The rapid growth of global data centres driven by rising cloud usage and energy hungry artificial intelligence services is putting pressure on operators to manage intense heat loads. A recent outage that shut down trading on a major currency and futures platform has renewed attention on how vulnerable facilities can become when cooling systems fail.
The disruption was traced to a cooling problem at a large data centre near Chicago run by a global operator that manages more than 55 facilities across the United States, Europe and Japan. Engineering teams were deployed quickly to restore the cooling system and bring operations back online. Data centres rely on racks of continuously running servers that generate significant heat. Experts warn that chips must remain within safe temperature ranges or they will malfunction or shut down. Daniel Mewton, a partner in the infrastructure, energy and natural resources sector at a law firm, said, “The chips that are in those data centres need to stay within certain temperatures, otherwise they either malfunction or they turn off.”
To manage increasing heat, more operators are turning to liquid based systems instead of air cooling because liquids can remove heat far more efficiently. Liquid cooling comes with challenges that include leak risks, corrosion concerns and the need for specialized maintenance. It can also demand substantial water use. Companies are trying to reduce dependence on external water supplies. A major technology company introduced a data center model that uses zero water by recycling it through a closed loop between servers and chillers. Some operators are also deploying systems that capture and reuse waste heat.
Cooling related outages remain rare. Mewton noted that data centres usually promise uptime levels above 99.99% to meet strict contract requirements. He added that failures directly tied to cooling systems are even less common than power issues. Still, surging global demand for data infrastructure has fuelled a wave of deals as companies invest heavily in power and cooling capacity. According to one law firm, cooling can account for up to 40% of a data centre’s total energy use. In recent months, a power management firm agreed to acquire a thermal business for USD 9.5%, while another industry peer announced a USD 1 billion acquisition to expand its liquid cooling services.
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