Data Centers employ a variety of different technologies. As such, colocation professionals must have a broad base of knowledge and must be committed to ongoing learning. Electrical power, air conditioning, computer server technology, networking, virtualization, internet communications, monitoring/alert systems, building security, and cyber security are just some of the subjects.
Artificial Intelligence is the latest topic to be mastered. AI applications will increase performance and productivity in data centers. Client adoption of AI technology will have an even bigger impact on colocation. The custom servers required for AI applications consume much more electric power and generate significantly more heat than the servers used just a few years ago.
AI May Eliminate Raised Floors
To support the requirements of AI systems, technical teams need to revisit power distribution designs and heat management approaches. Surprisingly, the demands of AI might lead to a change in the design of the floors in data centers.
Data Center floor designs have not changed much since the 1960’s when mainframe computers first became popular. Raised floors were a practical solution to problems associated with mainframe installations. Power cables, system cables, and communications cables were much bigger and heavier back then. Raised floors, built from 1 to 6 feet above the base floor, provided plenty of space for bulky power cables and system cables. Even telecom cables for “high bandwidth” 56 Kbps circuits were much thicker than the CAT 5 and CAT 6 copper ethernet cables of today.
Raised floors offered additional benefits. They provided room to place data cables in trays separated from power cables to minimize the impact of electrical noise on the cables carrying data. They also served as a cost-effective way for cool air from air conditioning systems to spread through the floor below the data center and up through perforations in strategically placed floor tiles to cool the equipment in the cabinets above.
Today fiber optic cables have much higher bandwidth than copper cables. They are also less susceptible to noise. Positioning communication and inter-system cables above data cabinets is now a viable option. Moving power cables from under the floor is also an option.
Dramatic increases in power and heat may lead to abandoning the raised floor design of most data centers. The average power used per cabinet (Rack Density) has been on the rise for many years. Over the past 20 years most colocation clients consumed between 2 KW and 5 KW of electrical power per cabinet. Average rack density jumped to 8.5 KW in 2023 and will jump to an estimated 12 KW per cabinet in 2024 (Per AFCON’s State of the Data Center Report).
Traditional air-cooling is adequate for rack densities up to 20 KW. Greater power use may require a change to liquid cooling or other technologies. Higher power requirements and heat output may lead to the end of raised floors in data centers.
Wholesale Data Centers Leading the Way
Construction of larger new data centers is underway for wholesale colocation clients, such as Google and Meta. These data centers employ highly efficient designs to manage power, heat, and cost. Cabinets rest directly on concrete floors. Air cooling flows through ducts from above the cabinets in combination with liquid cooling systems in the cabinets. Power, system, and communication cables connect to the cabinets from the ceiling.
Though technological change is a given in the world of colocation data centers, it is unusual that the adoption of AI may impact a proven infrastructure architecture such as raised floors. Though new data centers may eliminate raised floors from the start, most existing facilities, such as CAPS, plan to migrate to a world without raised floors over time.
