Vertiv, formerly Emerson Network Power, has detailed a number of data centre infrastructure trends to watch in 2017.

This year’s trends follow the 2016 data centre trends published by Emerson Network Power last year.

Giordano Albertazzi, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Vertiv said: “In 2016, global macro trends significantly impacted the industry, with new cloud innovations and social responsibility taking the spotlight. As cloud computing has integrated even further into IT operations, the focus will move to improving underlying critical infrastructure as businesses look to manage new data volumes. We believe that 2017 will be the year that IT professionals will invest in future-proofing their data centre facilities to ensure that they remain nimble and flexible in the years to come.'

Vertiv says that data centre cooling has changed more in the last five years than any other data centre system. Fuelled by the desire to drive down energy costs, traditional approaches that focused on delivering ‘maximum cooling’ have been displaced by more sophisticated approaches focused on removing heat as efficiently as possible. Increased use of advanced economiser technologies and the continued evolution of intelligent thermal controls have enabled highly resilient thermal management strategies that support PUEs below 1.2.

Now, while energy efficiency remains a core concern, water consumption and refrigerant use have emerged as important considerations in select geographies. Thanks to the expanded range of thermal management strategies available today, data centre operators are tailoring thermal management based on data centre location and resource availability. Global market trends show an increase in the use of new technologies leveraging evaporative and adiabatic cooling that use water to cool the surrounding air. These technologies are delivering highly efficient, reliable and economical thermal management.

Where water availability or costs are an issue, waterless cooling systems have gained traction. A traditional open-loop chilled water-based system uses about 4 million gallons of water to cool 1 MW of IT capacity in one year. New technologies featuring pumped-refrigerant economisers that use no water and introduce no outside air into the data centre will save over 1 billion gallons of water in North America in 2016.