A. Stryker

Overview

1. Stryker is a storage technologist at Solidigm who presented on thermal management of the storage subsystem in AI clusters at the 2025 OCP Global Summit. Stryker framed SSDs as the last air-cooled holdout in otherwise liquid-cooled GPU servers and argued that proactive industry action is needed. At PCIe Gen 5 (~25W) SSDs already strain ASHRAE A2 limits; at PCIe Gen 7 (projected 60-70W per storage device), air cooling is definitively infeasible.

Stryker co-led the session with Solidigm thermal engineer Hardeep Singh and Iceotope CEO Jonathan Balance, and closed with three calls to action: monitor SSD thermals now, plan for a liquid-based solution, and engage across the industry on standardization. Stryker also submitted — through OCP Alliance partner SNIA — a draft specification addressing surface flatness tolerances, cold plate attachment surface guidance, and angled edge geometry for hot-swap insertion.