As we look at the modern cloud and data center ecosystem – we see big trends, many changes, and more utilization. Consider this, Gartner recently stated that more than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud during the next five years. This will make cloud computing one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age.

Today, cloud computing provides great flexibility to the organizations that deploy it correctly. And, even more, flexibility revolves around the deployment of powerful hybrid ecosystems designed to fit evolving business use-cases.

There is a great deal of data center options to consider when working with the cloud as well as hybrid cloud technologies. These include:

• Large enterprise data centers
• Large government and federal data centers
• Branch locations and data centers
• Micro-data centers (used often for private cloud extension into the public cloud)
• Edge data centers for content delivery
• Dedicated disaster recovery sites
• Custom-built, container-based, data centers
• Application-specific data center sites

The list can go on. The point is that all of these data centers can (and do) now directly interact with a variety of cloud resources. When working with this many data center solutions – it’s vital to look at cooling from an entirely new perspective. In terms of cloud and new cooling concepts – remember the following:

Custom data center cooling solutions introduce new levels of efficiency.

This is one of the first and most important concepts to remember. Just because your current cooling solution is “working” doesn’t mean it’s the optimal system for you. Custom solutions built around application-specific requirements can create true efficiency. Imagine a clean room cooling system for a sterile healthcare environment that is intelligent, efficient, and built around health care cooling best practice requirements.

“Today, organizations are spending more time and energy in helping their data centers run more optimally.”

Think about an easily customizable solution being implemented in emergency situations or for expanding data centers. Rapid scale and efficiency capabilities can change the way you control and share data center resources. Furthermore, you can begin to introduce other environmental efficiencies as well. Power, rack configurations, and resource utilization can all be positively impacted from a well-designed cloud-ready cooling solution.

Flexible cooling allows for the rapid evolution of the data center ecosystem.

Older data center cooling solutions were built to stay in place. Does this make sense for the modern data center? Can your cooling solution handle new workloads and market demands? New technologies allow you to create a powerful puzzle piece solution within your data center where cooling components become truly interchangeable. There will be new demands around data center scale and density. Because of the rapid growth in the user and data world – data centers are sometimes caught off-guard. This influx of resource demands requires good data center environmental controls. The most important thing to remember is that data center resource utilization is increasing across all major industries – healthcare, pharmaceuticals, private/public, enterprise, SMB, and much more.

Cloud creates more density – your cooling must be able to keep up.

Today, organizations are spending more time and energy in helping their data centers run more optimally. The future of cloud will absolutely revolve around efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and workload density. New technologies concerning convergence and hyper-convergence mean that data center administrators must be aware of ever-evolving requirements regarding cooling and airflow management. Remember to plan your cooling environment around your data center and cloud requirements. Furthermore, you don’t have to re-invent your cooling solution especially if only a segment of your data center is using converged solutions. New data center cooling options allow you to segment your data center and isolate entire areas for specific compute requirements. Know that you have options when it comes to cooling design.

Some of the most critical data center components are optimized due to an intelligent and efficient cooling solution. Interchangeable components and easy-to-reach systems allow your data center to have true agility. All of this translates to your ability to adapt faster, deploy more efficiency-driven solutions, and – ultimately – optimize all of the workloads you are delivering.