CRACs are giving way to outdoor, evaporative and liquid cooling options.
Rising energy costs are prompting data centers to search for alternative ways to lower their PUE and operating costs. This has given way to a growing number of designs that incorporate modular, outdoor AHUs, natural refrigerants or evaporative cooling.
Large hyper data centers for Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, AWS and Yahoo! are changing the market for precision cooling, according to a market study from BSRIA (the Building Services Research and Information Association). Over the next 5-10 years, the use of traditional computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units is expected to drop dramatically as data centers opt for a combination of free cooling, liquid cooling and chilled water cooling.
The US accounts for approximately 40% of the worldwide precision cooling market. It also has the largest share of evaporative cooling, representing 26% of the total market.
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