Vertiv to continue investing in developing Low GWP refrigerant-based products

India’s expanding building sector and rising per capita income will likely fuel unprecedented demand for cooling technologies.

While interacting with Thermal Control Business Update, Alok Rajput, Senior Director, Thermal Management Sales, Vertiv, said that our solutions enable reliability and optimized performance of data centers, maximizing cooling efficiency.

 

Do you view the data center being awarded infrastructure status in the budget? 

The pandemic has changed the way businesses operate, and hybrid working has become the need of the hour. With IT infrastructure becoming critical to support this work environment and the surge in the data creation, consumption patterns, and the regulatory requirement for companies to localize data has resulted in data centers playing a crucial role in this transition. We, at Vertiv, have welcomed this move of data centers being awarded infrastructure status by the finance minister. India’s co-location data center industry is predicted to likely double its capacity from 499 megawatts in 2021 to 1088 megawatts by 2023. In the next five years, the government aims to target investment of INR three lakh crore and plans to allocate roughly 3-4% capital investment as an incentive to enterprises. This would include additional benefits such as real estate and quicker clearances. 

We believe that apart from Vertiv, several players in the data center market have also welcomed this move. Organizations are adopting technology to scale their businesses and ensure business continuity in uncertainties. And this will only boost the need for data centers, making them an increasingly essential commodity in the business landscape.

 

How big is the data center liquid cooling market? What are the various cooling solutions available at Vertiv for heat-generated extraction?

 According to Market Study Report, the global data center cooling market share is estimated to record a CARG of 11.4% over 2022-28 and hit a valuation of USD 17,346 million during this period. The accelerated growth rate in the data center cooling industry is due to growing investments in commercial and industrial infrastructure in India. This gives the industry a platform to continually develop and introduce newer technologies and improve the capabilities of existing cooling systems.

In terms of cutting-edge technology, there is a global push for high-efficiency choices and technologies focused on renewable and lowimpact energy across industries and markets, including data centers. At Vertiv, some of our solutions include inrow cooling, rack cooling, evaporative free cooling, and free cooling chillers. Our solutions enable reliability and optimized performance of data centers, maximizing cooling efficiency and protecting our customers’ missioncritical equipment. Last year, Vertiv partnered with (Green Revolution Cooling) GRC to introduce its first highly efficient liquid immersion cooling solutions that offer improved cooling efficiencies in dense computing environments that increasingly support data-intensive applications, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and automation, etc.

Research by Reportlinker.com anticipates that indirect cooling will account for a significant market share. According to this study, indirect or direct liquid cooling is considered a prevalent method, including liquid-to-chip and direct or indirect-to-chip cooling systems. Indirect or liquid-to-chip cooling, also known as direct-to-chip or cold plate cooling, employs a chilled water loop to transport heat from the server to the outside. Research also found that efficient and innovative cooling technologies, such as cold water, evaporative and liquid cooling, are increasingly used in data centers.

 

What factors are driving the data center cooling market in India? 

The finance minister granting infrastructure plus the increased growth of data centers acts as a significant factor in driving the development of the cooling industry. With hyper-scale data centers becoming more familiar with handling the increased data loads, the cooling market gains critical importance, especially in the hybrid work environment. Additionally, a push from the government to create more data center sites in the country will increase the need for more cooling. 

 

What kind of hyper-scale data centers are necessary to continually increase data volume? The pandemic has pushed data center providers to automate processes and allow for zero-touch operating of the facilities, leading to increased use of hyper-scale and edge data centers that would enable zero-touch computing across industries. Hyperscale also provides more flexibility in computing, connectivity, storage, and increased power requirements. With the rise in more sophisticated technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, 5G, and automation, hyper-scale data centers are becoming a favored choice. This enables low latency and faster data processing from any location. Another important factor driving the move to hyper-scale data centers is that they are highly agile, can scale quickly, and can adapt to the changing external business landscape. These data centers help move mission-critical software to the cloud in a smooth and more manageable process and support enterprises in managing their data efficiently.

 

What is the future of cooling when the industry is focused on carbon emission strategies, and cooling solutions are high consumers of power?

 Global warming has heightened the demand for cooling systems on a personal and industrial level. Furthermore, India’s expanding building sector and rising per capita income will likely fuel unprecedented demand for cooling technologies. In a tropical nation like India, where the resource usage conversation is now at the forefront of every innovation, businesses must invest in cooling solutions with low environmental effects.As data centers grow, new cooling solutions are needed to limit carbon emissions and keep them energy efficient. Reliable and efficient cooling systems are crucial to limiting carbon emissions. Vertiv has been investing in developing Low GWP refrigerant based products to meet industry best practices and assist in reducing CO2 emissions. Vertiv also offers a variety of DX and CW systems that blend direct and indirect free cooling solutions to maximise efficiency, improve reliability, and reduce environmental impact.

 

What growth and opportunities do you see for future data center projects? 

With the government providing faster clearances and real estate incentives to data center providers for setting up sites in India, we are seeing many new projects being undertaken. Additionally, with regulatory norms in the banking sector requiring that data be localized, data center providers will need to set up facilities across the country. 

 

Any suggestions for improvement in operations and management practices for data centers? Data center management can be complex because of the large size of sites and the sophistication of the equipment. Some ways in which enterprises can manage their facilities better are by monitoring the energy usage of the equipment at their facilities, optimizing supply air temperatures and the computer room cooling infrastructure, and improving air pressure management and transformer efficiency.

 

Tell us about your growth plans for the future. 

Vertiv is a digital infrastructure provider that combines hardware, software, analytics, and ongoing services to ensure its customers’ vital applications run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most critical challenges facing today’s data centers, 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. Vertiv’s portfolio includes critical power solutions like uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS), DC power systems, industrial AC power systems, and thermal management solutions like enclosure cooling, heat rejection, room cooling, racks, and enclosures, IT management and monitoring, and maintenance and service solutions.