Legrand: Choosing the Best Cabinet for AI
The global economy is rapidly adopting AI, and data center infrastructure deployments are growing at an unprecedented rate to keep up with demand.
AI hardware is uniquely power hungry, has to be deployed in dense configurations, and generates enormous amounts of heat. Old data centers can’t provide the power needed, can’t support the density requirements, and can’t eject the heat. New data center builds are expensive and have impacts on the environment.
To cope with AI, the data center industry has devised new designs to support this game-changing, but uniquely challenging infrastructure. And one of the key collaborators in these new designs is Legrand, because we’re rethinking the cabinets.
It’s funny to think that racks might be a part of the new approach to solving the challenges of AI infrastructure. Cabinets used to be overlooked furniture. Now they’re becoming a key element in supporting new stretch goals for supporting AI infrastructure at scale while achieving new standards in data center efficiency and sustainability.
Whether you’re building out generative AI capacity yourself or you’re turning to a third-party integrator to help, you deserve data center rack designs that don’t impede your efforts to make your data centers more dense, more energy efficient, and less damaging to the environment -- and your bottom line. Here are several ways in which our racks, in conjunction with our Intelligent PDUs and SmartSensor portfolio, can help you maximize the impact of your AI infrastructure without compromising on your desire to build better infrastructure.
- Built for AI: Rack designs built for AI offer a substantial advantage over legacy racks. For AI, organizations want to leverage every vertical rack unit they can. 48U, 51U, even 52U racks are in demand. Rack width is also in flux, because operators often need extra space for liquid cooling distribution and added power distribution. In terms of weight. A single AI server can weigh as much as 300 lbs. Legrand’s racks are built to withstand load capacities up to 5,000 lbs.
- Optimized for OpEx: We minimize chilled air waste. Cabinet airflow packages, blanking panels, sealed cable entry points, sealed plinths, and sealing kits can cut airflow waste, reducing the need to spend energy to cool AI infrastructure. That waste reduction goes directly to OpEx savings.
- Intelligent Power For Added Control: Our Raritan and Server Technology Intelligent Rack PDUs enable AI in several ways. It’s becoming normal to see three or four PDUs in each rack, which has implications for maintenance and serviceability. Our Intelligent PDUs, built for added density, help organizations monitor and maintain this complexity without as much hands-on servicing.
Environmental Sensors Add Efficiency: small deviations in power quality, humidity, vibration and temperature have substantial effects on the high-performance, demanding hardware used for AI infrastructure. Our SmartSensor family of environmental and security sensors, offering plug-and-play compatibility with our rack PDUs, allows any data center operator unprecedented insight into their data center operations, improves energy utilization, and protects from downtime and disaster.
As you can see, cabinets and the PDUs and sensors that go with them, are a critical part of building next-generation AI infrastructure…today. To do the job right, you need a trusted partner who knows the leading-edge of optimized, efficient, long-lasting AI infrastructure. Legrand works hand-in-hand with the world’s leading hyperscalers, colocation providers, and enterprises to keep AI infrastructure as capable, efficient, and sustainable as possible.
To learn more about the Legrand difference, visit us at legrand.us/critical-power-and-infrastructure/server-and-network-cabinets.