Water cooling in data centers: Is it a good idea?
IBM says the water cooling technology used in its supercomputers could be a feature in all servers by 2019. 
According an IBM executive speaking at a recent data center conference in London, U.K., liquid-cooling could be “universal” in 10 years, reports eWeek Europe.
IBM removes heat in its Power575 supercomputers by placing water-chilled copper plates above the microprocessors. Big Blue says the result is that customers need 80% fewer air conditioning units and reduces the energy for cooling a data center by 40%. IBM scientists says water is up to 4,000-times more effective than air in cooling computer systems. The scientists are now working on embedding water cooling technology on a chip. When the water is at its hottest, it is syphoned off the chip to be used in heating a building or for hot water (perhaps to make coffee?).
HP also uses water cooling technology for its high-end servers but the company is also investing in what it calls its Smart Cooling technology, which dynamically allocates cooling resources to where and when they’re needed most. According to HP, Smart Cooling dynamically apportions air conditioning by measuring temperature distribution throughout a data center. HP said the technology helped it cut 25% off cooling costs in its own data centers.
Sun too uses water cooling in its High Performance Computing (HPC) family. Called the Sun Cooling Door technology, customers have a choice of either using chilled water or refrigerant gas. With chilled water, heat is removed by using chilled water from any source that can maintain a controlled temperature and flow rate. Sun describes its refrigerant gas option as a “rear-door passive design” that uses refrigerant gas coolant.
However, Sun’s own blogger Valdis Filks, is no fan of water cooling technology–specifically water cooling CPUs. In a blog post last year, Filks wrote: “We are just making computers so much more difficult to manage by adding water cooling within servers.” Filks gives four problems with water cooling within computers:
1) Complexity (need water in addition to all other cabling within datacenter)
2) Extra costs (any addition to electicity water cooling requires additional power in a datacenter, which adds costs)
3) Safety (water and electricity are a dangerous mixture, always a risk of water leaks)
4) Increase management (need a whole extra water cooling infrastructure and pipework)
Filks adds:
“A green datacenter should not have water cooled computers. Anyone using this water cooling to heat the building is adding immense complexity. What happens when we kick out the water cooled computer, do people in the building freeze. If we have a water pipe leakage do we have to swith off the water cooled computer while the rest of the air cooled computers continue running. Water cooling computers just have too many downsides and add so much more complexity. We can make life more simple by avoiding water cooled servers and using air cooled systems.”
While some critics say water and electronics don’t mix, you’ll be happy to know that Ravica SensorProbes monitor water leaks, as well as the temperature, humidy, voltage, smoke and security in data centers.