Data center innovation is continuing to be shaped by macro forces and technology trends related to AI, according to a report from Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global leader in critical digital infrastructure.
The Vertiv Frontiers report, which draws on expertise from across the organization, details the technology trends driving current and future innovation, from powering up for AI, to digital twins, to adaptive liquid cooling.
“The data center industry is continuing to rapidly evolve how it designs, builds, operates and services data centers, in response to the density and speed of deployment demands of AI factories,” said Vertiv chief product and technology officer Scott Armul. “We see cross-technology forces, including extreme densification, driving transformative trends such as higher voltage DC power architectures and advanced liquid cooling that are important to deliver the gigawatt scaling that is critical for AI innovation. On-site energy generation and digital twin technology are also expected to help to advance the scale and speed of AI adoption.”
The Vertiv Frontiers report builds on and expands Vertiv’s previous annual Data Center Trends predictions. The report identifies macro forces driving data center innovation: extreme densification—accelerated by AI and HPC workloads; gigawatt scaling at speed—data centers are now being deployed rapidly and at unprecedented scale; data center as a unit of compute—the AI era requires facilities to be built and operated as a single system; and silicon diversification—data center infrastructure must adapt to an increasing range of chips and compute.
The report details how these macro forces have in turn shaped five key trends impacting specific areas of the data center landscape.
Powering up for AI
Most current data centers still rely on hybrid AC/DC power distribution from the grid to the IT racks, which includes three to four conversion stages and inherent inefficiencies. This existing approach is under strain as power densities increase, largely driven by AI workloads. The shift to higher-voltage DC architectures enables significant reductions in current, conductor size and the number of conversion stages, while centralizing power conversion at the room level. Hybrid AC and DC systems remain pervasive, but as full DC standards and equipment mature, higher-voltage DC is likely to become more prevalent as rack densities rise. On-site generation and microgrids will also drive adoption of higher-voltage DC.
Distributed AI
The billions of dollars invested to date in AI data centers supporting large language models have largely been aimed at enabling widespread adoption of AI tools by consumers and businesses. Vertiv believes AI is becoming increasingly critical to enterprises, but how and where inference services are delivered will depend on specific organizational requirements. Highly regulated industries such as finance, defense and healthcare may need to maintain private or hybrid AI environments via on-premises data centers due to data residency, security or latency constraints. Flexible, scalable high-density power and liquid cooling systems could enable added capacity through new builds or retrofits of existing facilities.
Energy autonomy accelerates
Short-term on-site energy generation capacity has been essential for standalone data centers for decades to support resiliency. However, widespread power availability challenges are creating conditions for extended energy autonomy, particularly for AI data centers. Investment in on-site power generation, including natural gas turbines and other technologies, offers several intrinsic benefits but is primarily being driven by power constraints. Technology strategies such as bring-your-own power and cooling are likely to form part of longer-term energy autonomy plans.
Digital twin-driven design and operations
Increasingly dense AI workloads and more powerful GPUs are heightening the need to deploy complex AI factories at speed. Using AI-based tools, data centers can be mapped and specified virtually through digital twins, allowing IT and critical digital infrastructure to be integrated—often as prefabricated modular designs—and deployed as units of compute. This approach can reduce time-to-token by up to 50% and will be important in efficiently achieving the gigawatt-scale buildouts required for future AI advancements.
Adaptive, resilient liquid cooling
AI workloads and infrastructure have accelerated the adoption of liquid cooling, but AI can also be used to further refine and optimize these solutions. Liquid cooling has become mission-critical for a growing number of operators, and AI-driven monitoring and control systems could enhance performance by predicting potential failures and managing fluids and components more effectively. This trend is expected to improve reliability and uptime for high-value hardware and associated data and workloads.
Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries, delivering critical digital infrastructure solutions to data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial facilities worldwide. The company’s portfolio spans power management, thermal management and IT infrastructure solutions and services, from the cloud to the network edge. This integrated approach supports continuous operations, optimal performance and scalable growth as customers navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape.
For more information on Vertiv solutions or the Vertiv Frontiers data center trends predictions, visit Vertiv.com.
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