AI-Scale Data Centers: Designing for Performance, Power & Security

The modern data center has evolved into a high-velocity, high-density compute hub built to support everything from generative AI models to cloud services, edge applications, and hybrid workloads. 

According to recent research, AI is projected to account for nearly half of all compute by 2030 - and data center power and cooling capabilities are already buckling under the pressure. In this reality, designing for performance, power, and security are the three pillars that separate future-proof infrastructure from legacy risk.

Pillar 1: Performance - Workloads Are Growing

AI workloads drive new constraints: higher rack densities, accelerated I/O demands, and real-time analytics. A Deloitte study found eight major hyperscalers expect a 44 % year-over-year increase in AI data-center investment by 2025. For enterprise data centers, this means:

• Designing for increased power per rack, often > 15–20 kW (today’s average is ~12 kW, with AI racks expected to go much higher) (Source JLL) 
• Ensuring high-throughput connectivity and low-latency fabric design - including adoption of next-gen switching, accelerated NICs, DPUs, and software-defined fabrics.
• Emphasizing modular design so that infrastructure can scale easily, without forklift upgrades or massive downtime.

At BTA, our S.I.M.P.L.E. methodology (Start → Immerse → Map → Prove → Launch → Evolve) begins with a performance assessment, defines critical workloads, and builds a roadmap that aligns with business velocity, not legacy inertia.

Pillar 2: Power & Cooling - The Invisible Risk Becomes Visible

While performance grabs headlines, power is the gating factor. A recent McKinsey & Company analysis projected more than $7 trillion of capital expenditure in data-center infrastructure through 2030 - and much of the bottleneck lies in power availability and grid interconnects. Other key observations:

• AI-focused data centers often require multi-gigawatt campuses, creating stressed grid zones and raising permitting, real-estate, and utility coordination to strategic issues. (Source: WIRED) 
• Cooling systems must adapt - immersion cooling, liquid-cooling, and high-efficiency HVAC are becoming mainstream to handle densities above 100 kW per rack. (Source: JLL) 
• Without power and cooling aligned, infrastructure becomes stranded - speed and performance are meaningless if your facility lacks the utilities.

BTA helps clients assess power readiness, draft migration plans that minimise risk of downtime, and select equipment and architectures that align with their energy envelope, cooling strategy, and business continuity objectives.

Pillar 3: Security & Control - Enforcement Closer to the Workload

As infrastructure evolves, so do threats. Traditional perimeter models are inadequate against lateral movement, non-human identities (NHIs), and AI-driven attacks. Industry research reveals 68 % of breaches exploit non-human identities - underscoring the need for data-center segmentation, identity-driven policy, and workload-level enforcement. Security design considerations include:

• Embedding enforcement into the switches, NICs, and DPUs rather than relying on legacy appliances.
• Designing micro-zones aligned to workload criticality and risk profile (see BTA’s Micro Segmentation approach).
• Ensuring visibility into both on-prem and hybrid cloud workloads, using automation for policy validation, compliance, and drift detection.

BTA’s combined data-center and security practice means we build secure infrastructure. Our expertise with major platforms (e.g., Cisco ACI, Nexus, UCS/Intersight) and our Policy Automation Engine help deliver enforcement that operates at the speed of business.

Why this matters for enterprises today

• Scalability matters. The era of “build once, refresh later” is over. Flexible, modular data-center architectures support AI, edge, and hybrid expansion without massive overhauls.
• Risk tolerance is low. Downtime, power failures, and unsecured data centers have a direct business impact on operations, compliance, and reputation.
• Costs are variable. Infrastructure cost models now include power, cooling, real estate, and regulatory compliance. 
• Speed of change is accelerating. With AI and hybrid workloads changing constantly, data-center strategy must keep up - or become a bottleneck.

Actionable roadmap: How to get started

1. Start: Conduct a high-level audit of workload criticality, rack density, power/cooling envelope, and security posture.
2. Immerse: Run workshops with application, network & security teams to align business needs, compliance goals, and risk appetite.
3. Map: Use the insights to design modular architecture blocks - performance tiers, power segments, secure zones.
4. Prove: Simulate migrations, failover scenarios, security enforcement tests, and capacity growth plans.
5. Launch: Deploy incrementally, prioritising high-value workloads first while maintaining production resilience.
6. Evolve: Use automation, monitoring, and continuous improvement to adapt as workloads evolve.

How BTA Makes a Difference

• End-to-end expertise: From design & mapping to migration, consolidation, operations, and advisory - BTA covers all stages of the data-center lifecycle.
• Industry-leading platforms: Deep experience with Cisco ACI, Nexus Dashboard, UCS/Intersight, and other data-center technologies ensures clients get scalable and secure infrastructure.
• Methodology that works: The S.I.M.P.L.E. framework ensures no step is skipped, risk is managed, and business outcomes are aligned.
• Security-first mindset: Integration of policy automation and enforcement ensures infrastructure is protected.

Final thought

The data center of the future is architected. Performance, power, and security must be intertwined in every design decision. For businesses ready to scale AI, hybrid workloads, and resilient infrastructure, the question is no longer if they should modernize, but when to take action. Partnering with BTA means building more than capacity - it means building advantage.

Schedule a discovery meeting with our Data Center team at BTA to review your infrastructure readiness and roadmap for AI-scale performance.