As artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other advanced applications continue to rise in popularity and adoption, there has been a massive influx of these workloads into data centers. To keep pace and meet the cooling requirements of these power-hungry applications, data center owners and operators are looking to design and build new data centers with liquid cooling systems. In fact, the incredible demand for AI is even driving some owners and operators to retrofit existing data centers with liquid cooling systems.

At the heart of modern liquid cooling systems is a device known as the coolant distribution unit (CDU). But what is the CDU? What purpose does it serve? And what should data center owners and operators consider when purchasing and installing CDUs as part of their data center liquid cooling systems?

To find out, we invited Ben Graham, the Mechanical Project Manager and Estimator at Compu Dynamics, to join us on the first-ever episode of The Modern Data Center Journal Podcast. During our discussion, Ben educated us about the CDU, which he refers to as “The beating heart of the liquid cooling system.”