The Crestchic team had a busy few days at Datacloud Global Congress 2026, and the packed venue seems to confirm what the organisers were aiming for – the biggest edition in the event’s history. DataCloud brought together more than 6,000 digital infrastructure leaders, from hyperscalers and operators to suppliers, for a packed week of conversations about where the industry goes next.
For us, three themes dominated the conversations at our stand from the moment the exhibition opened: liquid cooling, power resilience and data centre growth in the Nordics region.
Data Centre cooling; liquid, air and hybrid solutions
While air cooling is still commonplace, Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) is moving from being a nice-to-have into a genuine enabler of next-generation data centre operations. AI workloads are pushing densities higher, and maintaining thermal stability at that scale is critical to uptime.
If the cooling architecture is changing, the way you test and commission it must change with it. It is no surprise that our 600kW liquid cooled loadbank – built for exactly this kind of environment – drew lots of attention at this year’s event.
While there’s definite interest in liquid cooling, we also had some great conversations focused on the fact that the future isn’t a clean switch from air to liquid overnight. Rising AI rack densities are driving the adoption of combined air-and-liquid cooling- suggesting that the near-term reality is hybrid.
Alongside the new liquid-cooled loadbank, and our 200kW data centre loadbank, our loadbank controller and software have been a real talking point on the stand. The system can manage up to 240 units and, crucially, can create hybrid clusters of air- and liquid-cooled loadbanks running together.
Power resilience: does evolution increase risk?
Inevitably, the question of power resilience continued to sit as the heart of any data centre conversation this year. As data centres consume increasing amounts of power, operators are exploring alternative power sources, on-site generation and hybrid energy setups. Alongside this rising complexity, the cost of downtime is climbing, and the margin for error shrinking. Power testing is even more important than ever. Resilience isn’t something that can be assumed; systems must be tested under realistic load if downtime is to be avoided.
Nordics confirmed as a growth region for Data Centres
Last but not least, a standout topic at this year’s event was the growth of the data centre market in the Nordics region. Only a month ago, we announced the opening of Crestchic Nordics, based in Sweden, so this is a topic very close to our hearts. Demand in the region is undoubtedly growing, with SweDCI’s recent Impact Report suggesting that installed capacity has roughly doubled In Sweden alone since 2020 to around 800 MW, with hyperscale builds driving it well beyond that by 2030. We’re looking forward to building on our relationships with key players in Sweden and throughout the wider Nordics over the coming months, and it was great to hear growing excitement about the sector throughout the event.
A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by, shared their challenges, and talked through what’s coming next. Things are moving fast, and the way we test and commission data centre infrastructure must keep pace.
We left Cannes more excited than ever about what’s ahead. See you at the next one.
