EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
WHAT DATA CENTRE TRENDS ARE CURRENTLY SHAPING THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY AND HOW SHOULD BUSINESS LEADERS BE ADAPTING THEIR APPROACH ?
The past year has seen many of us working from home and spending a lot more time using streaming services and staying indoors . This has caused a greater demand on data centres worldwide leading to increased sales of equipment . Additionally , demand will also be driven by 5G data , Internet of Things ( IoT ) applications , the evolution of Edge Computing and local data centres which will all impact this market significantly in the coming years .
A key area for data centres is thermal management . Most data centres rely on air-conditioned rooms and large heat sinks for the individual components . However , in the future , this may not be feasible for all cases , especially in smaller Edge Computing sites . Power consumption is always a big concern for data centres and hence we expect to see more passively cooled centres , leading to a more careful selection of thermal materials . Direct liquid cooling or even immersion cooling is seeing some greater interest in recent years but regardless of the overall thermal strategy adopted , the considerations around Thermal Interface Materials ( TIMs ) are crucial .
TIMs are required to transfer heat from the operating component to its heatsink . In a data centre , TIMs can be found on processors and chipsets on sever boards , various switch and supervisor components and in the power supplies , to name a few locations .
Many have used and continue to use typical thermal greases for their TIM in data centres , while these present good thermal conductivity and easy application , they are susceptible to pumpout and becoming brittle over time . This limits thermal performance in the long run and requires maintenance on the system . Alternative forms of TIMs such as pads and phase change materials are gaining traction , enabling even easier application and longer lifetimes .
Another key trend for data centres is the increasing power density . 1 kW per rack may have been considered a high power density in the past , but in 2018 , the average was closer to 7 kW . However , for many large data centres , 15 kW per rack may be more typical , with some reaching 20 kW or more .
A critical challenge with this increase is managing the heat generated . This is another key driver for higher performance and longer lifetime TIMs , a trend that will only continue to grow in importance .
The report from IDTechEx , Thermal Interface Materials 2021 – 2031 : Technologies , Markets and
Opportunities , considers the forms and compositions of TIMs , benchmarks commercial products and details new advanced materials .
It also analyses current TIM applications in emerging markets as well as the key drivers and requirements in these areas such as electric vehicle batteries , data centres , LEDs , 4G and 5G infrastructure , smartphones , tablets and laptops . In addition , 10-year granular market forecasts are given for each of these segments in terms of application area and tonnage .
34 INTELLIGENTCIO EUROPE www . intelligentcio . com