Environmental requirements, energy efficiency, and increasing computing densities are fundamentally changing how data centers need to be cooled. Liquid cooling is an order of magnitude more efficient than air cooling for IT equipment in data centers—making it a strategic necessity for both new builds and the retrofitting of existing facilities.

IDED (formerly known as SDIA) co-authored this whitepaper with EKWB, a specialist in liquid cooling technology. The paper examines the evolution of data center cooling technologies and presents arguments for the transition to liquid cooling.

The whitepaper covers:

• Efficiency Gains: Liquid cooling achieves significantly higher cooling efficiency than air-based systems, directly reducing the energy overhead of data center operations.

• Increasing Computing Densities: HPC and AI workloads generate heat densities that air cooling can no longer effectively dissipate. Liquid cooling enables higher rack densities, thus opening up new operational models.

• Sustainability Goals: Lower energy consumption for cooling directly reduces CO₂ emissions and improves PUE metrics—both increasingly relevant for regulatory requirements and customer specifications.

• New Builds and Retrofitting: The whitepaper addresses both greenfield projects and practical considerations for retrofitting existing air-cooled facilities.

The complete whitepaper is available for download.