One of the main reasons so many people attend Data Center World is to hear about the latest technologies and trends that are changing the industry. This year’s Emerging IT & Data Center Technologies track delivers an impressive array of speakers who will let attendees in on what’s hot, which breakthroughs have the most substance, and which ones remain largely in the hype category.

One of the hottest areas is data center cooling. The profile of liquid cooling has been elevated over the past couple of years due to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads becoming mainstream. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) took note. It announced federal funding in 2022 as part of the COOLERCHIPS program. Program Director Peter de Bock will showcase real progress in the attainment of those program goals during his session, Hot Data, Cool Solutions: ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS Efficiency for Next Generation (AI) Data Centers. Leaders from Nvidia, Intel, and Seguente will unveil their cutting-edge advancements and share progress on these state-of-the-art technologies with the audience.

Additional must-see sessions include:

• Chip manufacturing in space?! Scientist and entrepreneur Ashley Pilipiszyn will present this otherworldly innovation in The Future of Compute: Space Industrialization & Semiconductors
• Moore’s Law and AI: The Next Golden Age of Compute Architecture presented by Manoj Sukumaran, Senior Principal Analyst for Data Center Computing at Omdia will share how novel chip designs and architectures are emerging to meet the demands of artificial intelligence, pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
• Is DLC Worth All the Hype? Raymond Parpart, Director of Data Center Operations & Strategy at the University of Chicago, will walk the audience through a proof-of-concept Direct Liquid Cooling installation that rapidly moved from the concept stage into production. Parpart will showcase system performance and operational metrics as well as a comparison run on side-by-side machines running with and without DLC.
• Security Convergence: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Lee Marcelle, Principal Information Security Engineer at Equinix will explore the critical aspects of data center security and present strategies and innovations to enhance its effectiveness. This session will cover the key security challenges faced by data centers including physical breaches, network vulnerabilities, insider threats, and emerging cyber threats.

Attend these sessions and many others on the latest advances in data center technology at Data Center World 2025.