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Sustainable Digital Solutions: Unprecedented Collaboration Drives Success of Innovative Water-Based Data Center

Water-based cooling technology is reshaping how the data center industry balances computational power with environmental responsibility

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By Industrial Iot · Ashley SturmBill WildeClearfieldDigital Infrastructure
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Water-based cooling technology is reshaping how the data center industry balances computational power with environmental responsibility

The Stockton 1 Data Center, a pioneering project by Nautilus Data Technologies, marks a significant shift in the world of digital infrastructure. This facility, not just a marvel of modern technology with its proprietary water cooling system, also represents a stride towards environmental sustainability in an industry often criticized for its high energy consumption. The integration of environmental consciousness with technological advancement in data centers like Stockton 1 is a promising development in the quest for more sustainable digital solutions.

The integration of environmental consciousness with technological advancement in data centers like Stockton 1 is a promising development in the quest for more sustainable digital solutions.

But amidst these advancements, a critical question arises: How does one balance the demands for high-speed connectivity and minimal environmental impact?

Ashley Sturm, the VP of Marketing at Nautilus and Bill Wilde, The Director of Sales and Engineering at Utility Telecom along with Matt Quillin, the Regional Sales Manager at Clearfield highlight the nuanced challenge and solution of delivering top-tier data center performance without compromising on environmental goals.

"All of the parties involved were very much willing to work together… we could come and bring a proven practical solution that's more efficient, more sustainable, and will move the data center industry forward in the right direction," Sturm said.

We could come and bring a proven practical solution that's more efficient, more sustainable, and will move the data center industry forward in the right direction.
— Ashley Sturm, VP of Marketing at Nautilus
Video TranscriptExpand ↓

And not only we support the higher performance compute available with the lowest environmental impact enabling the greatest social gain. Where we're at today is the Stockton One data center. It is first commissioned data center, and it's a seven megawatt facility, and it holds our proprietary water cooling system. So a colocation data center is nothing without its connectivity. We had to have low latency. And so UTG, we were able to work with them to create an eighteen mile fiber ring. So that way, we provide that prime last mile connectivity with the lowest latency possible. In making the from land to the data center, which is on water, we had to do some things a little bit different. So as we look to this project and inherent complexities, building almost twenty miles of fiber. We went to Clearfield as a partner to determine which of their comprehensive suite of product best meet our needs in different areas of the project. Utility telecom and Clearfield, we've been working for a number of years together. This particular deployment had some unique challenges the environment was limited access getting into the data center, but then also space requirements and not having traditional rack space We went overhead in some applications for some access points. So I think the product mix and the labor form, Clearfield played really well with what Utility Telecom was looking to do here. Clearfield brought important things to the table. It was really their flexibility and the breadth of their product line that allowed us to do everything we wanted to do, but the really the pre and post sale support really made a difference. Clearfield was a partner in some of the design. So we really felt that they were partnering with us to help us be successful. All of the parties involved were very much willing to work together, yes, it's a data center on water. And yes, we have a proprietary water cooling system, but we still needed to brain a very high level product. So we could come and bring a proven practical solution that's more efficient, more sustainable, and will move the data center industry forward in the right direction. I think the uniqueness of this project and looking back, you know, it's really nice to be part of something from the beginning through the conception and from a napkin drawing to seeing it actually get delivered and then implemented. It's a core value of Clearfields being able to collaborate and make our customers successful.

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