Asetek has announced that its ISAC (Inside Server Air Conditioning) has been selected by the DoD (Department of Defense) to participate in its TROPEC (Transformative Reductions in Operational Energy Consumption) program. TROPEC is a collaborative Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) program that targets game-changing enhanced energy efficiency for critical applications at military forward operations, such as data centers and communications.

ISAC is the next generation of Asetek’s RackCDU data center liquid-cooling product line.  Unlike the traditional RackCDU products, which can eliminate 80% of server cooling load in the data center, ISAC eliminates the need for active cooling altogether by removing 100% of server heat through Asetek’s proprietary liquid-cooling solution.  As a result, ISAC offers significant energy savings and enhanced system reliability in harsh operating environments.

For commercial data centers, ISAC also significantly reduces the infrastructure costs associated with ultra-efficient data centers, eliminating the capital and operating costs associated with computer-room air-conditioning systems.  In addition, ISAC makes data center air-quality requirements irrelevant.  For TROPEC, this is particularly valuable as it allows server installation in harsh environments such as military forward operating bases or mobile locations like military Humvees.

This news comes on the heels of recent announcements in the data center arena for Asetek. Most recently, Asetek was selected by the DoD for a major data center retrofit with RackCDU liquid cooling and, prior to that, Cray announced that Asetek’s RackCDU would be available in their Xtreme-Cool Supercomputer.

“Cooling is the major barrier for efficiency in the data center industry,” said Andre Eriksen, Asetek’s CEO. “With RackCDU, we are moving the industry away from their dependence on active cooling. ISAC takes that transition to its logical conclusion by eliminating air-conditioning from the data center completely.”