While this is the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, it is only the second annual International Data Center Day. So, how do we reconcile the Earth Day goals to mitigate climate change and pollution with the general perception that massive data centers are consuming terawatt hours of energy and creating a negative evironmental impact?

As is my usual practice for the annual predictions column, I queried the official Hot Aisle Insight virtual crystal ball for guidance on trends and developments that dominate in the coming year, especially since 2020 begins a new decade.

In my last column, I discussed the new space race by Amazon and SpaceX to launch tens of thousands of satellites to provide internet access from anywhere on earth.

Those lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us again and while I have written about this before, many small and midsize firms will still see their data center’s cooling systems pushed to their limits, and even far beyond.

It has been almost three years since the ASHRAE 90.4 Energy Standard for Data Centers was finalized and went into effect in 2016, yet even today, many in the data center industry are not fully aware of its existence or its implications.

You may have noticed that liquid cooling has had a lot more activity and press coverage this past year.

Energy efficient, renewable, sustainable, carbon neutral, and of course the catch-all, going green — all make for great sound bites, but how do we really quantify how well we are doing in the age of gigawatt scale data centers?