AI-Ready Data Centers: Redefining Cabinets, Containment and Sensors for Efficiency and Sustainability
December 11th, 2024
High-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) are spurring major changes in data centers. These data-intensive technologies consume far more power and generate substantial heat that legacy infrastructure isn’t set up to handle, requiring new approaches to cabinet design, containment, cooling solutions, and infrastructure monitoring.
A recent webinar, AI-Ready Data Centers: Uncovering the Essential Infrastructure Upgrades, addresses how the data center’s evolution to support AI workloads affects everything from cabinet size and transportation requirements to innovations in containment and cooling. Legrand’s Saman Berookhim, Senior Product Manager, and Klaus Dafinger, Cooling Marketing Manager, discuss key infrastructure options for adapting to new data demands while balancing sustainability and operational goals.
Evolving AI-ready Data Center Cabinet Considerations
The ability of AI to process vast amounts of data depends on high-density clusters. However, traditional cabinets are often insufficient to accommodate the increased size and weight of these advanced systems. Operators must leverage new cabinet options to handle increased weight and capacity needs.
AI-ready cabinets are also often subjected to vibration or movement during deployment. Legrand utilizes multiple types of testing beyond industry standards to ensure cabinets remain stable and secure throughout transport and in various operational conditions. Legrand has developed a rolling test to handle real-world challenges like navigating ramps and obstacles during on-site deployment, ensuring cabinets remain stable and functional. Additionally, transportation load testing ensures cabinets, and their contents survive rigorous shipping conditions, including vibration and drops.
Legrand also uses recyclable and reusable materials for cabinet packaging to support sustainability through waste reduction. The exterior packaging materials for cabinets shipped to integrators are now reusable, allowing integrators to ship the next deployment in the same packaging or reflow the materials back to Legrand.
Innovative Containment
Containment is essential in data center operations to optimize airflow and temperature by separating hot and cold aisles. Containment strategies to support higher densities range from pre-fabricated solutions, to a more DIY or modular approach called Contain-IT Flex, to structural assemblies that resemble a "building within a building".
Pre-fabricated solutions include panels that attach to the ceiling to direct airflow. They are used in facility construction when all information about row depth and panel height is known in advance. Contain-IT Flex involves modular components that are built on site; this approach is helpful when working in a dynamic environment like retrofits or expansions.
The structural or “building within a building” approach, which is more popular with hyperscalers, enables quick deployment. It bundles everything from an overhead busway to cabinets in self-contained solutions that reduce the load on the core or shell of a building.
Sensor-Driven Optimization
As data centers deploy additional AI or high-performance servers, the importance of optimizing operations to ensure efficient power utilization cannot be overstated. Operators need an end-to-end view of the entire environment, which can be achieved by placing sensors within the aisles and cabinets for real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, and other essential conditions.
Sensors provide data on hotspots and inefficient airflow, which operators can use to improve cooling and cabinet placement. The more data operators collect and analyze, the better they can plan for deployments of next-generation equipment.
Watch the AI-Ready Data Center Webinar
The data center of the future will be considerably different from legacy facilities. Operators need a holistic, forward-looking approach to infrastructure to support AI and other data-intensive technologies. The OnDemand webinar, AI-Ready Data Centers: Uncovering the Essential Infrastructure Upgrades, provides ideas on how your organization can adapt IT infrastructure to succeed in a fast-evolving AI-dominated market. Whether you are working on a new build or retrofitting an existing site, Legrand can support your infrastructure upgrades for an AI-ready data center. Visit our AI Data Center Solutions site to explore our resources and comprehensive solutions.