At the SC19 conference in Denver in November of 2019, a line of “self-contained, energy-efficient, modular data center systems” was introduced by a company called TMGore, which is based out of Plano, Texas. The company showed off four models of their OTTO data center platform, which promises a “data center in a box” solution. These are far smaller than a standard data center, with the largest only having a footprint of 160 square feet. The company claims that its liquid-cooled miniature data centers are capable of meeting the needs of any enterprise.
Reduction in Size Could Mean Reduction in Costs
Consider the size of a typical data center. For a 1-megawatt data center, the size will often be upwards of 8,000 square feet. However, with the options available from TMGore, the same amount of power is available in about 320 square feet. This saves a substantial amount of space, and it will save on costs since there will not be as much land needed to house the data center.
Due to the design of the OTTO systems, there are other advantages in terms of cost. The systems utilize two-phase liquid immersion for cooling. The liquid coolant turns into a vapor, which will then help to keep the computer hardware cool. The company says that using this technology, where they don’t have to use water or air conditioning, is extremely efficient. They also say that it can help to reduce the operational cost of the data centers by 80%.
Because heating is often a problem in data centers, the solutions offered by TMGore have the potential to become very popular and profitable. TMGore is not the only company that is making use of this type of cooling technology. Others in this field include the likes of GRC and Asetek. They are also trying to make a space for themselves in the field of hardware among larger companies like Dell EMC and IBM.
The overall package that the company is able to deliver is quite interesting, and it could prove to be popular. They could attract a range of different types of companies that might need to have their own private data centers, as well as those who may want to add on to a data center that they already have.
TMGore built a 150,000 square foot data center in 2018 in Dallas Texas with the purpose of mining cryptocurrency. The facility was created as a means to help the company to increase its income. They decided that they would use their own technology when they created the data center. This allowed them to have a better understanding of how their technology worked in practice and to make changes needed to it.
The company is also working on a storage solution, although there has not been much news on it as of yet. These smaller data centers have the potential to change the landscape of data centers, depending on just how well they work in practice.
Resources: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/design/tmgcore-pitches-liquid-cooled-data-center-box-compute-heavy-workloads