Data Center

Among the many problems posed by the rapid proliferation of data centers is the strain on local water supplies. Google says it's building a better data center that won't require water to keep its servers and computing equipment cool.

Under specific conditions, lasers can cool things down – and that might just be what we need to tackle way-too-toasty data centers. A new technology called laser-based photonic cooling can target tiny hotspots on chips to zap heat away.

Future data centers might switch to a storage medium that nature has been using for billions of years – DNA. In a major step towards making that a reality, scientists have created a new system of reading and organizing files using microcapsules.

A desalination project proposed for California’s central coast would draw water from one of the world's deepest submarine canyons, making it potentially less harmful to ocean life. The Deep Water Desal facility would require substantially less energy to operate than typical desalination plants.

Facebook has launched a new dashboard that lets users monitor the efficiency of data centers in near real time.

Google has been working to make its data centers as green as possible.

A data center built inside a mountain and cooled with water from a nearby fjord will be the greenest in the world, according to its developers.