- Lenovo envisions data centers suspended above clouds to save land and energy
- Data Spas places servers near geothermal pools, which raises serious security concerns.
- Underground bunkers may or may not provide protection and natural cooling for high-density computing.
Lenovo has revealed a number of highly unconventional concepts that imagine what the data center infrastructure of the future might look like.
The company adheres to the traditional approach data centers must evolve to support the business as nearly half of enterprise IT buyers admit their infrastructure is not meeting energy needs and carbon targets.
In response, Lenovo has proposed several unconventional projects, including one that places data centers almost literally in the clouds.
Data centers above the clouds
Each design demonstrates its own approach to feeding massive CPU and artificial intelligence workloads to address energy efficiency and sustainability challenges.
The most unusual of Lenovo's projects is the “Floating Cloud” – a data center suspended at an altitude of 20 to 30 kilometers above the Earth's surface.
At this altitude, it will run entirely on solar power, using pressurized liquid cooling systems to manage the heat.
This concept eliminates land restrictions, but poses serious security risks since a structure floating above commercial airspace would be difficult to defend and vulnerable to attack.
Lenovo is also envisioning what it calls a “Data Spa,” a geothermal-powered data center built into a natural landscape such as a valley or hot spring.
Concept images show people walking through puddles of water just meters from the server racks.
The design suggests a seamless integration of nature and technology, but raises serious safety concerns.
The combination of open water and critical equipment will cause sleepless nights for any data center manager, no matter how efficient the cooling system is.
A more reasonable proposal is the “Data Center Bunker”, which uses abandoned tunnels, bunkers or underground transit systems as secure data center sites.
Lenovo claims that these underground spaces “create a naturally efficient heat management system,” although anyone familiar with underground heat levels might disagree.
However, this design offers benefits such as reduced land use and improved physical protection, making it one of the few practical ideas in the collection.
Lenovo says future data centers should support rapid growth Artificial Intelligence Tools and automation while reducing carbon emissions.
Its Neptune liquid cooling system is designed to remove up to 98% of system heat directly from the source, reducing energy consumption compared to traditional air cooling.
The company insists such solutions are needed as demand for AI grows and data sovereignty rules tighten across all regions.
These projects are just concepts for now, but Lenovo's message is clear: If data centers don't evolve quickly, the future of computing will face physical and environmental bottlenecks.
“The data center of the future will be defined by how effectively it can scale for artificial intelligence, achieve sustainability goals and operate with maximum energy efficiency,” said Simone Larsson, head of enterprise AI EMEA at Lenovo.
“As demand for computing grows, customers will increasingly turn to infrastructure partners that can deliver performance without compromise… Future-ready data centers require a shift in thinking when resilience is not upgraded…”
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