How AI is Reshaping Data Center Design

How AI is Reshaping Data Center Design

From Data Center Richness by Rich Miller

December 11, 2025 · 44 min

About this episode

Sara Martin discusses how AI is reshaping data center design and the challenges faced in the industry.

AI is changing the way we design and build data centers. Meanwhile, cloud computing and enterprise companies continue to need lots of IT capacity. This creates a challenge for the teams that design data centers, who must navigate rapid change amid tensions between workloads and technologies. AI or cloud? Air-cooled or liquid-cooled? This is Sara Martin's world. Sara is an Associate Principal at HED, an integrated design end engineering firm that works with many data center clients. On today's podcast Sara provides an inside look at how the rise of AI is creating new challenges, and how leading data centers are using design to build for the future in a period of big fast change. Here's an overview of the conversation with Data Center Richness host Rich Miller and Sara Martin of HED: 00:00 - Why AI Challenges the Status Quo in Design 01:15 - Sara Martin shares her Data Center Journey, and what HED does. 05:10 - The AI Transition and Modular Designs 10:00 - Hybrid Cooling in Multi-Tenant Data Centers 14:45 - The Pace of Change as a Design Challenge 21:20 - Data Center Water Usage and Community Pushback 27:00 - Trends in Closed-Loop vs. Evaporative Cooling 32:30 - The Future Path of…

People in this episode

Host: Rich Miller

Guest: Sara Martin

Topics covered

  • AI in data center design
  • cloud computing
  • data center challenges
  • cooling technologies
  • modular designs
  • sustainability

Keywords

  • AI
  • data center design
  • cloud computing
  • cooling technologies
  • modular designs
  • sustainability
  • water usage
  • supply chains

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HED

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