The Problems with Crunching Big Data and AI: What Water-Based Challenges Do Data Centers Face?

Data centers have become an increasingly important part of the world in recent years, as more of our lives have gone online and crunching big numbers has become a crucial part of the business world. The move towards highly advanced artificial intelligence has led to a greater strain on these centers, but what are some of the challenges this industry faces in terms of water consumption?

Why Is This More Important Than Ever?

This is a fast-moving industry where new and bigger data centers are springing up across the planet to meet demand. Meta recently revealed plans for a giant center in Wyoming with this $800 million development set to become the company’s 25th data center globally. Google has announced that it is spending $3 billion on cloud and data center infrastructure in Malaysia and Thailand in the next six years.

Big data number crunching and AI processing are among the key demands right now, but let’s not forget that millions of people want instant access to a variety of types of entertainment online. A glance at the current range of slots online with jackpots shows how the cloud gaming industry is growing as more players join, placing a high level of demand on the casino's servers. We can see dozens of games with different features including jackpots that are played instantly in any browser. The arrival of live-streamed table games added an extra element, as the human dealers are beamed onto each player’s screen in real time. Streamed entertainment like movies and music has added other online activities that need fast, powerful internet access.

Why Are There Water Consumption Issues?

Google has recently revealed the vast quantities of water used every day by its data centers to help with their cooling processes. The tech giant has already pledged to restore 120% of the water that it consumes, with a deadline of 2030 in place for this. Figures published by Google show the scale of the challenge facing it, as its data centers consumed an incredible 4.3 billion gallons of water in 2021 to keep their machines cool. That breaks down to 450,000 gallons every day for each center.

The race is on to create more efficient cooling systems that help the tech giants take better care of the planet's water without affecting our ability to use the latest technology. Google CSO Kate Brandt gave examples such as FloodHub as being among the ways that could provide a sustainable way forward. This technology involves elements such as AI and a network of satellites to predict river flooding and plan more accurately in advance. Reclaimed wastewater is another Google initiative that could help reduce the company’s demand for water in the future. 

Lenovo Neptune™ takes the unusual approach of using loops of warm water to cool the machines in data centers. This process has turned out to be more efficient than air cooling and evaporative cooling, which has allowed their customers to lower power consumption and water use without losing and number-crunching ability.

This is far from being the only issue faced by major data centers. Energy consumption, scalability, and cybersecurity are listed as some of the other key challenges in this industry. However, with the scarcity of fresh water becoming an ever more vital issue across the planet, many eyes will be on how the data center industry will face this challenge in the next few years.