Data centers are pushing the boundaries of performance, power density, and availability. But as power and cooling demands surge, so does the risk hidden inside your most critical rotating assets: pumps, fans, compressors, and chillers. 

We are SKF, the global leader in bearing technology, but our value extends beyond our products and solutions. 

We are working with data center operators to maximize critical support system efficiency and move closer to 99.999% availability without defaulting to additional redundancy. 

Growth in compute workload has significantly outpaced efficiency gains,
increasing total hyperscale power demand.

Rack‑level power density has increased dramatically over the last decade. Traditional enterprise environments operated at single‑digit kilowatt levels. Modern hyperscale and AI‑focused deployments now operate at many multiples of those values.

This increase directly drives:

Mechanical systems are now operating closer to their physical limits—and doing so continuously.

AI workloads are accelerating rack‑level power density, increasing thermal and mechanical load.

Cooling infrastructure represents the largest non‑IT energy load in hyperscale data centers. With energy use in data centers expected to double by 2030, mechanical losses, friction, and inefficiencies inside cooling systems directly affect total energy consumption and PUE (power usage effectiveness).

As hyperscale facilities grow in size and thermal density, even marginal improvements in mechanical efficiency deliver disproportionate energy and cost impact across entire campuses.

Engineering reliability and efficiency at the mechanical layer is no longer optional, it is central to operational performance.

Cooling accounts for a substantial share of hyperscale data‑center energy consumption.

Hyperscale operators design for availability targets aligned with 99.999% uptime while pursuing PUE values approaching 1.0. In practice, these goals remain difficult to achieve at scale.

Despite advances in architecture and monitoring, significant outages still occur, often originating from mechanical performance limits rather than IT systems.

At hyperscale, availability and efficiency no longer compete. They succeed or fail together at the mechanical level.

Cooling and power systems rarely fail because of design intent. Failure begins when individual mechanical components cannot sustain real operating conditions.

Critical rotating assets include:

In many cases, the bearing defines the reliability limit of the entire system.

What this session covers:

Access the full webinar →