THE DATA CENTRE INTERVIEW
“ But here’ s where integration becomes critical: if the cabling infrastructure isn’ t designed for high-density deployment, it can obstruct cooling airflow, creating thermal hotspots that degrade performance. If the liquid cooling system doesn’ t integrate properly with the rack architecture, you end up with inefficient heat transfer and potential reliability issues.
Vertiv 360AI reference architectures target retrofit market Organisations are pursuing both retrofit and new-build approaches, but the technical decision matrix has become more sophisticated.
Retrofitting remains attractive for reducing disruption and leveraging existing investments, but legacy power distribution systems were not designed for current loads, let alone the 600 kW per rack targeted by 2027.
“ Upgrading from traditional power delivery to 33kW DC power shelves and 1400A busbar systems often requires electrical infrastructure changes,” Andrea says.“ Cooling presents similar challenges. Retrofitting liquid cooling systems into facilities designed for air cooling requires significant modifications to both the mechanical infrastructure and the control systems.”
For edge deployments, Vertiv is seeing success with modular approaches.
“ Our Vertiv 360AI reference architectures, ranging from 88kW to 115kW configurations, can be deployed as integrated systems that work within existing facility constraints while providing the performance density
needed for AI workloads. This approach reduces deployment time by up to 50 % compared to custom integrations,” says Andrea.
Sustainability requirements are evolving alongside AI demands. AI workloads increase power and resource consumption, but also create opportunities for energy efficiency optimisation.
Regulators in many regions are monitoring developments, and there is increasing pressure from enterprise customers to demonstrate measurable energy usage and resource improvements.
“ This goes beyond traditional metrics like Power Usage Effectiveness( PUE)
32 December 2025