The Data Center Frontier Show

Host Rich Miller talks with cooling expert Kevin Facinelli, President, Data Center Cooling at Nortek Air Solutions about the challenges of keeping servers cool as data centers get larger and taller. Also: Will vacant office space house servers in the poet-COVID economy?   Rich and Kevin discuss key trends in data center cooling, including: How to adapt cooling systems for hyperscale data center designs The challenges of cooling servers in warm climates like Singapore How Nortek's StatePoint cooling solution addresses these challenges Trends in rack power density, and how to manage them. Will hotter, more powerful servers force a shift from air cooling to liquid cooling? The strategic challenges the COVID-19 pandemic poses for data centers. An opportunity in the work-from-home boom: Creating micro-data centers in vacant office space. Kevin discusses this trend, what he's seeing, and what may lie ahead.                SHOW NOTES   Here are some resources about Nortek:   Nortek Air Solutions web site https://www.nortekair.com/products/data-center-products/   Here's the white paper Rich & Kevin discussed on the podcast:   Solutions to Data Center Water & Power Availability https://datacenterfrontier.com/white-paper/solutions-data-center-water-power/   An overview of Nortek's StatePoint cooling system and its use in warm climates: https://datacenterfrontier.com/new-design-helps-facebook-keep-data-cool-in-hot-climates/    Decreasing Water & Power Will Help Data Centers Reach Sustainability Goals (Nortek Voices column on DCF) https://datacenterfrontier.com/power-water-data-centers-sustainability-goals/   Amid COVID-19, Legionella Raises Key Questions for Data Centers (Nortek Voices column on DCF) https://datacenterfrontier.com/legionella-is-the-covid-19-of-the-data-center-industry/   Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ksfacinelli/   Here's some of Data Center Frontier's in=depth coverage of some of the trends discussed today:   Data Center Cooling Channel https://datacenterfrontier.com/category/data-center-cooling/   Rack Density Keeps Rising at Data Centers https://datacenterfrontier.com/rack-density-keeps-rising-at-enterprise-data-centers/   As Rack Densities Rise, Liquid Cooling Specialists Begin to See Gains  https://datacenterfrontier.com/as-rack-densities-rise-liquid-cooling-specialists-begin-to-see-gains/​

Our 2020 podcast season kicks off with a series of shows based on DCF’s annual forecast, which we call “Eight Trends That Will Shape the Data Center in 2020.” On this podcast, we explore two of the most important trends: data tonnage, and the hardware arms race around artificial intelligence, or AI. Our number one trend is the explosive growth of data, which will be felt in 2020 like never before. Data tonnage creates challenges in both the distribution and concentration of data. Also, artificial intelligence (AI) plays a starring role in this data tsunami. AI is a hardware-intensive computing technology that will analyze data both near and far. That includes everything from algorithm training at cloud campuses to inference engines running on smartphones. Our podcast host, Rich Miller dives deeper into both these subjects which will definitely impact the data center.   Links: The Eight Trends That Will Shape the Data Center Industry in 2020​ https://datacenterfrontier.com/the-eight-trends-that-will-shape-the-data-center-industry-in-2020/​ Scorecard: Looking Back at DCF’s 2019 Predictions https://datacenterfrontier.com/scorecard-looking-back-at-dcfs-2019-predictions/ Too Big to Deploy: How GPT-2 is Breaking Servers https://towardsdatascience.com/too-big-to-deploy-how-gpt-2-is-breaking-production-63ab29f0897c Data Gravity is Shifting the Data Center Network  https://datacenterfrontier.com/data-gravity-is-shifting-the-data-center-network-but-in-which-direction/ New AI Chips Seek to Reshape Data Center Design, Cooling https://datacenterfrontier.com/new-ai-chips-seek-to-reshape-data-center-design-cooling/    

While robots in the data center has been proposed and tested for years, the reality is getting close to fruition, with the introduction of a robotic system to hoist servers from a tank of cooling liquid. Is this another step towards more "lights out" mission-critical facilities such as data centers? Our host, Rich Miller, explores the history and future of robots in the data center.​ LINKS:   Inside Facebook's BluRay Data Center https://datacenterfrontier.com/inside-facebooks-blu-ray-cold-storage-data-center/   2013 DCK series 1. The Robot-Driven Data Center of the Future https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/05/22/the-data-center-of-tomorrow-totally-lights-out-within-5-years   2. The Role of Robotics in Data Center Automation https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/12/18/role-robotics-data-center-automation   3. I, Data Center: An Interview With a Robotics Professional https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/12/19/data-center-interview-robotics-professional   IBM Uses Roombas to Protect its Data Centers https://www.geek.com/news/ibm-uses-custom-ever-vigilant-roombas-to-protect-its-data-centers-1557368/   Robots Now Annihilate Hard Drives in Google Data Centers https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/google-alphabet/robots-now-annihilate-hard-drives-google-data-centers   DE-CIX: Meet Patchy McPatchbot - First Robot at an IX https://www.de-cix.net/en/access/the-apollon-platform/patchy-mcpatchbot   Wave 2 Wave: Rome https://www.wave-2-wave.com/rome   Scott Noteboom Joins Liquid Cooling Startup Submer https://datacenterfrontier.com/scott-noteboom-joins-liquid-cooling-startup-submer/   TMG core Unveils Robot-Managed Immersion Data Centers  https://datacenterfrontier.com/tmgcore-unveils-robot-managed-immersion-data-centers/   

Everyone's talking about data center merger mania. In this episode, host Rich Miller talks about two deals, one that happened and one that didn't. The deal that happened is Digital Realty's acquisition of European colocation and interconnection provider, Interxion for $8.4 billion.  He will cover the important strategic factors that make this deal a win for Digital. There's also the deal that didn't happen -- involving CyrusOne, one of the largest wholesalers in the data center business. In its earnings call, CyrusOne has decided to remain independent. Both of these deals have strategic implications for the data center industry.

The road to the self-driving car of the future will be one where data, hardware and data centers play a major role. Autonomous vehicles are the equivalent of supercomputers rolling down the highway, creating a mind-boggling amount of data.  Rich Miller, the founder and editor of Data Center Frontier, takes listeners through what the impact of autonomous vehicles will have on infrastructure and data centers. 

Northern Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with more than 5M SF of data center space, and more on the way. Ashburn is located in Loudoun County, which is home to more than 100 data centers. Our host Rich Miller explains how Ashburn became Data Center Alley and what’s going on there today. Links mentioned: Northern Virginia Market Update https://datacenterfrontier.com/northern-virginia-less-hyper-but-still-plenty-of-scale/ In Loudoun, Neighbors Want Better Looking Data Centers https://datacenterfrontier.com/in-loudoun-neighbors-want-better-looking-data-centers/  Silicon Valley Data Center Market Report https://datacenterfrontier.com/white-paper/silicon-valley-data-center-market-2/

A look at the world of hyperscale data centers, and an introduction to the podcast, including a brief history of the data center industry, background on editor Rich Miller and Data Center Frontier. Rich also provides a preview of the season ahead. Hyperscale Data Centers: A Data Center Frontier Special Report More Insights and trends on hyperscale computing and data centers