Current designs for traditional enterprise type data centers aren’t necessarily flexible enough for the myriad of newer devices coming their way. IT hardware is beginning to morph into different form factors, which may involve non-standard physical configurations, as well as unconventional cooling and power schemes. This does not necessarily mean that a traditional design will not work in the near future, however the long term IT systems planning must be evaluated to understand the potential impact on the physical issues in the data center facility.

Just as the widespread use of Bladeserver technology and virtualization had a radical impact on the cooling systems of older data centers; other hardware and software developments may also begin to influence the physical design requirements and should not be overlooked.