What are some data center cooling strategies other than air conditioning?

Lauren,

Any cooling solution that would involve heat transfer via air through the server would be air conditioning. There are a few solutions out there that are not “air conditioning” but they are not accepted at a significant level at this time. Direct fluid cooling to the equipment seems to be the most widely followed at this time and seems that it may have a future. With direct fluid cooling, a cooling fluid (water, glycol, or some other media) is chilled and fed through plumbing directly into the machine releasing heat. The chilled fluid is looped over the heat source like the processor or power supply to remove the heat. The now heated fluid is pumped out of the system to the heat exchanger of whatever technology you choose to be chilled and then cycled back in. This is a more efficient design that removes the heat directly from its source using a medium that is much more efficient at thermal transfer than air.

I don’t know of any datacenter using this on any real scale at this time. All of the equipment needs to be purpose built to use cooling like this. There is a fear of having a fluid pumped through all of your expensive hardware and the potential it has for damage. Till such a time that this technology can prove its self to be mature and reliable I don’t see it getting any real traction.