also aligns with broader market trends.
Additionally, chilled water systems increasingly use low risk and very low Global Warming Potential refrigerants, which reduce environmental impact while maintaining performance. This makes them an attractive option for environmentally conscious operators and a valuable addition to their portfolio.
Preparing for what’s next
As AI adoption grows, workloads intensify and sustainability pressures mount, cooling systems will play an increasingly central role in data centre operations. Hyperscalers and colocation providers are already looking to liquid cooling and chilled water solutions to support densification and address the increase in temperatures, but enterprises and channel partners are not yet in the same place. This means there is a huge opportunity for the channel to drive innovation and add value. Those who understand how business will evolve will be the forerunners.
Chilled water solutions are uniquely positioned to address the dual challenge of densification and increased heat. Their flexibility, scalability and efficiency make them a vital tool for critical infrastructure. By integrating chilled water systems into their offerings, data centre businesses can help their customers be successful by meeting today’s challenges while preparing for the demands of tomorrow.
