Intel explores using fresh air to cool datacenters

In an experiment in the New Medico desert, Intel has been replacing the air-conditioning in a datacenter with fresh air piped in from outside. And despite the presence of a lot of dust and major temperature changes, no significant increase in server failures was measured. This is surprising considering that both temperature changes and the presence of dust are considered highly undesirable to servers. Depending on the size of the datacenter, Intel estimated an annual cost reduction of between $143,000 and $2.87 million! The company concluded in the research paper that it "anticipates using this approach in future, high-density datacenters" should subsequent investigations confirm these results.

For more information on this research by Intel:
- check out this article from ZDNet News