As AI and high-performance computing push data center power densities beyond the limits of air cooling, direct liquid cooling is becoming essential. In this Q&A, Gordon Johnson, Senior CFD Manager at Subzero Engineering, explains why Coolant Distribution Units are the intelligence behind liquid cooling—maintaining safety, stability, efficiency, and scalability as data centers transition to high-density, AI-driven workloads.

As AI and high-performance computing workloads push rack densities beyond the limits of air cooling, direct-to-chip liquid cooling has become unavoidable. But liquid alone does not scale safely or efficiently without intelligence. Coolant Distribution Units serve as the control plane of modern thermal systems—isolating facility water from IT equipment, stabilizing volatile workloads, adapting to infrastructure constraints, and enabling the efficiency required to operate next-generation data centers.

Direct-to-chip cooling dominates today because it is familiar, dependable, and easy to deploy—but it is ultimately a stopgap. As compute densities climb and energy efficiency becomes non-negotiable, immersion cooling offers a technically superior path forward, capable of supporting extreme densities, reducing energy use, and reshaping data center architecture. Though adoption lags today due to cost and complexity, the pressures of tomorrow may leave operators with no viable alternative.

Africa’s data center capacity is expanding at an unprecedented pace, fueled by cloud adoption, fintech growth, and rising digital demand. Yet behind the optimism lies a less visible constraint: a critical shortage of skilled professionals capable of operating and sustaining this infrastructure. As investment pours into land, power, and facilities, the human capital required to run modern, mission-critical environments is lagging far behind—threatening to slow progress unless workforce development becomes a central pillar of Africa’s digital future.