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There is something special about the first cup of coffee in the morning. It is familiar yet energizing. Comforting yet full of possibility. A small ritual that resets the day and fills you with the energy to take on new challenges. 2025 has felt exactly like that for data centers around the world. A year where legacy infrastructures met the dawn of new demands. A year where “good enough” quietly gave way to “built for AI.” A year where operators, enterprises, colocation providers, hyperscalers paused and asked themselves: Can our old white-spaces handle what is coming next ?
For many, the answer arrived as a realization—legacy white-spaces still have immense potential, if upgraded thoughtfully and engineered smartly.
At the heart of this transformation lies one powerful idea: converting legacy white-space into AI-ready white-space. Not by tearing everything down. Not by starting from scratch. But by strategically re-engineering power, cooling, containment, and connectivity so that yesterday’s rooms can support tomorrow’s workloads.
As 2025 draws to a close, this upgrade movement is emerging as one of the year’s defining shifts—and one that will carry strong momentum into 2026.
2025 Reality Check: Why the Upgrade Movement Began
AI and HPC workloads, the pressure has never been higher
The global data-center industry has seen a sharp acceleration in AI-driven workloads in 2025, pushing power and cooling requirements to critical levels. High-performance computing and AI environments now routinely exceed traditional rack-density thresholds.
Modern HPC deployments increasingly report rack densities of 70 kW or more, in some cases exceeding 100 kW per rack—representing a three to fourfold increase compared to 2020-era data centers.
Legacy white-spaces, originally designed for modest densities and conventional cooling, are now exposed to real risks—thermal overload, inefficient power distribution, and cooling shortfalls—unless upgraded with intent and precision.
Power Constraints & Grid Challenges: Bottlenecks Are Real
One of the prime inhibitors of global data-centre growth, especially in core hub markets remains limited power availability. CBRE
As data-centre demand surges, grid stress, regulatory hurdles, and supply-chain constraints are forcing operators and infrastructure providers to rethink how power is delivered, distributed, and managed. media.datacenterdynamics.com
This is not just about more power, but about smarter, more efficient power distribution. Legacy switched-gear layouts and inefficient busways cannot keep up with the variability, density, and scale that AI-enabled operations demand.
Sustainability and Efficiency, Industry Is Under Pressure
2025 has seen a strong emphasis on sustainability alongside growth. As data-centre footprints expand globally, stakeholders - operators, regulators, end-customers increasingly prioritise energy efficiency, cooling efficiency, and renewable or low-impact infrastructure SubZero Engineering.
Industry reports now highlight modular infrastructure, prefabricated cooling, and power-optimisation retrofits as key strategies enabling data-centre renovation without full rebuilds secure.businesswire.com
In short, 2025 has exposed the limits of “business as usual.” And data-center owners are responding not only by building new sites, but by intelligently upgrading the assets they already have.
The “Fresh Brew” Approach: How Modernization Really Happens
If 2025 is like that first cup of strong morning coffee - vivid, energising, and full of potential, then upgrading legacy white-space into AI-ready white-space is the brewing ritual that makes it happen. Here’s how:
Modular power distribution - the espresso Shot of AI density
One of the most critical bottlenecks in legacy data centres is power distribution. Traditional switchboards and fixed busways were never designed for ever-rising rack densities.
Solutions like intelligent rack PDUs, modular busbars, and flexible busway systems deliver scalable, adaptable, and future-proof power distribution. Legrand
With such modular power infrastructure, operators can add more racks or denser rack configurations without overhauling entire electrical layouts, they simply plug, distribute, and power up.
This modular power distribution is like adding an espresso shot to your data-centre coffee, concentrated, potent, and enabling far more capacity without bulk.
Cooling path revamps - smooth, balanced, hot-aisle/cold-aisle precision
Modern high-density AI and HPC workloads generate intense heat. Traditional air-cooling and old airflow-management strategies often fail under such pressure.
As per a 2025 industry renovation report, retrofits using liquid cooling, improved containment, and prefabricated cooling systems are among the fastest-growing solutions for upgrading legacy data centres. secure.businesswire.com
Combined with containment and smart rack layouts, these help deliver controlled, efficient thermal performance even under heavy load, enabling older white-spaces to function reliably as high-density, AI-ready facilities.
Think of it as upgrading your coffee from drip brew to a smooth latte, richer, more controlled, more sustainable.
Flexible containment & modular racks - the perfect cup sleeve
Containers, racks, cabling, and containment define how air flows, how cables route, how space is used. In legacy setups, these are often sub-optimal for dense AI workloads.
With modular racks, adaptive containment, structured cabling, and precision cable management, airflow becomes predictable, safe, and optimised for modern needs. Legrand
This modular architecture gives operators flexibility: reconfigure rows, scale up or down, isolate hot and cold aisles, all without extensive renovation.
It is like putting your coffee in a good sleeve - controlled, comfortable, and ready to go without spilling.
Real-time monitoring & intelligent management - always-warm, always-on
Beyond power and cooling, modern data centres need visibility into load, usage, efficiency, and performance. Real-time monitoring, intelligent PDUs, and smart infrastructure management allow operators to track, adapt, and optimize, essential for AI-driven workloads with variable demand. Legrand
Legrand’s end-to-end portfolio, from busbars to PDUs to containment provides the backbone for such intelligent management.
This is akin to having a coffee-machine that not only brews but monitors strength, temperature, and refill levels - always ready, always consistent.
Future-proof Flexibility - Ready for Tomorrow’s Refills
Perhaps the most powerful advantage of upgrading (rather than rebuilding) is modularity and scalability: as workloads change AI clusters grow, HPC demand spikes, edge deployments rise, the infrastructure grows with them.
Modular, prefabricated, upgradeable designs, power, cooling, racks, containment make it possible to adapt infrastructure over time, without high downtime or major capital outlay.
Real-world momentum in 2025, what the Industry and Legrand Are Doing
Industry reports & market signals
A newly released 2025 renovation-industry report highlights how AI, edge computing, and high-performance workloads are driving large-scale demand for structural and power retrofits in mid-tier as well as hyperscale data centres.secure.businesswire.com
Another 2025 outlook suggests global data-centre capacity demand is surging, with AI workloads and power constraints pushing operators to re-evaluate conventional design strategies and embrace modular, efficient infrastructure.
As global demand outpaces new builds constrained by grid capacity and resource bottlenecks, many operators are choosing to upgrade legacy spaces rather than build from scratch. CBRE
Legrand’s strategic moves, delivering end-to-end upgrade solutions
In 2024–2025, Legrand made several strategic acquisitions, including low-voltage power specialists, busbar manufacturers, and rack/containment players strengthening its portfolio of modular power distribution, racks, and containment solutions for data centres.
These moves underscore Legrand’s commitment to offering a full-stack data-centre solution from power distribution to cooling readiness, from containment to monitoring enabling operators to rely on a single trusted partner for complete retrofit or build-out.
In 2025, Legrand, in collaboration with Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Cadolto DataCenter GmbH, unveiled a next-generation modular edge data centre, a turnkey solution engineered for speed, scalability, and sustainability. Data Centre Magazine
According to Legrand’s own communications, their “AI-ready” suite including cabinets, containment, cooling integration, power distribution, cabling and real-time monitoring helps enterprise, colocation, and hyperscale operators meet tight deployment timelines while ensuring scalability, reliability, and sustainability.
In short: Legrand is not just selling components. Legrand is offering a partnered journey, from initial assessment to design, installation, commissioning, monitoring, maintenance. A trusted end-to-end solution provider.
Why This Matters: Value for Operators, Enterprises & Hyperscalers
Faster time-to-deployment, because everyday counts
With modular power, prefabricated containment and cooling, and an integrated vendor approach, upgrades can happen much faster than building new green-field sites. Operators can often deliver increased capacity in weeks or months instead of many months or years critical in a world where AI demand spikes overnight.
Cost and resource efficiency get more from what you already have
Retrofits avoid costly site acquisition, land permits, and full-scale construction. They also make better use of existing white-space, reducing capital expenditure while delivering high returns in density, performance, and efficiency.
Reliability, safety, compliance through proven systems
By using established modular power distribution, real-time monitoring, and integrated cooling and containment, data centres can meet modern standards of reliability, uptime, energy efficiency, safety and compliance often a challenge when stretching legacy infrastructure beyond its original design.
Scalability and future-proofing because technology won’t stand still
As AI models grow, hardware changes, and workloads evolve modular infrastructure adapts along. Operators can scale up (or down), upgrade specific modules, refresh racks, add cooling, reconfigure power all with minimal disruption. For enterprises and hyperscalers, this ensures that investment today stays relevant tomorrow.
Legrand: the trusted partner for the 2025–26 upgrade wave
As 2025 ends and we step into a new year of accelerated digital transformation, having a partner with broad, proven capabilities matters.
Legrand brings complete data-centre expertise not just individual components. From low-voltage distribution to busbars, PDUs, rack and containment, cabling, monitoring, smart infrastructure, the portfolio spans everything modern data centres need. Legrand
Through strategic acquisitions and collaborations (e.g. with Siemens and Cadolto), Legrand has expanded its capacity to deliver turnkey, modular, edge-ready, high-density data centres. Data Centre Magazine
Legrand is committed to helping customers not just build but upgrade, scale, future-proof and manage their infrastructure. Real-time monitoring, modular upgrades, flexibility and adaptability ensure that operators won’t be left behind as AI and HPC workloads evolve rapidly. Legrand
In other words, Legrand is the equivalent of your dependable early-morning brew, always ready when you need it, consistent in quality, and energising enough to power you through the day ahead.
2026 and beyond: what comes next - the future of white-space is modular, intelligent, and sustainable
Looking ahead, a few key dynamics stand out:
The demand for AI / HPC / edge workloads shows no sign of slowing. Capacity addition, upgrades, retrofits, and new builds will all co-exist.
Power grid constraints, energy costs and sustainability mandates will push operators toward modular, efficient, and green solutions, not just in new builds but retrofits.
Data sovereignty, edge latency, regional compliance and distributed computing will drive more micro-data-centres, modular edge facilities requiring flexible, modular infrastructure providers.
The value of a single trusted partner for full-stack deployment (power, cooling, containment, monitoring, racks, cabling) will only increase.
In this landscape, operators who invest in modular upgrades now, rather than delaying until workloads overwhelm infrastructure will have a clear advantage. And partners like Legrand, who offer end-to-end, future-ready solutions, will be at the centre of that transition.
Final Thought: The First Sip of Tomorrow, Served Today
Upgrading legacy white-space into AI-ready infrastructure is more than a technical exercise—it’s a mindset shift. It’s recognizing that the future doesn’t always require new ground, but smarter design, modular thinking, and trusted partnerships.
2025 has been the wake-up call. 2026 can be the transformation. With the right blend of modular power, intelligent cooling, flexible racks, and real-time monitoring, your data center can become that reliable first sip—strong, efficient, and ready for whatever comes next.
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