Schneider Electric Announces Industry's First Integrated Rack with Immersed, Liquid-Cooled IT for Data Centers

- Integrated, fulfilled and supported by Avnet, this solution combines a GPU server with Iceotope's innovative chassis-based, immersion cooling technology and Schneider Electric's NetShelter liquid-cooled enclosure system

- Marks a milestone in industrializing liquid-cooled server solutions that promise lower operating costs, higher efficiencies, smaller footprint, and fan-less operation even as chip densities rise

News provided by

Schneider Electric

Dec 09, 2019, 09:00 ET

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference – Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, with Avnet and Iceotope, announce the creation of the industry's first commercially-available integrated rack with chassis-based, immersive liquid cooling. Optimized for compute-intensive applications, the solution combines a high-powered GPU server with Iceotope's liquid cooling technology to increase energy efficiency. Avnet integrates the liquid-cooled server with Schneider Electric's NetShelter liquid-cooled enclosure system for simple deployment into data centers or edge computing environments. The system is EcoStruxure™ Ready since the solution is available with next generation data center management software, EcoStruxure IT Expert and our digital service EcoStruxure Asset Advisor. The joint solution was unveiled at the Schneider Electric booth (#510) at Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Las Vegas.

This first-of-its-kind liquid-cooled solution is ideal for applications such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning algorithm training development, where high compute demands more energy use. In a recent report published by Gartner, liquid cooling was identified as a technology to watch. Analyst Henrique Cecci advised data center operators "maximize cooling energy efficiencies by employing modern liquid cooling solutions¹." Liquid cooling offers greater efficiency, lower operating costs, smaller footprint, increased reliability, and nearly silent operation despite the high-power density of the GPUs. Avnet, Iceotope, and Schneider Electric plan to expand the offering as demand grows by welcoming other server OEMs into the partnership.

"Schneider Electric is committed to making data centers more sustainable and liquid cooling is a very compelling approach," said Kevin Brown, CTO and SVP of Innovation, Secure Power, Schneider Electric, who is presenting on liquid cooling at the Gartner conference. "This latest development marks a significant step toward industrializing chassis-based immersion solutions which offer the efficiency and effectiveness of tanks based solutions while providing the compatibility and serviceability of more traditional, 'direct-to-chip' liquid-cooling designs. Given the growth of compute-intensive applications, we believe this approach is very promising."

Adapting to changing markets, trends, and technologies
"As a leading global technology solutions provider, Avnet has always exceled at adapting to changing markets, trends, and technologies," said Scott MacDonald, global president, Avnet Integrated. "We do well at this by partnering with the world's best technology designers and hardware manufacturers. In this case, we're partnering with liquid cooling-specialist, Iceotope, and global infrastructure giant, Schneider Electric, to make the best possible liquid cooling solutions for our customers. We're excited to integrate, fulfill, and support this solution that smartly addresses customer cooling challenges around rising chip densities, harsh IT environments, rising energy costs, water use restrictions, and space constraints."

"Iceotope is thrilled to be making its innovative chassis-level, immersive liquid cooling technology available to the general market," said David Craig, CEO of Iceotope. "We offer the only liquid cooling tech that scales easily from edge computing devices to large server farms in the cloud. And compared to direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems, our approach is more efficient, more reliable, saves more space, eliminates fans, and when deployed across the data center, it lowers cost."

For more information about liquid cooling technologies, their application to data centers and edge computing environments, and to inquire about this new integrated, liquid-cooled rack solution, please visit this liquid cooling information page.

About Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference
The Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2019 provides a clear strategic direction and actionable tactics to drive infrastructure and operations change in the enterprise. Follow news from the Conference at #GartnerIO.

About Schneider Electric
At Schneider, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment.

We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries.

We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

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About Avnet
Avnet is a global technology solutions provider with an extensive ecosystem delivering design, product, marketing and supply chain expertise for customers at every stage of the product lifecycle. We transform ideas into intelligent solutions, reducing the time, cost and complexities of bringing products to market. For nearly a century, Avnet has helped its customers and suppliers around the world realize the transformative possibilities of technology. Learn more about Avnet at www.avnet.com.

About Iceotope
Iceotope's next generation cooling technologies manage the heat generated by electronics from the cloud to the edge. Our chassis-level immersion cooling technologies – with precision delivery of dielectric liquid – can easily accommodate the increasing heat loads from the latest processor roadmaps. Engineered to fit all standard form factors including retrofit, our technologies can cool the whole IT stack – in every use case – from the cloud to the edge. They can also be compacted into smaller custom form factors to enable edge compute, networking and storage in place that just haven't been possible until now. By removing the need for fans and air-cooling infrastructure our technologies operate in pure silence, bringing game-changing reductions in energy and water consumption, and significant cost reductions in the design, build and operation of data centers. Because our technologies are sealed and impervious to dust, heat and humidity, they can be deployed in the harshest environments. www.iceotope.com

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¹ Gartner, "The Future of Enterprise Data Centers —What's Next", Published: 24 April 2019 ID: G00384249

SOURCE Schneider Electric