Non-traditional hardware makes the news at Gartner’s show focused on data-center operations.
Research firm Gartner is holding its IT Infrastructure, Operations, and Cloud Strategies Conference (IOCS) in Las Vegas this week, and a few news announcements from the show give an indication as to where data-center technology is headed.
First up, Schneider Electric and Iceotope formally introduced their integrated rack with chassis-based immersive liquid-cooling designs. The deal was announced in October but now the details are out. In addition to Schneider and Iceotope, the alliance also includes Avnet, an electronic-component distributor.
The server is optimized for compute-intensive applications such as analytics and artificial intelligence. It combines a high-powered GPU server with Iceotope’s liquid-cooling technology, while Avnet integrates the server with Schneider’s NetShelter liquid-cooled enclosure system for simple deployment into data centers or edge-computing environments.
This is a big advance because most immersion solutions have been using a bathtub design where the motherboard sat vertically in the immersion fluid and the ports stuck out at the top. It was something of a clumsy design that just begged for spillage. Here, the chassis looks like any other rack-mounted server, but it is enclosed and sealed.
The system is certified EcoStruxure Ready, meaning it works with Schneider’s enclosures, and comes with next-generation data center management software EcoStruxure IT Expert and digital service EcoStruxure Asset Advisor.
“This latest development marks a significant step toward industrializing chassis-based immersion solutions which offer the efficiency and effectiveness of tank-based solutions while providing the compatibility and serviceability of more traditional, ‘direct-to-chip’ liquid-cooling designs. Given the growth of compute-intensive applications, we believe this approach is very promising,” said Kevin Brown, CTO and senior vice president of innovation, secure power at Schneider Electric in a statement.
Scale Computing: Tiny edge device
Scale Computing introduced the HE150 at the show, the latest addition to its HC3 Edge product line intended for space-constrained and edge customers.
The HE150 is a very small device based on the Intel NUC design, and Scale notes it is about the size of three smartphones, with a width and depth of just over 11 centimeters and a height of just over three centimeters.
The HE150 appliance is a small, all-flash, NVMe storage-based compute appliance that supports disaster recovery, high availability clustering, rolling upgrades and integrated data protection. As it is, Scale sells them in three-node clusters.
Scale also announced it plans to make its HC3 Edge software for Intel NUC-based systems from other hardware suppliers. HC3 Edge software will be available soon for Lenovo’s new Smart Edge portfolio of fan-less, small-form-factor PCs.
