What is a high-density colocation? 

12.06.2024 584 0

Let’s explore the next-level data center – the high-density colocation data center. What is so great about it? In short, more computer power inside the same space. That opens a lot of new opportunities. Let’s go into the details.

What is a high-density colocation?

A high-density colocation is a data center service type that offers a higher amount of computer power, for the same physical space, compared to traditional colocation data centers. It is not simply adding more servers in the same space, but it is rather a whole system that ensures better performance, compared to traditional data centers. It involves an additional available power supply, efficient power management, excellent cooling solutions, and resilient infrastructure. The goal of high-density data centers is to have a lot better performance, for the same space, and provide overall superior greener, and more efficient service.

In these high-density data centers, you can see a range from 10kW to 200kW per cabinet. The higher the number is the better the cooling system is. That is needed to provide sustainable performance and extend the lifespan of the computer components.

And if you are wondering, “Who can need so much power?”, just think about this. Some CPUs use 350-400W of power and AI GPUs can have even bigger needs of 1000W. Now do you see it? The numbers stuck fast, and the power needs to grow even faster.

The key features of high-density colocation (HDC)

High power density

It has a higher density than the typical data center. Instead of 5-10kW per rack, these new data centers offer above 10kW. 20kW, 30kW, and up to 200kW! The limits are constantly rising, so don’t be surprised to see even higher numbers soon.

Advanced cooling solutions

As you can imagine, these high-density data centers generate a lot more heat, than the traditional ones. Traditional air cooling is usually not enough, and they offer advanced air-cooling solutions, hybrid cooling solutions, and liquid cooling solutions to manage the increased heat.

Efficient power management

The power distribution units (PDUs) and the uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs) have a harder task. They need to ensure the power needs of the servers and handle greater loads.

Scalability

These data centers are also designed with scalability in mind. Clients like you should be able to scale easily and access additional computing power quickly.

Infrastructure resilience

Such data centers have improved redundancy and fault tolerance. They need to provide reliable service and maintain high uptime.

High-density colocation benefits

Better performance. As you can imagine, the future, where AI is dominant will require more computing power. Using High-density colocation, you can get an extra performance boost thanks to all of the optimizations. Such solutions have advanced cooling solutions that permit you to squeeze extra computer power out of the CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs.

Cheaper. Wait a bit. In general, this kind of solution costs more, but think about a few factors. Choosing HDC you will need fewer racks, fewer network devices, and fewer cables. As you can see, you will have fewer capital expenditures, but depending on your needs, you will probably have fewer operating expenditures too.

More sustainable. Having a more advanced data center will bring you the benefit of better energy management. A hybrid liquid-air cooling and the use of dynamic resource management can lower your CO2 footprint and improve your sustainability rating.

• Scalability. Just like the traditional data centers, these new type of data centers offers you scalability. The cool part is that you can get more out of each server. That means that scalability, in terms of performance, has far more potential.

• Space-saving. Putting more power in the same space will save space. No need to go deeper into this point, because you can easily imagine that by using HDC, you will get more computing power, with fewer racks or cabinets.

Use cases of high density colocation data centers

Clients from all kinds of industries are searching for high-density colocation. What is common for them is that they have similar needs, high computer power demand, and limited physical space. Typically, the IT needs and requirements of those clients are strong, but they can benefit significantly from the HDC benefits. Who are they? Here you have the most common clients of these modern data centers:

1. Technology companies like cloud providers. Cloud service providers need the high-performance and improved scalability. They want to be able to expand fast and control their infrastructure easily. The more clients they get, the bigger their needs become. We say cloud providers, and that unites IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS providers, that want to deliver seamless user experiences.

2. Financial services. Banks and financial institutions are big clients of data centers. They need to compute real-time investment data. Trading and risk analysis also take a lot of computer power. Many investment firms and hedge funds use complex algorithms and AI models to make business decisions for millions and billions of dollars.

3. Research and development. Of course, scientists also need high-density colocation. Universities, Health organizations, Pharmacy companies, and more are constantly pushing the boundaries of science, searching for new useful molecules, studying the genetics of animals and humans, simulating climate change, and more. Engineering firms also use complicated algorithms to perform engineering simulations and more. Science is one of the top clients of HDC. Yes, it is often that science organizations use supercomputers, but depending on the task, it could be more practical to use a smaller server or servers.

4. Media and entertainment. Have you seen what AI is doing to the media business recently? Everything started with text screenplay generation, then image generation, and now there are VFXs AI solutions and video generators like Sora which can change the future of media forever. Soon we will see hand-crafter movies created by regular people through prompt generation. This industry is one of those that will completely change in just a few years thanks to the massive technical advances.

5. Telecommunications. Telecoms also need powerful infrastructure, to support massive data transmissions, and offer network services and communication needs. The amount of data is always rising, so their need is only going to grow in the future.

6. Healthcare and life sciences. Bioinformatics Companies need significant computational power for processing and analyzing biological data. Medical researchers need computing power to perform difficult tasks like drug discovery and genetic research.

7. E-commerce and online services. We all buy items online all the time. The e-commerce sites and platforms need to be able to provide you with fast and reliable service, and also analyze all the interactions, purchases, and additional data of their customers. They often use real-time analyzing tools and connect them to logistic tasks to provide a smooth experience across the whole process.

8. Government and defense. National security agencies from all over the world use data centers to analyze intelligence data and analysis and perform critical operations.

9. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. AI and ML Companies: They use high-density colocation data centers all the time. They want as much as possible GPU power and that is what these data centers offer them.

10. Energy and Utilities. Oil and Gas Companies: You might think of them as the “dinosaurs” of the world, but they also need high tech. They use computing for exploration, simulation, and analysis. There is a strong need for managing grid operations, forecasting energy needs, and analytic of the current environment.

Future challenges in front of the high-density data centers

AI data center. The world is going all-in when it comes to AI. AI is inside the data centers, too. It has many problems to resolve. An intelligent AI data center will use Machine Learning to optimize performance and perform many of the tasks, that currently is performed by humans. The staff can focus on more important tasks and leave the routine tasks to the AI.

Disaster recovery. Disaster recovery is an important point, no matter if you are thinking about traditional or modern data centers. You need to keep your data safe. Having more powerful racks can lead to fewer overall servers and overall higher reliance on them. Think about backups and recovery solutions from the beginning, so you don’t have problems in the future.

The focus towards a more sustainable future. Here, the problem is huge. Yes, per space, you can get better and greener performance, but overall, the same data center will be able to host far more powerful servers. That will lead to a higher, overall power consumption and that that is not green at all. We will need better, more efficient processors, better cooling, and even thinking about AI Edge computing, which will reduce the need for AI in the cloud.

Conclusion

As you can see, the future belongs to high-density colocation data centers. If you want to join the future and start using this advanced technology, we would like to share with you our HDC data centers. Check out this great offer and improve your infrastructure today!

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