September 6, 2006 -- Aimed at "forward looking data centers," the Power and Cooling Summit 2006 will take place October 25 - 26 in London. The event billed by its organizers as "the first meeting in the sector to focus European attention on the two foremost, critical issues that impact all businesses globally."
According to a press release, the meeting will be officially opened by Sir Anthony Cleaver, chairman of IX Europe, and will be attended by an audience of speakers and representatives from Europe, the Middle East, India, and the U.S. The summit will assess challenges and opportunities for data center power and cooling in medium and long-term timeframes. Global design and business consulting firm Arup will also provide a special workshop, dealing with short term solutions for power and cooling in data centers.
Sponsors of the event include businesses in the data center sector, including Emerson Network Power, APC, Active Power, Corning Cable Systems, IX Europe, Rittal, and The Colocation Exchange. The summit's academy of speakers also includes experts from HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Norman Disney & Young, Hurley Palmer Flatt, Dispersia, and the University of Missouri-Colombia.
The summit will feature debate covering crucial challenges of heat dissipation in data centers, and technologies to mitigate and reduce power consumption. The event's "power panel" will gather experts to discuss alternative means of power, and whether the cost of power will provoke a change in the pricing structure of data centers. Other topics covered will include: rack optimization, and whether the demands confronting the design of racks will lead to 35 Kw racks or higher; cooling methods, and the merits of water and liquid cooling; nanofluid technologies; and thermal packaging and cooling at the chip level.
"Power and Cooling leads the way as a conduit for thought leadership in this critical debate," comments Philip Low at BroadGroup, the summit's researchers and producers. "At a time when the U.S. government has already initiated investigations into the power consumption of data centers in the U.S., European businesses need to understand what, how, and when to adopt new solutions - but equally so, the steps they should take in the interim. It promises to be a fascinating and informative summit."