Datacenters house a large amount of sensitive equipment, usually jammed into small spaces. They run hot, and therefore generally are built in cool climates. ZDNet reports, however, that Singapore is taking a stab at making it possible to put such facilities anywhere.
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) will test the feasibility of data centers in climates that touch 100 degree Fahrenheit and 90 percent humidity. The story says that the proof-of-concept tropical datacenter is expected to be established during the third quarter of the year. It will be owned located at a Keppel Data Centres facility. The goal is to gauge the impact of the heat and humidity on equipment reliability and performance, among other things.
The initiative is part of Singapore’s Green Data Centre Programme, which launched in 2014. Among the participants are Fujitsu, HPE, Huawei and Intel, the story says.
One of the highest profile and innovative initiatives aimed at confronting the issue of datacenter cooling is Microsoft’s Project Natick, which focuses on putting datacenters in large bodies of water.