The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry.
Here’s a look at the Q4 2025 insights from Rob Lowe, Director RD&E – Global High Tech, for Ecolab.
Rob Lowe is an innovation leader with nearly two decades of experience managing research, development, and engineering (RD&E) teams at Ecolab, the global leader in water and infection prevention solutions. He currently leads the innovation function for Ecolab’s Global High Tech Data Centers segment. Lowe’s background includes senior roles across paper, analytical, and microbial services, where he focused on solving complex operational challenges for a wide range of industrial customers. He holds a Bachelor of Science in paper science and chemical engineering from North Carolina State University and a PhD in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Data Center Frontier: As liquid cooling shifts from pilot deployments to baseline design, what new coordination is required among equipment manufacturers, construction teams, and chemical/process experts to standardize safe, maintainable systems across global portfolios?
Rob Lowe, Ecolab: As liquid cooling implementations become more standard, scaling it safely requires deeper coordination across OEMs, construction partners, and chemical and process experts.
Direct-to-chip systems introduce new requirements around coolant chemistry, materials compatibility, corrosion control, and cleanliness, making early involvement of water and glycol experts essential.
To manage global portfolios, operators increasingly rely on standardized commissioning specs, consistent coolant quality baselines, and integrated real-time monitoring tools like our 3D TRASAR™ Technology.
Ultimately, designing for maintainability, not just performance, ensures these systems remain reliable, serviceable, and consistent across all sites.
Data Center Frontier: With hyperscale timelines collapsing and AI demand surging, how are owners and operators balancing speed-to-market with long-term cost of ownership, especially when power infrastructure and sustainability mandates move at different speeds?
Rob Lowe, Ecolab: With AI demand surging and hyperscale timelines collapsing, operators must balance speed-to-market with long-term efficiency and sustainability.
Power availability often lags construction schedules, forcing data centers to maximize compute per watt and adopt cooling systems that reduce energy intensity.
Cooling-as-a-Service helps bridge the gap by shifting commissioning risk, improving reliability during fast builds, and enabling long-term cost predictability.
At the same time, operators must design with future regulations in mind, making efficiency, digital monitoring, and lifecycle asset health as important as upfront delivery speed.
Data Center Frontier: As data centers are expected to evolve into energy hubs—producing, storing, and recycling power, water, and heat—what innovations or partnerships are emerging to make these facilities active participants in grid and resource stability?
Rob Lowe, Ecolab: Data centers are evolving into integrated energy and water ecosystems rather than standalone consumers.
Liquid cooling and advanced heat-transfer systems make heat reuse more viable, while closed-loop and reuse strategies reduce pressure on local water supplies.
Partnerships with utilities, renewable generation projects, and real-time data sharing improve grid predictability and resource stability.
By combining chemistry, digital monitoring, and mechanical optimization, operators can reduce waste, recover energy, and align cooling performance with broader sustainability goals, turning data centers into active contributors to resource resilience.
Data Center Frontier: AI infrastructure now demands tight choreography among diverse disciplines, i.e. power, cooling, construction, chemistry, and digital systems. How are your teams aligning design and operations data across organizational silos to deliver performance and transparency from site prep to steady-state operation?
Rob Lowe, Ecolab: AI infrastructure requires tight coordination across power, cooling, chemistry, construction, and digital operations.
Ecolab supports this complexity by unifying data from design through steady-state operation, using real-time monitoring and standardized commissioning practices to ensure “Start Clean, Stay Clean” performance.
Shared dashboards and proactive analytics help operators tie cooling performance to uptime, energy use, and environmental impact.
This integrated approach breaks down traditional silos and gives operators full lifecycle visibility across CDUs, glycol loops, and facility cooling systems, enabling more reliable and transparent performance across global portfolios.
About the Author
Matt Vincent
A B2B technology journalist and editor with more than two decades of experience, Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier.
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