Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., announced new data center components aimed at advancing artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and enhancing energy efficiency. The announcement was made during AWS re:Invent 2024 in Las Vegas. The components, which include advancements in power delivery, cooling systems, and hardware design, are designed to provide 12% more computing power while reducing energy consumption. These upgrades will be incorporated into new AWS data centers starting in 2025 and retrofitted into existing ones.
Prasad Kalyanaraman, AWS Vice President of Infrastructure Services, emphasized the modular nature of the components, allowing for integration into existing data centers to support high-density workloads such as generative AI. AWS’s infrastructure, which supports millions of customers globally, is adapting to accommodate increasing power density demands driven by AI workloads.
Key Enhancements in Data Center Design
Electrical and Mechanical Design: AWS has simplified its electrical and mechanical systems, improving infrastructure availability to 99.9999% while reducing failure points and energy inefficiencies. For instance, backup power systems have been relocated closer to the rack, and natural pressure differentials are being used to exhaust hot air, reducing the need for fans.
Cooling and Rack Design: New liquid cooling systems have been introduced to manage the heat generated by high-density AI compute chips. These systems are designed to integrate seamlessly with both air and liquid cooling, optimizing performance for AI workloads and traditional computing tasks. AWS has also developed software that predicts efficient server placement to minimize energy waste.
Power Density and Delivery: AWS has engineered a power delivery system that supports a sixfold increase in rack power density, with a planned threefold future increase. This efficiency is achieved through innovations such as a new power shelf design that reduces electrical conversion losses.
Control Systems: An Amazon-built control system has been implemented to standardize monitoring and diagnostics across devices, increasing redundancy while simplifying operations.
Sustainability and Efficiency Measures
AWS’s infrastructure advancements include a 46% reduction in mechanical energy consumption during peak cooling conditions and a 35% reduction in embodied carbon in data center construction materials. The company is also transitioning backup generators to run on renewable diesel, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90%.
AWS claims its infrastructure is up to 4.1 times more energy-efficient than traditional on-premises systems. It achieved its goal of matching its electricity consumption with 100% renewable energy in 2023, seven years ahead of its 2030 target.
Industry Impact and Partnerships
NVIDIA, a key AWS partner, collaborated on the liquid cooling rack design to optimize AI workloads. Other AWS customers, including Anthropic, Experian, and LexisNexis, praised the infrastructure advancements for supporting secure, scalable, and energy-efficient AI innovations. These enhancements are expected to strengthen AWS’s position as a preferred cloud provider for AI workloads and other computationally intensive applications.
AWS plans to implement these new components across its global network, encompassing 34 regions and 108 availability zones. Construction on data centers incorporating the full suite of innovations is slated to begin in early 2025 in the United States.
