Water in my data centre

For many data centre managers, leaks and floods are high on the list of things to fear in terms of what could go wrong within a data centre. Most data centres have dedicated leak detection systems and bunding underfloor to minimise the risks of a leak causing too much havoc.

Despite all this, many data centre managers I know have experienced a leak or incursion within a data centre and know there is nothing funny about having to deal with them and the knock on consequences.

So it is not surprising that many data centre managers will say they try and avoid water in their data centres at all costs. Of course they may have a chilled water loop within their facility but will probably go to lengths to indicate that the pipework runs outside the data halls and an over-sensitive leak detection system is in place.

They say water and electricity don't mix and they are right generally, although I've seen occasions where they have mixed and little more than luck saved the data centre and probably someone's job too! I once managed a data centre that operated for weeks on end with power cables that were submerged in three inches of water beneath the raised floor!

I've also experience a data centre which during a major storm managed to get struck by lightning causing sufficient damage to the roof that rain then ran down the walls behind some wall mounted switch gear and proceeded to fill up the underfloor void inside the LV switch room. There were engineers with wet/dry vacuum cleaners sucking out the water as it filled up all afternoon!

So are we right to be fearful of water in the data centre? What about the new high density solutions that use water. Rack exit doors, in-row cooling, etc, are we not just going to see more of these technologies and therefore more water within the data centre.

We've had water cooled computers since the 1950's actually so it is nothing new. However the scale of pipes, joints as well as the service life-time of today's water cooled computing is quite different to a water cooled mainframe from 50 odd years ago.

We do have some way to go before data centre managers feel comfortable having water pumping through their data centre halls via hoses, pipes and connectors down at the rack level and knowing that the maintainability of such items have stood the test of time.

I think we are going to see more solutions that use water (or a suitable liquid coolant) to extract the heat from closer to its source as time goes on so if you are one of those that fears water in your data centre, now is the time to starting conquering that fear and figuring out how to deal with what's coming.