A closer look at data center cooling strategies, including tips on balancing power efficiency and water usage — a process that is unique to each data center and is affected by continual technology change.
Insights: Data Center Energy
Electricity is the lifeblood of every data center. At Data Center Frontier, we're exploring new frontiers in data center energy as we see data centers in new places. Some of these new facilities will seek new sources of energy, especially renewable technologies such as wind and solar, as well as landfills and other sources of biogas. Other technologies, such as Bloom Energy fuel cells, may prompt consolidated approaches to power architecture.
We're interested in how modular data centers and other design innovations allow new methods of deploying Internet infrastructure, creating opportunities to make use of solar arrays, wind turbines, fuel cells, combined heat & power (CHP), microgrids, and the recycling of server exhaust heat to warm buildings through district heating.
Tackling Data Center Water Usage Challenges Amid Historic Droughts, Wildfires
Data center water use has broad impacts. It affects the quality and availability of local water supplies, particularly when groundwater is involved. This special report series examines data center water usage amid historic droughts and wildfires in California and beyond.
Nashville Explosion: AT&T Repairs Damage to its Building and Network
AT&T is working to repair key infrastructure after a Christmas day explosion damaged its regional telecom hub in Nashville, interrupting the building’s primary power connection and interrupting 911 services.
Voices of 2020: The Top 10 Voices of the Industry Columns
Education is part of our mission at Data Center Frontier. In our Voices of the Industry feature, we share the experience of data center executives on the front lines of innovation. Here’s a look at the 10 most popular Voices columns for 2020.
The Top 10 Data Center Stories of 2020
It’s been a strange and extraordinary year, in which many existing data center trends have been amplified by the pandemic. Here are the 10 most popular stories on Data Center Frontier in 2020, ranked by page views.
A Smart Grid that Includes Data Center UPS Units: A Potential ‘Win-Win-Win Solution’
The grid that provides most of the electrical power in the U.S. was designed in the 1890s. A Smart Grid that includes data center UPS units has the potential to be a win-win-win solution for all parties.
Focusing on Water Usage Effectiveness for Cooling Systems to Boost Sustainability
Miles Auvil, Vertical Market Leader, Data Centers, Edge and High Tech Industrial, Trane Commercial HVAC, highlights how focusing on water usage effectiveness for cooling solutions can ramp up sustainability.
DCF Show: Talking Data Centers With Dean Nelson
Our guest on the DCF Show is Dean Nelson, founder of Infrastructure Masons and CEO at Virtual Power Systems. Rich and Dean discuss Infrastructure Masons’ mission to ensure that “every click improves the future,” and Dean’s vision for software-defined power.
AWS Designs In-Rack Micro UPS Units For a More Efficient Cloud
Amazon Web Services has begun designing its own rack-level Micro UPS units for its data centers, eliminating a centralized UPS in a move that will dramatically improve the power efficiency of its cloud computing operations.
New Concepts of the Sustainable Data Center Arise Amid an Evolving Market
Sustainability is now a top-of-mind issue in data center construction and management, as cloud computing and digital transformation fuel the world’s growing thirst for processing power. This new special report series explores the future of the sustainable data center and its impact on the industry.
Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 15 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution.