As hardware performance increases, the thermal demands placed on data centre facilities rise accordingly. To support modern workloads, facilities must adapt to handle significantly higher power profiles. Both our newly constructed Manchester facility (MCR2, launched in 2025) and our currently under-construction FRN2 adjacent to our flagship data centre in Farnborough) are equipped to manage these thermal requirements.
Advancements in higher density hybrid cooling for our newest data centres
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Meeting demands
Current cooling infrastructure
The baseline infrastructure at both the Farnborough and Manchester campuses use efficient chilled water loops. These loops circulate chilled water to air handlers, which subsequently absorb heat from the air within the data halls.
Currently, this system comfortably supports deployments drawing up to 30 kW without requiring significant modifications to the data hall layout or equipment.
Achieving higher densities with rear door radiators
For deployments exceeding 30 kW, hybrid cooling methods provide a practical upgrade path. By installing rear door radiators, MCR2 and FRN2 can achieve higher densities of up to 50 or 60 kW per rack.
These radiators attach directly to the rear of the server racks and connect to the facility’s existing chilled water loop. The primary advantage of this approach is its compatibility with standard hardware. Because the heat exchange occurs at the rack boundary, you do not need client equipment specifically designed to accept chilled water internally.
Implementing liquid cooling to the racks
Certain advanced hardware is specifically engineered to accept chilled water directly to the components. For these high-density devices, direct liquid cooling to the rack is a viable option in both MCR2 and FRN2.
It is important to note that direct liquid cooling will usually co-exist with air cooling. Standard network switches and auxiliary devices still require air circulation, meaning the colocation environment must accommodate both high-density liquid-cooled and standard air-cooled setups simultaneously.
To implement direct liquid cooling, several easily achievable infrastructure upgrades can be deployed:
- Installation of coolant distribution units (CDUs) within the data hall white space.
- Integration of a supporting infrastructure consisting of pumps, heat exchangers, and connection manifolds.
- Direct connection of the CDUs into the existing chilled water loop.
While CDUs are readily available in various capacities suitable for MCR2 and FRN2, the total capital expenditure (Capex) relies entirely on the scale of the required infrastructure.
Next steps
To maintain readiness for increased density demands, ongoing design adjustments are being evaluated for the second data halls at both MCR2 and FRN2. The current plan involves adding supplementary valves into the cooling loops during the design phase. This will enable much easier integration of CDUs and other liquid cooling hardware in the future. Implementing these design changes requires targeted consultancy and minor structural adjustments, but it ultimately creates a more flexible cooling environment.
We are continuing to build further state-of-the-art, sustainable colocation data centre capacity to support the growing needs of businesses. Seeing is believing, so we invite you to visit our London edge and Manchester data centre sites to see our facilities for yourself and discuss how we can support your current and future data centre requirements.