Power Density Edges Higher, But AI Could Accelerate Trend

Data center rack density is trending higher, prompted by growing adoption of powerful hardware to support artificial intelligence applications. It's an ongoing trend with a new wrinkle, as industry observers see a growing opportunity for specialists in high-density hosting, perhaps boosted by the rise of edge computing. Increases in rack density are being seen broadly, with 67 percent of data center operators seeing increasing densities, according to the recent State of the Data Center survey by AFCOM. With an average power density of about 7 kilowatts per rack, the report found that the vast majority of data centers have few problems managing their IT workloads with traditional air cooling methods. But there are also growing pockets of extreme density, as AI and cloud applications boost adoption of advanced hardware, including GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs.