Introduction to Immersion Cooled Servers and High-Capacity SSDs
A little-known Polish storage company, Goodram Enterprise, has quietly introduced an enterprise SSD designed for immersion cooled data centers, offering capacities that push well beyond what most operators are using today. The company, which operates as the data center focused arm of Wilk Elektronik, has added a 122.88TB PCIe 5.0 drive to its portfolio, with the large SSD appearing in technical documentation rather than a high-profile launch.
The drive belongs to the DC25F series and uses QLC NAND in an E3.S and E3.L form factor. Both versions target servers designed for direct liquid immersion rather than conventional air cooling. This approach is gaining traction as data centers seek to increase efficiency and reduce cooling costs. According to a report by Marketsand Markets, the immersion cooling market is expected to grow from USD 1.1 billion in 2022 to USD 3.8 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.4% during the forecast period.
Technical Specifications and Performance
Sequential performance is listed at up to 14.6GB/s for reads and 3.2GB/s for writes. Random performance figures sit around 3,000K IOPS for reads and 35K IOPS for writes, indicating that the drive is designed for capacity rather than speed. Endurance is rated at 0.3 drive writes per day over five years, which is in line with other ultra-high capacity enterprise QLC drives intended for cold and warm data tiers.
The immersion angle is central to the design, with Goodram Enterprise claiming that its enterprise SSDs have been validated with dielectric fluids commonly used in immersion cooling tanks, including Shell and Chevron formulations. This is crucial, as immersion cooling exposes hardware to chemical, thermal, and material stresses that don’t exist in air-cooled racks. The company says its drives are built to tolerate long-term submersion without electrical degradation.
Industry Trends and Future Developments
While immersion cooling is still a niche outside hyperscale and research deployments, interest continues to grow as rack power density increases. PCIe 5.0 SSDs add further thermal pressure, making liquid-based approaches more attractive. Other companies, such as DapuStor and Solidigm, are also exploring immersion-rated enterprise SSDs and liquid-cooled NVMe drives for dense AI servers.
As the demand for high-capacity storage solutions continues to rise, it will be interesting to see how the market responds to this new offering from Goodram Enterprise. With its impressive specifications and unique design, this 122.88TB PCIe 5.0 SSD is certainly a notable development in the world of immersion-cooled servers.
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