German server and storage solutions provider RNT Rausch has announced that it has partnered with Submer Technologies to provide customers of all sizes with the latest technologies in server immersion cooling. This partnership keeps RNT servers and BigFoot storage systems (a set of tools that enable massive data storage and analysis) cool in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. RNT aims to democratize immersion cooling to reduce the environmental impacts of current cooling systems that are energy and water voracious.
The partnership between Submer and RNT allows companies of all sizes to deploy their data center almost anywhere. A small space is sufficient to accommodate the solutions and there is no need to install air conditioning units to cool the servers or expensive and sophisticated fire extinguishing systems. The room would require simple access control for one person, as well as occasional electrical adjustments to keep it safe. This cooling solution stores devices in one place, reducing space requirements and cost of ownership and resources.
Immersion cooling is a computer cooling practice in which computer components and other electronic devices, including entire servers and storage devices, are immersed in a thermally conductive, but electrically insulating coolant or dielectric fluid. Heat is removed from the system by circulating the relatively cold fluid in direct contact with the hot components, then circulating the now heated fluid through cold heat exchangers. The system is currently not very popular, but things may change in the future.
Indeed, data centers are expected to drive growth due to the growing demand for energy-efficient and cost-effective cooling solutions. Deep learning, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and blockchain are examples of emerging technologies that require processing big data , which requires more computing power. According to industry experts, immersion cooling is able to handle higher thermal loads than air cooling.
This should therefore increase the sales of immersion cooling. There are two types of immersion cooling, including single-phase immersion cooling and two-phase immersion cooling. Furthermore, recent studies on the immersion cooling market have reported that the most successful players currently are: Fujitsu Ltd, Dug Technology, Submer, ExaScaler, Inc., Liquid Stack, Midas Green Technologies, Asperitas, LiquidCool Solutions. Submer provides active single-phase immersion cooling for servers and storage systems.
RNT’s partnership with Submer sees the application of single-phase immersion cooling to RNT’s Tormenta Varioscaler server portfolio and BigFoot storage systems. Single-phase immersion cooling means that the coolant never changes state (i.e. it does not evaporate into a gas) and is simply pumped through a heat exchanger to transfer heat a water cooling circuit. According to RNT and Submer, traditional cooling methods entail high costs in terms of energy and water consumption.
For many organizations, this means a waste of money for these resources, which also take up a lot of space. Both companies claim that an air-cooled environment requires up to 10 times more space than environments built with immersion cooling. This partnership allows RNT Rausch and Submer to offer a complete and sustainable turnkey HPC solution, specifically designed for the customer’s needs. “Partnerships like this are critical to the future of the industry,” said Daniel Pope, CEO and co-founder of Submer.
In addition, HPC deployments would not be the only ones needing liquid cooling. According to Cisco, the next generation of processors from AMD and Intel are expected to hit 400W of power consumption, while high-end GPUs are already here and show no signs of stopping. Dattatri Mattur, senior director of engineering for Cisco’s Cloud and Compute business, said this means air cooling will soon be insufficient, even for traditional servers, and many data centers will have to use a form of liquid cooling.
Furthermore, Submer and RNT believe that immersion cooling will help save the plant. Immersion cooled data centers are extremely energy efficient. Companies with immersion cooling data centers can reuse not only the water from the pods, but also the heat to minimize waste. “It’s also possible to cool more pods in liquid than on a rack, reducing energy costs and, therefore, the company’s carbon footprint,” they explained.
“Submerged cooling has many benefits, not only saving space, but also energy, and helps companies reduce their carbon footprint and be as sustainable as possible,” they added. RNT and Submer will exhibit together at ISC 2022 from May 29 to June 2 to showcase the solution to the HPC community and demonstrate how RNT’s BigFoot storage system accelerates data processing without causing a bottleneck in a pool of uncontrolled liquid. driver.
While Submer and RNT are betting on single-phase immersion cooling, other industry players are leaning more towards the two-phase technique. In April 2021, Microsoft announced that she was exploring a new way of cooling data center servers by immersing them in liquid baths. The server racks are immersed in a non-conductive fluorocarbon liquid designed especially for the occasion. The liquid, which has a boiling point of less than 122 degrees Fahrenheit (or 50 degrees Celsius), removes heat by directly flooding the components.
Microsoft is currently carrying out the first tests in a data center located on the east bank of the Columbia River. The company claims to be the first cloud computing service provider to test it in production. “We are the first cloud provider to use two-stage immersion cooling in a production environment,” said Husam Alissa, senior hardware engineer with Microsoft’s advanced data center development team in Redmond, State. from Washington. The company believes that immersion cooling is the future.
The production deployment of two-stage immersion cooling is the next step in Microsoft’s long-term plan to meet the demand for faster, more powerful computers in data centers at a time when reliable advances in air-cooled computer chips have slowed down, the company said.
Source : RNT Rush
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