The weather will turn cold at DatacenterDynamics’ London conference, on November 9 and 10, where data center cooling will take center stage with product launches by some of the industry’s leading vendors.

 

Hitachi, Stulz and APC by Schneider Electric will all use DCD London as the launch pad for new cooling solutions at the event.

 

Hitachi will release a modular cooling solution already rolled out by colocation provider Telehouse in London, Stulz will launch a system targets the distribution of air ÔÇô horizontally ÔÇô while APC will launch a solutions that contains a free-cooling option, straight off the back of standard changes that open up free cooling options around the world.

 

DatacenterDynamics Research group research Director Nick Parfitt said cooling still remains a major cost factor in the data center.

 

“Cooling is still the major consumer of energy within the data center beyond the core purpose of delivering IT services,” Parfitt said.

 

And while a lot of the talk in the data center world has been about virtualization and cloud computing, the fact remains that without a properly designed and fitted data center, which includes well-thought-out cooling solutions to deal with high densities, data center operations will suffer.

 

“Advances in cooling technology seem to have advanced exponentially over the last 12 to 18 months,” Parfitt said. “The principals of combining cooling methods, close coupling cooling to the points in the data center where it is needed and building in more organically the supplementary cooling possibly by introducing free cooling are all geared to avoiding the potential for thermal events eventuating from the increase of IT densities in the data center.”

 

Hitachi will release its Natural Circulation Cooling at the event.

 

The high-efficiency modular cooling solution can fit within an existing fitted-out environment, according to Hitachi, posing minimal impact to existing operations.

 

Hitachi said its solution has a low-carbon footprint (great for the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment) and a small footprint for air conditioning, leaving more room for IT. It comes with built-in redundancy featuring power supplies, fans, sensors and more.

 

Hitachi Europe vice president and executive general manger of information systems group Yasuhiko Taniguchi said DatacenterDynamics  London is the perfect event for an introduction to the European market. “For Hitachi’s Eco Data Center Solutions in Europe, DCD is the ideal showcase. We are becoming increasingly well-known among data center oprators and DCD will give us a chance to introduce ourselves further to the industry,” Taniguchi said.

 

Stulz has developed a new innovative air conditioning system it says will increase efficiency in the data center by sending air horizontally across the rack ÔÇô another product that will be launched exclusively at DatacenterDynamics London.

 

By placing individual air conditioning units between racks, Stulz says it can dissipate extreme heat from servers by moving air across the rack. The solution means cold air can be transported in two directions via an outlet on the side.

 

“The system’s closeness to the rack means the air does not have to flow very far, so pressure losses are kept to a minimum,” Stulz says. “All of these features are reflected in a high-efficiency rating.”

 

The refrigerant system itself contains an evaporator, electronic expansion valve, inverter-driven compressor and an external air-cooled condenser. The CW unit requires separate chilled water generation.  The room air conveyed by the fans flows through the direct cooling unit, which transfers heat to the cooling water which is removed by a chiller.

 

The outcome is targeted distribution of cold air, and that at the end of the rows of servers cold air automatically prevents warn air returning to the cold aisle.

 

Meanwhile, APC by Schneider Electric’s announcement is hot on the heels of changes made to standards guidelines that until recently stipulated that free cooling could only be used in a few geographic locations around the world. 

 

The changes opened the door for APC to release an all-in-one solution that combines evaporative, air-to-air heat exchange and DX techniques, that can be set to treat the data center with the optimal cooling source when it is most needed.

 

APC by Schneider Electric director of innovation and technology for racks &cooling solutions John Bean Jr will be at DatacenterDynamics London to launch the containerized fresh air cooling economiser. 

 

Bean will be talking on the Modular and Standardised Economiser Designs to meet the needs of the Changing Industry Standards and Energy Efficiency Requirements on day one at the event.

 

And APC by Schneider electric senior vice president for innovation Neil Rasmussen will be getting controversial, asking if new physical demands spell the end for traditional raised-floor cooling, also on day one.