The earliest data centers were built by the U.S. government in the 1960s. At that time, a primary concern was powering the IT equipment. The task of cooling that equipment was typically relegated to HVAC architects with employee comfort top of mind. This design template existed for nearly 30 years, until servers came into the equation and companies began to empty their data closets.
As server sprawl literally heated up in data centers, finding efficient cooling methods was elevated to a priority operational objective. Traditional cooling systems could no longer accommodate the amount of heat generated by multiple server racks. Enter the era of massive water chillers and air handlers.