Making Room for AI: A Playbook for Brownfield Data Centers
Dell, Thursday, October 8th, 2026
Dell lays out a phased approach for retrofitting brownfield data centers for power-hungry, liquid-cooled AI racks.
Dell says AI is following cloud's path from public-first to hybrid, but faster, as tokenomics and data sovereignty push workloads on premises.
AI racks draw more than 10x the power of traditional servers and increasingly need liquid cooling, which most brownfield data centers are not ready for, so Dell recommends a hybrid cooling strategy matched to workload density.
Its phased approach audits facilities for constraints, optimizes workloads to free power and rack space, and develops a full design when a retrofit or new build is needed.