What is the future of cloud? From spas to orbital space data centers

Artificial intelligence is advancing at breakneck speed, forcing us to rethink how the power-hungry servers behind the boom can coexist with and be less affected by the environment.

Data centers form the backbone of the Internet and power nearly all digital services. However, these facilities require large amounts of energy and water and are often considered an eyesore and burden to the communities that house them. As AI workloads increase within facilities, pressure on the power supply chain increases.

Simone Larson, Lenovo’s head of enterprise AI, told CNBC that there will come a “tipping point” where data center architectures will no longer be fit for purpose.

In the face of an impending digital infrastructure crisis, tech giants and developers of expensive infrastructure are seeking sustainable, turnkey solutions.

According to the November Data Center of the Future study conducted by Lenovo in partnership with Opinium, traditional data centers cannot efficiently power AI workloads and meet sustainability goals and compliance demands.

The survey found that the majority of IT decision makers prioritize technology partners that contribute to energy savings, but only 46% of those surveyed said their current data center design supports sustainability goals.

Faced with these challenges, Lenovo worked with architects from Mamou-Mani and engineers from AKT II to design a data center that better integrates with its environment and addresses energy constraints. As a result, data centers can be designed to be isolated underground using disused tunnels and bunkers, or suspended in the air for 24/7 access to solar energy.

In so-called data villages, servers are stacked in a modular fashion near urban areas, and surplus heat from data centers can be used to power local facilities such as schools and homes. The same applies to data center spas, where excess heat from the data center is used in a healthy environment. The heat generated by the spa could be recycled into data center power cooling technology.

However, there is a catch. Even Lenovo has acknowledged that its designs likely won’t be viable until after 2055.

The company said the study was aimed at provoking debate and acknowledged that implementing such a design would require significant regulatory changes. Challenges include the cost and engineering complexity of some concepts, as well as legal and scalability constraints.

Recruitment conditions will also vary greatly by region. For example, the U.S. is likely to adopt large, ultra-dense campuses because of high demand, available land and a relatively flexible regulatory environment, said Perkins Liu, senior research analyst at S&P Global’s 451 Research. Europe, on the other hand, has a more constrained grid and stricter regulations, he said.

However, radical data center design is not an entirely new concept. In 2018, Microsoft deployed an ocean-floor-like data center 117 feet below sea level, harnessing the cooling effects of ocean water and tidal power, allowing the project to be powered entirely by renewable energy.

There are also many examples of businesses redistributing heat from their facilities to heat nearby homes. Last summer, excessive heat occurred, Equinix The data center was used to heat the Olympic pool in Paris.

From Google’s “Moonshot” Suncatcher project, Alibaba and Zhejiang Research Institute’s “Three-Body Computing Constellation” initiative; NvidiaStarCloud — orbital data center competition is heating up. Smaller companies like Edge Aerospace and Loft Orbital are also exploring the technology.

It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but Google actually cites science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s short stories as inspiration for the idea of ​​harnessing the sun directly as an energy source, although these proposals are being considered more specifically by the tech giant.

The EU-funded ASCEND study, in partnership with Thales Alenia Space, investigated the possibility of launching the center into orbit using robotic technology.

Thales Alenia Space is currently developing the technology needed for this process, with the goal of conducting the first in-orbit demonstration mission in 2028. In November, Nvidia-backed startup StarCloud sent a chip into space that is 100 times more powerful than GPU computing ever seen in space.

Around 70 million euros ($82 million) of private capital has been invested in space-based data center projects since 2020, according to a report by the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI).

But orbital data centers remain out of reach in the near term, as the cost of sending such equipment into space remains a major barrier.

“Radiation-hardened hardware, cooling in the vacuum of space, and the extremely high cost of launching large, power-dense computing systems into orbit are major hurdles,” said S&P Global’s Liu. Challenges also include reliable high-speed communications, space debris and maintenance difficulties, he said.

ESPI’s data center cost model hinges on the success of Starship’s low $10 million launch price.

“In my opinion right now, this is unrealistic in the short term,” said ESPI researcher Germaine Gutierrez. “But in the long term, the question is whether the cost savings of ground-based development and its continued cost savings will outweigh the cost savings of space deployment.”

Lenovo’s Larsson said coexistence and “symbiosis” are at the core of the company’s futuristic data center plans. This includes harnessing some of the heat from the data center for use by the community and other stakeholders.

Mamoumani partner James Chan told CNBC that another goal is to make the facility more visually appealing so it’s not seen as “a giant box with no face.”

He explained how architects used techniques like biomimicry to investigate how natural algorithms can show the most efficient way to dissipate heat.

“We interact with[data centers]every day using our computers and mobile phones, but behind the scenes these gentle giants are putting tremendous pressure on water and our resources,” he said.

Experts told CNBC that many of these innovations will require revised regulations and new policies to address the growing energy demands of AI and data centers.

“Data center operators can implement green technology if they wish, but it needs to be financially justified,” said S&P Global’s Liu. He added that achieving this requires upgrading the electricity grid and building renewable energy quickly.

Lenovo’s Larson said simply retrofitting a data center won’t necessarily work, and that operators are “entering a cycle that was broken in the first place.”

Instead, he said, companies need to think outside the box and try to “figure out what regulatory constraints need to be flexible in order to not only serve the people of the planet, but also serve the bottom line.”