Research by Omdia reveals that sustainable and innovative technologies such as chilled water and evaporative cooling, as well as forms of liquid cooling, are becoming more widely adopted
Southampton, UK [December 2, 2020] Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has been ranked by technology analyst firm Omdia as the largest global supplier in a data centre cooling market which continues to undergo change and innovation. The newly released research highlights that established heat rejection technologies such as Direct Expansion (DX), Chilled Water and Evaporative Cooling continue to dominate while also becoming more sustainable. In addition, new technologies, such as forms of liquid cooling, are predicted to grow as data centre operators look for ways to further improve efficiency and deal with increasingly power-intensive compute.
The Omdia paper, Data centre Thermal Management Report 2020, published in late 2020 and based on 2018 and 2019 data, states that Vertiv has a 23.5% share of the global data centre cooling market – more than 10% higher than its nearest rival. The market for data centre thermal technology is set to increase from $3.3bn in 2020 to more than $4.3bn in 2024, according to Omdia. Vertiv also leads the global market for perimeter thermal technologies with a 37.5% market share which is more than 20% higher than the next largest supplier.
In addition to analysing market position, the report provides insight and intelligence on how data centre cooling technology is evolving. Established technologies such as chillers and perimeter cooling will remain a large proportion of the market. According to Omdia, split DX is still the primary form of heat rejection in data centre thermal management, but chilled water and direct evaporative heat rejection are gaining momentum. In addition, cloud and colocation service provider momentum has accelerated, driving double-digit growth for air handling units (AHU).
Omdia predicts there will also be strong growth in forms of liquid cooling – immersion and direct-to-chip – that are expected to double between 2020 and 2024. Several factors are contributing to this shift, including increasing chip and server power consumption, edge growth, increasing rack densities, as well as energy efficiency and sustainability requirements.
Lucas Beran, principal analyst for Omdia’s cloud and data centre research practice and the report’s author, said: “The data centre thermal management market is on the cusp of an inflection point. Currently, existing air-based thermal products and solutions are driving growth but are limited by their ability to cool 10kW+ rack densities. New technologies, products, and designs are coming to market to help support these high-density deployments and more efficient operations leading to changing market dynamic through 2024.”
“Vertiv's enduring leadership in thermal management demonstrates that our customers value our domain expertise, our broad-ranging portfolio and the increasing investment in technology, research and development,” said Giordano Albertazzi, president for Vertiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). “The cooling products and solutions we have launched throughout 2020 and our forward-looking innovation roadmap will continue to offer leading technology to our customers, enabling them to achieve higher efficiency and sustainability goals.”
Vertiv has announced several recent innovations in thermal technology. In EMEA, Vertiv announced Vertiv™ Liebert® OFC, a new and highly advanced range of oil-free turbocor compressor chillers developed in partnership with Geoclima. The Liebert OFC has been designed to utilise low GWP refrigerants including R1234ze and to provide high energy efficiency. Moreover, the entire floor-mount air conditioning range has been recently redesigned for utmost efficiency, including the direct expansion Vertiv Liebert PDX with variable speed compressors and the chilled water range with the newest Vertiv Liebert PCW.
In addition to internal innovations, Vertiv is also working with industry thought leadership groups and recently became a Platinum Member of the Open Compute Project (OCP). Vertiv’s role will include supporting initiatives on the adoption of liquid cooling through the Advanced Cooling Solutions (ACS) and Advanced Cooling Facility (ACF) projects. The aim is to bring guidelines and best practices for direct-to-chip and immersion liquid cooling technologies as well as enable practices for data centre facilities to adopt liquid cooling.
Vertiv’s own research into thermal technologies also points to future innovation. According to Vertiv’s Data centre 2025: Closer to the Edge report, the data centre industry has seen a large-scale shift to economisation driven by hyperscale operators and colocation providers, while simultaneously driving heat removal closer to servers through rear door and liquid cooling systems designed to support the high-density racks common in high performance computing (HPC) facilities. Of the 800+ data centre professionals that responded to the survey, 42% expect future cooling requirements to be met by mechanical systems, while 22% say they will be met with liquid cooling and outside air, a result likely driven by the more extreme rack densities being observed today.
For more information on the latest thermal management technology advances across EMEA, join the Vertiv Cooling Innovation Forum on Dec. 10th by registering for free at this link. To learn more about how Vertiv can help data centre owners and operators to scale with confidence, visit www.Vertiv.com/SWC.
About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to ensure its customers’ vital applications run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. As Architects of Continuity™, Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centres, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Vertiv employs approximately 20,000 people and does business in more than 130 countries. For more information, and for the latest news and content from Vertiv, visit Vertiv.com.
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