Cold Plate or Direct-to-chip Liquid Cooling method emerged as an alternative to air cooling and proved itself to be a huge leap forward from the primitive air cooling technologies in the data centers. But as the data centers have grown in capacity and technology in the last decade, this technology has started encountering various problems in this modern data center setup. While it turned out to be a great spot-fix for isolated heating issues, the cost, complexity, and risk associated with cold plate cooling technology have become obstacles to larger-scale adoption in the current situation. There are various more economical options available that deliver superior thermal performance and cooling of servers/components that wouldn’t be feasible with cold plate technology.

In cold plate method of cooling, the chip in the server is cooled by attaching a liquid-cooled metal plate directly on top of the CPU. The coolant is delivered via pipes directly to the cold plate which absorbs heat through a heat-spreading material from chip to the plate. The heated liquid from the cold plate transmits through a coolant distribution unit to the facility water loop which circulates it through a chiller or cooling tower before transmitting the coolant back to the cold plate.

Cold plate or direct-to-chip cooling method can only cool about 60%-70% of the heat load in a data center as it just cools the CPU, for the remaining heat dissipation it usually depends on older and ineffective air cooling methods. Being one of the oldest forms of liquid cooling methods it can be considered among the most popular forms of liquid cooling. Although it has shown better efficiency and performance in comparison to air cooling, its cost, complexity, and potential risks have started giving way to better and more economic solutions like single-phase immersion cooling.

Cold plate liquid cooling served as a stepping stone from air cooling to liquid cooling facilitating and showcasing the advantages of moving away from air-cooled data centers. With time various other innovations in the liquid cooling segment have taken it to another level altogether and surpassed cold plate technology in every possible way. Listed below are the most obvious flaws being experienced with cold plate liquid cooling.

a. Efficiency

The cold plate technology cannot take care of complete cooling needs of the data center and therefore requires dependence on server fans and also chillers, air handlers, and other air conditioning equipment, which increases the OPEX of the facility.

Most modern cold plate systems deliver a PUE somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.15, which is quite high in comparison to other liquid cooling solutions available today.

b. Cooling Liquid

 Cold plate liquid cooling uses water or water-glycol mix as the cooling liquid. Water being a good conductor of electricity, needs to be contained within heat sinks and plumbed individually to chips, it is at times physically impossible to fit and plumb multiple cold plates to every CPU and GPU within a high-density server.

c. Capacity

Cold plate cooling technology must theoretically support higher heat influx by using a liquid that offers higher thermal conductivity. But practically this has little to no impact on the power density cold plate can support on a per-server or per-rack basis, which max out at 50 to 60 kW in rack density, making it unsuitable for many next-gen apps and high-density facilities.

d. Reliability

The complexity of cold plate solutions can present significant reliability issues. First, the sheer number of intricate parts and fittings creates numerous failure points. Furthermore, leaks can be catastrophic. The coolant liquid being water here: the enemy of electrical components.

Since server fans are still required, this introduces vibration and poses yet another point of failure. It also exposes IT equipment to environmental assaults (e.g., moisture and airborne particulates), which can hasten deterioration and impact MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures).

e. Flexibility

As for location flexibility, the two things that work against cold plate liquid cooling  are the facts that it requires air conditioning infrastructure that is very energy-and cost-inefficient at a smaller scale. It magnifies capital, power, and site constraints. Plus, the fact that components are exposed to air can make these systems a no-go for deployments in harsh environments.

In my multiple posts earlier, I have already established the fact liquid cooling is always a better option than air cooling. But, liquid cooling has evolved significantly from cold plate and we now have the perfected version of liquid immersion cooling, which is turning out to be the latest and the best technology available for data center cooling. In my previous post, I have compared the different generations of cooling technologies in a data center Immersion Cooling and shared the thought process we had when we, at Prasa, decided to bring the technology to India.

The outbreak of coronavirus has drastically changed all our lives by making us home-bound, and it would be an understatement to say that these are difficult times for all of us, as we hear about the proliferation of Covid-19 from all over the world. Anywhere we look, TV, social media, Whatsapp, even video calls with friends and family deliver some intel on the Covid situation, the relevance of some information more questionable than others! With this bombardment of negative information and so much uncertainty, it is becoming normal for all of us to feel scared, panicked, anxious, and stressed.

Covid-19 has definitely entailed negative outcomes, fear, and a staggering economy; but it also has a silver lining. It has given us an opportunity to save the world by staying on our couch, which might seem like an elaborate campaign for Netflix, but it is funnily true enough!

After 70 days of lockdown there is one thing that all of us know that while Netflix, Amazon Prime, and all other distractions have been instrumental, we need to mind our mind to not let the panic set in. While we can easily track the rising number of corona cases around us, but we cannot track the causalities from panic, anxiety attacks, stress levels, and mental health distress. If we could, we would see the numbers are much higher and choose to make positivity a priority. Today, I am going to talk about how to focus and keep a positive outlook while dealing with the pandemic.

• An opportunity in disguise – Remember that book you always wanted to read? the course you wanted to complete? and that friend you have been meaning to call for months?

And there was just never enough time. This is an opportunity to finally do all the things you never had the time for before. Choose a hobby or go back to an old one.

• Do activities with your kids – If you can have kids, do fun activities with your kids. It does not just help you build that special bond with your child, but activities like painting and storytelling can be very therapeutic for you as well.

• Opt for a healthier lifestyle – On every 1^st of January, all of us make a list of resolution, which is usually topped with choosing a healthy lifestyle. Every 10^th of January, we throw it out saying we do not have the time! 2020 gives you an opportunity to actually fulfill this particular resolution. Since you anyways cannot eat out, start eating cleaner and healthier, and start working out a little every day. Trust me it makes a difference in how you feel.

• Limit your news intake – Let us be honest, every time you refresh the browser, log in to your social media handle, or even talk to your friends or family, there will be some content around coronavirus. While it seems normal to stay updated with the rising numbers and learn the danger of coronavirus, spending every waking hour around such content can be scary and exhaustive. Instead, opt for one news source and dedicate only a set amount of time each day on that.

• Consume positive and funny content – Filter out your social media with only posts that make you feel happy and positive. Watch relaxing videos, instead of surrounding yourself with a feed that will leave you anxious and stressed.

All Harry Potter fans can finally relate to what Dumbledore meant when he said, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” Allow happiness to trickle through to you during these precarious times, one video at a time!

• Change your routine – End your days, every day, with positive acknowledgment and gratitude for everything you have accomplished, learned or are grateful for. It is going to help tackle negative energy and thoughts, and help you understand that not everything is sad or negative.

As the famous quote goes, it is important to remember that “This too Shall Pass”. We will all recover from Covid and so will the economy; then these 2 months will be remembered as the time when we all cooked delicacies every day and found the time to spend with our loved ones. Until then, let’s not lose sight of our priorities and consider the lockdown as a ‘time-out’ for a generation that just never had enough time before.

Covid-19 has drastically changed our lives and the world around us. While we wait to go back to normal, let me tell you a fact, there is no longer a normal available to go back to, and our lives will no longer be the same after coronavirus. To be honest, I don’t think be we should consider this as negative, maybe we do not need to go back to normal, maybe it is an opportunity for us to evolve.

I recently saw a LinkedIn live session by Simon Sinek, with a very interesting insight.  It talked about a concept called infinite mindset and how it helps the society as a whole understand and evolve out of the pandemic with the use of some examples.

According to Simon Sinek, the author of the book ‘The Infinite Game’, Infinite mindset means knowing that such a calamity has taken place before and while it is very horrible, we evolve from it. For argument sake, lets consider a situation where the human lifespan is 1000 years, we would have witnessed a few pandemics until now and we would know that we will come out of it. Just like in our current lifespan, when we hear a cyclone approaching, we know it’s destructive, but we can deal with it!

I am in no way trying to underplay the graveness of the pandemic; I am just trying to tell you that each one of us is equipped to deal with it.

Let’s compare the changing order from coronavirus with the changes due to the internet. While for starters life has never been the same as it was. Companies that did not adapt to the internet were driven out of business and myriad new opportunities were created for people who could evolve and adapt. A good example here would be how the blockbuster video could not survive the rise of content delivery networks and Kodak could not survive the arrival of digital photography due to lack of innovation and adaptability, while newer businesses like Facebook and Bitcoin have taken the world by a storm. So the theory of infinite mindset helps us realize is that things are surely changing, but our lives and especially the business world is not without precedence or capability to accommodate huge changes.

Similarly, the Covid situation has brought us to a place where to keep our businesses relevant, we need to analyze and innovate with our existing resources, to produce solutions and products that are a need of the new world. Although the Covid situation seems damaging for the economy in the short run, it comes with a hoard of opportunities.

We are faced with a new situation due to a pandemic, but this can happen due to various reasons which include

• Owing to the arrival of new technologies – Internet, Digitalization, Artificial intelligence, etc.
• Due to change in particular policies – regulations, outlawing, limiting, or permitting specific activities.
• New ventures disrupt the existing situation by doing business in a different way- Jio
• Customer requirements change over time needing an adjustment in your existing buyers’ persona.

In a finite game, if we consider the example of any sport, function with a defined set of rules specific to the sport. The players know this, and understand that there are normal ways of achieving a permanent victory or lead to checkmate in chess and full time in football.

But business, politics, and marriage are infinite in nature. They cannot be defined by any final victory. The rules are ever-changing and so are the players, which means there is no one way of doing things. A business’ capability to adapt to its circumstance allows it to handle shifting challenges with just innovation and hard work.

The Trump administration is preparing an infrastructure proposal worth approximately $1 trillion to bring the economy back to life. The plan comes to provide impetus to the U.S. economy, which is stuck in depression due to a nationwide lockdown that was instated to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.

The precursory version of the proposal sets aside funds for 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband apart from conventional infrastructure work on roads and bridges. Allocating spending towards technological infrastructure elaborates the onus government puts on technology sector to help bring the country out of recession.

The proposal being prepared by the Department of Transportation, will come as an opportunity for a broader package allocation, with the existing U.S. infrastructure funding law up for renewal by 30 September 2020.

“The proposal is very promising not only in terms of lending a hand to bring the world’s largest economy back to life but also futuristic with focus on 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband. It is a welcome step where the governments around the world are allocating funds towards technological infrastructure development”, said Mr. Jay Burse – President, Prasa Inc.

About Prasa

Prasa is one of India’s leading data center and mission critical infrastructure solutions and services providers, which has now spread its wings to Northern American Region. Having worked closely for over 24 years with a wide range of customers (from growing businesses to global enterprises, and government organizations), we have been able to procure in-depth knowledge of the specific requirements regarding varied industry verticals. To know more about the latest news and events from Prasa, click here.

In just a few months the world has seen a new definition of what is normal. The normalcy of our previous lives no longer applies. The social life that was marked by social gatherings, parties, outings, etc has changed to movie nights on Netflix party, group games on houseparty, playing dress-up parties on skype, etc. The leisure that was signified by long drives and traveling seems like a distant dream and work-life that was marked by commute, office, and professional interaction has changed to working from your couch and zoom calls.

While most IT and corporate employees are accustomed to working with technology, the more interactive professions like teachers, medical professionals, and fitness instructors have also now become reliant on technology. Until the recent circumstances unfolded you could have said that the internet drives most of our lives; now it has become the lynchpin of life itself, whether it is your work life, social life, seeing your loved ones, your doctor, your therapist, etc. This increased dependence on the network is sure to have an effect on the infrastructure that supports it. Let’s talk about how coronavirus will affect the IT infrastructure as we prepare ourselves to be able to go back to our previous ‘normal’.

• Widening the Cloud Coverage – Organizations, educational institutes, healthcare facilities, financial enterprises, etc will all want to be more prepared for future shocks. It is only logical that every enterprise will want to facilitate remote access and remote working by moving more services to the cloud. Considering the dramatic rise in the demand for cloud services, it is obvious that we will see much wider cloud coverage.
• Swift creation of Edge Sites – If there is one thing that quarantine has taught us, it is that we all need faster internet, instant processing, and real-time data. With the increasing demand for cloud services and cost considerations of real-time data, the speed of network distribution to edge sites will be accelerated. The speedy creation of new edge sites will call for quickly deployable and remotely manageable edge data centers.
• Focus on Residential Telecom Bandwidth – The traffic volumes will move from business locations with higher capacity to residential areas with limited capacities. With the complete volume being shifted to these nodes they might see issues like heat dissipation and convergence problems. The network companies will have to shift their focus to increase the residential telecom bandwidth to allow seamless internet for work and fun.

As we create distance socially, our proximity to technology helps us adapt and create a more flexible world. Going forward we sure to strengthen the basis of our IT infrastructure to help us ensure business continuity.

Governments from various countries around the world have started talking about an exit strategy from the current situation of quarantine and complete lockdown. As we prepare to go back to our quotidian lives, we must not forget that a cure or a vaccine is still not available for the coronavirus and we still need to take all the necessary precautions to keep ourselves and our families safe from this pandemic. No matter where you are in the world, apart from the obvious measures of washing your hands and wearing a mask, follow these simple steps to avoid being infected with and the spread of coronavirus.

1. Focus on your health and immunity

Your general health is your primary shield from the coronavirus. Get on a workout schedule to increase your immunity. You can also bolster your immunity with foods rich in Vitamin C and Tulsi (holy basil) water. A healthier lifestyle goes a long way in protecting you from this virus.

2. Precautions at home

When you start stepping out, it becomes very important to protect your family because you might not get infected but might act as a carrier, bringing the virus into your home. To avoid any mishaps, keep your shoes outside, clothes directly in the laundry, and go for a bath with water containing a few drops of an antiseptic liquid.

3. Precautions at work

Wear a mask at all times at your workplace and wash your hands as frequently as possible. While at work, you should keep practicing social distancing and use intercoms & video conferences for any/all communication.  It is important that you keep a safe distance from everyone and avoid sharing your laptops or keyboards with anyone.

The senior-aged staff is the most at risk, so avoid any form of contact with them.

4. Mental wellbeing

Amidst this crisis, it is very important to take care of your mental health to be able to function constructively without panic. Manage your mental health by spending limited time on social media, not falling prey to any kind of false news, and making sure to keep your thoughts and energy as positive as possible.

5. General precautions

1. Try to use only digital payment methods and do not touch any change or currency
2. Sanitize your hands frequently
3. Avoid any kind of proximate gatherings (festivals, functions, etc)
4. Do not eat outside
5. Avoid any kind of travel as much as possible; when you have to, do wear a mask, avoid any form of contact, and carry your food and water
6. Avoid closed spaces like theaters and gyms
7. Take multi-vitamins to balance all micronutrients in your body
8. Continue your social distancing until you absolutely have to avoid
9. Do not touch anything until it is necessary and do not touch your face

6. What to do if you get infected

1. DO NOT PANIC, you can be cured!
2. Visit an authorized medical facility for tests and treatment.

Our world today is a great place for all of us who love technology or its effects. We are surrounded by new and upcoming technologies, each of which brings us a little bit closer to the “future”. We get to read about new applications of Artificial Intelligence, the new developments with Autonomous Vehicles, and wonderful things being done with Augmented Reality. Then there are technologies closer to home like IoT and Content Delivery Networks (Read Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc.), which make our lives easier day and day out. Then there are next-gen technologies in between like 5G and edge computing, which will affect all of these disruptions and more.

Today, allow me to tell you more about how 5G and Edge Computing will impact our individual lives!

There is a reason technology lovers, companies, and consumers are all so excited about the adoption of 5G networks around the world. There is a reason the talks of 5G just keep gaining momentum. That reason is speed. 5G is expected to be lightning-fast and change the download and transfer dynamic significantly. Consider this for reference – currently, 4G with the fastest mobile technology peaks at 300 MB per second. With 5G this speed will be able to reach 10 GB per second under ideal conditions.

So, we know 5G is fast, what will that mean for an individual? All this hype is because our search results will load faster and we will be able to stream 4K videos live?

Although, speeding up our current technological experiences sounds pretty amazing, the speed offered by 5G is much more than just that. This speed will allow mainstreaming of various technologies that have been only a part of sci-fi movies up until now, like self-driving cars, applications of artificial intelligence, etc. Apart from streaming 4K videos, 5G’s speed will also allow our IoT devices like appliances, alarms, televisions, and printers to become intelligent and interactive to make our homes intelligent.

Edge computing is instrumental in facilitating the speed offered by 5G as well as in managing the increasing amount of data being produced with the widespread use of IoT devices. 5G will derive its powers from edge computing, storing and processing data near the users will bolster the speeds provided by 5G. Edge computing will also allow the potential to make our data safe. Created and backed by powerful devices it is only logical that our sensitive data is stored at the edge. 5G along with edge computing keeps data on a trusted server in the user’s proximity and utilizes secure connections offering a certain data liberation for the user of today.

iPhone’s security and privacy features are a brilliant example of edge computing, as apple hosts sensitive biometrics or encryption on user’s devices rather than the cloud, securing sensitive data. Data is the most vulnerable to hacks when being transmitted, so the closer the data is to the user, the more secure it becomes. So, the rise of the edge, with 5G as the catalyst will mean much better privacy for the user.

The move to edge computing was created by IoT and is upheld by 5G along with multiple technological changes that are increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives like, Smart Cities, Artificial Intelligence, Content Delivery Networks, etc.

For an average user, 5G and edge computing will provide better speeds, better data security, and enable brilliant new technologies. The speed will not just allow all technological experience to take a leap, but will also bring in revolutionary new technology accessible. As we are at the doorway to a life surrounded by brilliant technology, these technologies surely look very exciting and promising.

As data centers get ready to take the leap in 2020, accommodating the new technologies. We, at Prasa, gear up to bring in technologies like liquid immersion cooling and edge computing to make data centers that are sustainable and technologically advanced.

We, at Prasa, believe in one revolutionary solution that will control the carbon footprint of the data centers. It will be a result of all the digital disruptions that will gain widespread adoption in the year 2020. The solution we bring is liquid immersion cooling, which will sustain the rising power requirement in data centers with increasing demands for more storage, higher capacities, and faster processing in the data center.

We are in an era of booming technology. We have started seeing test cases of artificial intelligence, pilot roll-outs of 5G, edge computing deployments, massive upheaval in IoT technology, advanced adoption of augmented and virtual reality, existing technologies like cloud computing and blockchain are also evolving to provide better user experiences in response to the technology-driven world that is beginning to surround us.

As these technologies become mainstream, they will call for bigger, better, and omnipresent data centers in response. We gear up our data centers to accommodate all the digital disruption; it embarks a discussion- what major technological changes will the year 2020 bring?

IoT devices will power digital transformation across all industry verticals

In 2020, adoption of IoT devices will colossally increase with these devices becoming a huge part of our quotidian lives. Industry-wise application of IoT is also going to become massive with multiple uses cases making each industry automated and smarter. The presence of IoT devices across industry verticals will result in higher profits and better productivity.

5G will enable the next-gen technologies

5G is more than just another generation of wireless networks – it will have a much broader scope of supporting billions of connected devices and multiple services. 5G and edge computing will together make zero-latency a reality, which will be the backbone of developments like IoT, AI, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, etc.

2019 has already witnessed the initial roll-outs of 5G, but the mass availability of 5G is yet to come, which is expected to gain massive momentum in 2020.

Blockchain applications will gain mass adoption

Blockchain is set to witness large scale adoption this year. “Multi-chain interconnection” realization will strengthen the concept of the internet of value. In 2020, a large number of blockchain applications will see mass adoption and large scale production-grade blockchain applications will emerge.

Artificial Intelligence will showcase widespread application

Artificial intelligence has already shown its mettle in terms of perpetual intelligence like, speech to text, video understanding, etc. 2020 will see AI progressing further in aspects of cognitive intelligence as well; the areas which require logical reasoning and external knowledge.

This development will allow AI to showcase widespread application in areas with continuous learning to establish effective mechanisms for a wide range of functions. It will help machines understand and use the knowledge on a much higher level.

Edge Computing will be in the lynchpin in all technological developments

All the digital developments we have discussed have two very important aspects – they will require very fast speeds to become mainstream and they will create a huge amount of data. Both of these requirements will be managed by edge computing.

Edge computing will mark a shift in enterprise IT, by moving data processing and storage at the edge. This will not just significantly bring down the latency but also handle and secure the plethora of data we create.

As our reliance on these technologies increases, so does the data they create. We are already living in a world where the ever-increasing data being created has already become the most precious commodity. The increasing data will need higher processing and storage capabilities, which means more data centers with much more power consumption in an already power-hungry planet.

And as promising as the technological advancements look, they will very soon become a huge energy burden, if not dealt with sustainably. We at Prasa believe in one revolutionary solution that will reduce the carbon footprint of all of these technologies as they gain widespread adoption in the year 2020. Liquid Immersion Cooling will sustain the rising power requirement in data centers as all these technologies will demand more storage, higher capacities, and faster processing in the data center.

To know more about Liquid Immersion Cooling, click here.

There has been a lot of noise about how the edge will replace the cloud and I previously wrote about this in one of my blog posts. I explained that edge and cloud are technologies that go hand-in-hand and the edge is not completely going to replace the cloud, just diversify its existing structure. The market of the edge although is set to surpass that of the cloud. Cloud will still be the backbone of all the computing that is moving to the edge.

Here I am explaining Edge Cloud, which is the architecture that decentralizes the processing power of our existing network. Edge cloud creates a layered architecture of network connecting the centralized data center with multiple edge data centers.

What are the Advantages of Edge Cloud?

Edge Cloud is well-positioned for distributed data collection points, immediate processing, and data analysis. Therefore the edge cloud model has applications in all industry verticals where the cloud is prevalent, including healthcare, banking, manufacturing, education, etc.

Edge cloud enables a model where instead of connecting to a central server, the users are connected to smaller processing units near them. Edge could landscape allows millions of IoT devices to build a huge smart network and transfer only the analysis to the central location.

The Advantages of Edge Cloud:

1. It decentralizes the core computing solution, thus, limiting a major bottleneck preparing the data processing for the technologies and devices of the future.
2. Data transmission is the stage where data is the most vulnerable, and edge cloud makes the data safer by reducing transmission and using CDN for the remaining transfers.
3. It uses a fraction of bandwidth used with centralized units hence, making the edge cloud solution pocket-friendly.
4. The steep reduction in movement of data will result in reduced congestion, latency, and cost in turn increasing the safety for data. It will eliminate problems associated with centralized cloud systems.
5. It will also increase the flexibility, reliability, and scalability of the data processing solutions.
6. It will eliminate latency which will make technologies life 5G possible.

Being equipped with artificial intelligence, edge cloud will be able to make decisions on its own, so that physical security will become a remote concept.

The edge cloud has been designed as a system of open and interconnected data centers. As a fairly new concept, it has certain aspects that will unveil themselves as we start using the technology. But the one thing that is quite certain about is edge is that it will bring the data processing closer to the user; it might be located in a town nearby or just across the street. This will enable hosting of persistent, on-demand applications in strict latency restraint. It will use caching that responds to and anticipates local streaming demands. It is the viable future of cloud computing.

The edge cloud will also be fundamental to the evolution of networks to enable necessary security to support new services and applications, opening several new verticals to business opportunities. By starting now to prepare and implement edge infrastructure, we can begin to address these opportunities and be ready for the next evolutionary steps of their networks, including 5G.