The physical footprint of the AI revolution is now casting its shadow on the future. Across Asia-Pacific, the race to keep up with AI workloads are pushing rack densities from 10 to 15kW toward 60kW and beyond. This surge in density is reshaping how we design server racks, and traditional enclosures designed for general-purpose computing are buckling under these new demands. Here are five critical ways rack design must evolve—and how Legrand and its brands’ data center solutions are delivering the answers.

1. Structural Load Requirements: Light Frames for Heavy-Duty Foundations

These days, a single NVIDIA DGX H100 server, the industry standard for purpose-built AI server architecture, weighs nearly 300 lbs or 136kg. A fully populated AI rack, complete with rear-door cooling, can add up to over 10 times of that mass, numbers traditional cabinet designs are not rated for.

Legrand has engineered the answer to this challenge with its EzRak 2.0* server cabinets. These cabinets feature light, solid and demountable aluminum frames rated to handle up to 1,800kg of static load. At 42U to 52U capacities, these cabinets can serve both data halls with height restrictions and facilities looking to maximize space to capacity ratio with taller, wider cabinets.

2. Cable Density: Managing the Fiber Explosion

AI racks deploy up to ten times more cables than conventional setups; increasing chances of airflow obstruction, maintenance challenges and points of failure. Built-in cable management and complementary accessories allow teams more options to arrange cables around the hardware without having to turn to third-party solutions, which may take more man hours, costs and time to retrofit.

Legrand’s cabinets are designed to complement a wide range of cable management accessories like trays, windows, bobins, fingers and cable rings for flexible cable management. Different panel configurations with brushed cable entry points can be installed as well to suit evolving cable needs.

On top of all these, Legrand also offers accessories to manage copper and fiber cabling, like fiber-friendly steel wire cable trays rated for high-density deployments with safe T-edges, and adaptable sizing by Cablofil, a brand of Legrand.

 3. Airflow and Containment: Beyond Hot and Cold

Traditional aisle containment assumes predictable, uniform airflow. Fluctuating, more intense heat output from AI workloads disrupts these assumptions.

Legrand’s cabinets are designed to be open and ventilated, with honeycomb doors that are up to 82% perforated to encourage ventilation. Add-on airflow management packages also include blanking panels with toolless installation, baffle plates and accessories to seal off gaps and windows, and trim kits to prevent mixing of air between cabinets.

On top of that, adding hot or cold aisle containment with sensors can increase cooling efficiency by up to 35%, reducing strain on existing CRAC and energy costs, and even potentially improving PUE.

Good Read: The operational impact of an effective cold aisle containment deployment for a Singapore-based regional colocation data center

Legrand offers customizable containment options designed to seamlessly integrate with its cabinets, be it rack-supporting, ground free-standing or hanging free-standing, to suit unique facility spaces, needs and limitations.   

Alternatively, some cooling solutions could allow facilities to do away with hot aisle containment altogether, which brings us to the next section.

4. Cooling Integration: A Primary Support System

Air cooling and containment alone cannot disperse the amounts of heat generated by 50kW racks, especially in the tropical climates found in parts of the APAC region. This makes cooling infrastructure an indispensable part of any high-density facility strategy.

USystems, another brand of Legrand, delivers a spectrum of rear-door heat exchangers (RDHx), compact and scalable to meet any density. The CL20 can handle up to 93kW per rack and integrates with direct-to-chip liquid cooling, an increasingly prominent cooling strategy in recent months, as part of hybrid architecture.

For even higher rack densities, the CL23 HPC achieves an extraordinary 200kW of sensible cooling. The cooling capacities of these two active RDHx are on par with newer immersion (up to 250kW) and water-to-chip (around 40 to 100kW) technologies which are up and coming in the data center industry. Additionally, these RDHx can reuse return water from existing cooling systems and save up to 48% space in data halls with their smaller footprint.

5. Safety Considerations: New Risks Demand New Protections

High-density AI introduces distinct safety challenges: dense cable deployments increase fire risk, valuable equipment demands physical security, and workloads with sensitive client information demand tighter cybersecurity measures.

Raritan, also a brand of Legrand, offers networked and intelligent rack security via its Smartlock, SmartSensors and Asset Management Solutions. Paired with a Smart Rack Controller or Raritan and Server Technology’s smart PDUs through the Xerus technology stack, the Smartlock system can provide basic lock and card entry to more sophisticated 2FA authentication with PIN and RFID card security, comprehensive user tracking and audit trails, depending on the model deployed.

The technology stack also provides some of the industry’s most advanced data encryption and network security protocols, keeping the Smartlock and other hardware secure against errors and potential threats. Also compatible with the Xerus platform are SmartSensors, like the dry contact close sensor that tracks rack door closures, while temperature, humidity and airflow sensors help teams keep tabs on rack conditions and sound alerts in real time when thresholds are exceeded.

The New Rack Paradigm

As the 60kW AI rack becomes more common across APAC data centers, operators are facing a fundamental redefinition of what a rack must be.

Together with its brands, Legrand provides a complete, proven ecosystem for the APAC data center looking to scale up its capacity for AI-reinforced structures and thoughtful cable management for the heavyweight hardware, RDHx and complementary airflow accessories for thermal management, while integrated intelligent security protects the assets.

*Interested in the EzRak 2.0 future ready server cabinet or any of the solutions highlighted above? Reach out to your sales representative with your requirements to receive more information.