How An Integrated Approach To Infrastructure Prepares Data Centers For Future Growth

The growth of artificial intelligence is changing not only the computing power and resource needs of data centers but also the weight demands placed on racks, cabinets and other hardware needed to house the tens of thousands of servers found in a typical data center.

“When AMD or Nvidia comes out with a new chip that changes the cooling requirements or the power needed, it also changes the infrastructure inside the data center,” said Daniel Aguirre, commercial director of Nucor Data Systems. “Everything's becoming heavier, as there's more liquid needed for cooling. But is the infrastructure inside the data center designed to future-proof and support that trend?”

To help ensure a data center is prepared for current and future challenges, NDS serves as a single-source solution that not only provides an array of essential white-space infrastructure but the know-how to help prepare a data center client for the inevitable changes in computing equipment. 

Aguirre explained that NDS combines the resources of Nucor, America’s largest steel and steel products manufacturer, with the product line it gained with the acquisition of Southwest Data Products in 2024. In addition to an extensive product portfolio, NDS’s Mission Critical Construction Services platform offers design, engineering, project management and modular prefabricated construction services for data centers.

“We are essentially a one-stop shop that both manufactures and installs our products,” Aguirre said. “We like to get in at the beginning of a project with our clients, especially the hyperscalers, and understand from a preconstruction and a design-engineering aspect what they're trying to achieve.”

'A Huge Value'

With its in-house design-engineering expertise and the manufacturing capabilities of Nucor, NDS can help data center clients and their general contractors select infrastructure that will best serve their current and future needs, Aguirre said.

“We might recommend that they utilize a certain type of steel profile with a specific gauge because it's going to be able to support X amount of loads three to five years down the road,” he said. 

NDS’s expertise extends to understanding whether a concept is scalable from a manufacturing standpoint as well as its ability to install on-site while working around other trades operating in the facility. 

“Understanding how to put it together in the right sequence is a huge value to keeping on schedule,” he said. “That's one of the main reasons why clients see value in working with us.”

NDS performs retrofits, too. But Aguirre said its resources and know-how are best utilized at the beginning of a project, when the company can share its expertise during the design-engineering and preconstruction phases.

That expertise extends to engineering products that can withstand seismic disturbances.

“We have supplied products in high seismic zones for many years,” he said. “If a client wants to expand to 10, 20 or 30 data centers across the United States, we can help them with a product that will work in all types of seismic zones. We take those things into consideration to create a program that's easily replicated and scaled to different locations."  

Closing The Loop

Nucor’s “5 S’s” data center construction methodology — speed, supply, sustainability, security and steel — benefits data center clients in multiple ways, Aguirre said. For example, the company’s vertical integration allows for the closed-loop recycling of steel products. 

This is important because during a retrofit or refresh, it may be necessary to replace old equipment with larger ones to accommodate the dimensions of new processing or cooling equipment. NDS can make sure those old racks, cages and other hardware don’t end up in a landfill. 

“We'll send the old steel hardware to our recycling division so it can be manufactured into a new cabinet or other product,” Aguirre said. “It’s a true closed-loop partnership with clients that allows them to be sustainable while meeting their needs of the new technology.”

Aguirre said NDS’s clients are secure in knowing they are working with a domestic supplier — not a minor consideration when supply chain disruptions for key parts and materials are common.

“Knowing that it's a U.S.-based supplier makes it easier for them to scale their business and focus on their growth in the data center space,” he said. “This avoids the risks of importing products.”

NDS serves all segments of the data center market, including colocation and hyperscale customers, with a deep understanding of the unique nuances, challenges and opportunities each environment presents, Aguirre said.

Backed by the strength of Nucor and the advantages of a vertically integrated supply chain, NDS leverages its product capabilities, manufacturing expertise and value-added services to solve complex customer challenges and deliver tailored solutions. Aguirre said this is a “great example” of parent company Nucor’s “expand beyond” strategy put into practice.

“We're not only providing a product but a solution that our clients were asking for, encompassing the core and shell exterior to the infrastructure in the white space of a full data center,” he said. “This makes it much easier for them to scale their business and focus on their priorities in the data center space.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Nucor Data Systems and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.