Datacenter thermal management market grows above expectations

The datacenter thermal management market is exceeding expectations. According to new research by Omdia, the segment has shown unprecedented growth, reaching a level of US$7.6 billion and is expected to continue growing at a robust compound annual growth rate of 18.4% until 2028, fuelled mainly by demands and innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in high-density infrastructures.

In particular, demand for liquid cooling has increased significantly, the survey reveals. Among the main trends is the rapid adoption of Rear Door Heat Exchangers (RDHx) combined with 1-P direct-to-chip cooling. The growth rate of this class of technology was an impressive 65 per cent year on year. There is also a strategic combination of liquid and air cooling technologies with the aim of maintaining a more balanced and efficient thermal management.

“In 2023, the global datacenter cooling market experienced a higher rate of consolidation, with Top5 and Top10 concentration indices growing by 5% compared to the previous year,” says Shen Wang, principal analyst at Omdia.

In this study, Omdia expanded its coverage of suppliers to 49 companies, adding Chinese OEMs and direct suppliers of liquid cooling components. According to Wang, Vertiv, Johnson Controls and Stulz retained the top three positions, with Vertiv gaining 6 per cent market share due to strong demand in North America and cloud partnerships.

Growth in the datacenter cooling market has been limited mainly by production capacity, especially for components such as cooling distribution units (CDUs), rather than by a lack of demand. However, improvements planned for 2024 are expected to alleviate the problem so that backlogged orders can be met.

Liquid cooling

The adoption of liquid cooling has witnessed robust growth, especially in North America and China, with new suppliers entering the scene and other companies showing significant expansion. In this liquid cooling market totalling almost US$1 billion, CoolIT, which provides direct-to-chip solutions, continues to lead, followed by immersion cooling leader Sugon and Lenovo.

Keep cool and carry on The thermal management of datacenters is set to grow further due to the impacts of AI and sustainability requirements. In the future, the integration of AI-optimised cooling systems, strategic partnerships with suppliers and the demand for energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly solutions will shape the evolution of the industry, Omdia’s study predicts.

Successful approaches should establish thermal management as the cornerstone of sustainable and efficient datacenter operations, aligning technology with environmental management. “The datacenter cooling market is expected to be valued at $16.8 billion by 2028, due to digitalisation processes, the high demand for energy capacity and the migration to green infrastructures. The liquid model will emerge as the main one in the sector,” emphasises Wang.

Microsoft abandons underwater datacenter project

Microsoft has abandoned its Natick project involving an underwater datacenter. The confirmation was made to the DCD website, revealing that the efforts had been discontinued for years, even though they were being quoted in the media as an ongoing initiative.

“We’re not building underwater datacenters anywhere in the world,” Noelle Walsh, head of Microsoft’s Cloud Operations + Innovation (CO+I) division told DCD. “We worked on it and it worked. We learnt a lot about operations below sea level, vibrations and impacts on servers and we will apply these learnings to other situations,” she added.

Microsoft started the Natick project in 2013 and deployed a test system off the coast of Scotland in 2018. The company opened up the source code for a series of patents related to submerged datacenters in 2021.

China and South Korea are working on underwater datacenter projects.