Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has announced that it has partnered with National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore in the development of a state-of-the-art data center testbed facility.
Vertiv has provided racks, rack power distribution (rPDU), and high-density cooling solutions to demonstrate advanced thermal management technologies to support data centers located in tropical locations.
Known as the Sustainable Tropical Data center Testbed (STDCT), the testing facility is the first-of-its-kind in the region. It was developed with the goal to enhance Singapore’s competitiveness in sustainable and efficient data center solutions. In this facility, innovative thermal management technologies will be tested to identify potential operational risks and design de-risking measures suited for the tropical climate.
“In recent years, we’ve seen a shift of data center investments in tropical locations across Asia, largely due to decentralization and global expansion. With the growth in investments, Singapore has been touted as a key data center hub in the region,” said Hitesh Prajapati, Country Manager for Vertiv. “However, cooling high-density compute applications, especially in hot and humid tropical climates, can be a challenge. Traditional free-cooling methods that rely on cool, outdoor air to support IT equipment will not be as effective in tropical climates common in Singapore and many countries in Southeast Asia. This facility is an excellent avenue for us to showcase our latest thermal management technologies that support tropical climates.”
In support of STDCT’s drive towards sustainability, Vertiv provided a row-based coolant distribution unit (CDU) that utilizes a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger for effective heat transfer of the IT heat load. The CDU supplies cold water to proprietary cold plates developed by NUS and CoolestDC, forming an effective solution for IT equipment cooling. CoolestDC is a Singapore-based deep tech thermal, power, performance and carbon management company.
“Working together with Vertiv has allowed us to develop an advanced chip cooling solution to support high-density servers and computing equipment. The solutions deployed to STDCT will allow customers, researchers, and even the academe to appreciate the latest technologies available to cool data centers in tropical climates,” said Associate Professor Lee Poh Seng, Program Director of STDCT. Assoc Prof Lee is also from the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the NUS College of Design and Engineering.
More than a physical facility, STDCT is a technology- and operator-agnostic co-innovation program that aims to understand and address the cooling needs of tropical data centers to meet challenges pertaining to significant power and cooling consumptions, carbon footprint and increasing rack density.
Customers can witness the Vertiv data center solutions in operation by visiting STDCT located in the Kent Ridge campus of NUS.
