As data centres grapple with soaring rack densities driven by AI workloads, thermal management has moved firmly to the top of the operational agenda. Cooling infrastructure that was adequate for conventional compute is increasingly ill-suited to the demands of modern AI clusters, leaving hyperscale and colocation operators under pressure to act quickly without compromising long-term efficiency or sustainability commitments. Trane ®, a part of Trane Technologies, which recently expanded its liquid cooling portfolio through the acquisition of LiquidStack ®, has been working with operators to navigate this transition. The company’ s approach centres on hybrid thermal architectures that blend air, chilled-water and liquid cooling technologies, allowing facilities to scale capacity incrementally rather than undertaking wholesale infrastructure overhauls. In this Q & A, Becky Wacker, VP of Data Center Solutions at Trane, discusses how operators can manage the practical realities of retrofitting legacy facilities, why lifecycle partnerships are superseding transactional maintenance models and how intelligent controls are enabling more dynamic, data-driven thermal management across complex, multi-site portfolios.