Beyond Temperature: Why Telecom Cabinet Cooling Is Crucial for Network Reliability
July 1, 2026Leading operators understand that less power consumed on cooling means more power driving computing.
Latin America is a region of geographical contrasts but also great opportunity.
In the west lies the Atacama Desert. To the east stretches the Amazon Basin.
Historically, navigating Latin America required understanding these distinct environments. Today, as the region moves forward with a digital construction expansion, data center operators are finding out that similar rules apply to the digital world.
Driven by an unprecedented wave of hyperscale investments, neoclouds, and artificial intelligence infrastructure, Latin America’s data center inventory grew by 41.3% year-over-year according to CBRE’s Global Data Center Trends report. Primary hubs like São Paulo, Santiago, and Bogotá are expanding aggressively, while secondary markets like Querétaro, Mexico, are also seeing sustained growth. Indeed, according to Synergy Research, Santiago and Querétaro are among the metros with the highest colocation growth rates globally over the next five years.
“While the major colocation markets today are located in metros that have a large concentration of companies and economic activity, we are seeing the increasing emergence of many metros in countries that have smaller economies, but which are growing rapidly,” says John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group.
The growth across LATAM is further evidenced by strong AI-driven server sales of more than 64 percent in 2026 according to IDC. “AI infrastructure demand is broadening beyond hyperscalers into enterprise and sovereign deployments across more than 40 countries,” said Juan Seminara, research director, Worldwide Enterprise Infrastructure Trackers, IDC.
But as the region races to build the physical foundations for AI, it faces an environmental bottleneck: heat. A data center operating in the high, dry air of some LATAM regions faces an entirely different thermal reality than, say, a facility in São Paulo. Trying to cool next-generation AI workloads across environmental extremes using legacy, one-size-fits-all air infrastructure will bottleneck growth, drive up costs, and place additional strain on local power grids.
The Reality of AI Power Densities
Traditional data center workloads usually require 5 to 10 kilowatts (kW) per rack, which standard air cooling handles reasonably well. However, training large language models (LLMs) and running dense AI inference engines usually requires advanced GPU clusters. These next-generation architectures can push power densities past 40 kW to 100+ kW per rack.
In Latin America, this creates a dual challenge:
- Grid Constraints: Power availability is a bottleneck in major metropolitan areas, making energy a premium asset.
- Climate Stress: When traditional air-chilled systems encounter high ambient temperatures or heavy humidity, they work twice as hard — consuming a larger proportion of the facility’s total power budget just to keep servers running.
When 30% to 40% of a data center’s power allocation goes to running compressors and fans, it takes away from the facility’s computing capacity. In a region where every megawatt counts, that is a compromise operators will want to avoid. As such, it’s imperative that cooling shifts from an operational afterthought to a strategic pillar.
Maximizing Grid Efficiency for the AI Era
For years, the industry has relied on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to measure data center efficiency. But PUE has a blind spot in the AI era: it describes how efficiently power is delivered, but it doesn’t describe how much productive compute is actually being derived from provisioned grid capacity. A facility can have an excellent PUE yet remain “power-stranded” — unable to deploy more GPUs because its cooling or power architecture is maxed out.
To prevent facilities from becoming power-stranded, regional operators must adopt architectures designed to redirect precious megawatts away from mechanical refrigeration loops and straight into active, revenue-producing compute. By isolating cooling constraints and design inefficiencies at the infrastructure level, operators can finally unlock the hidden, stranded capacity that traditional power metrics simply cannot see.
Maximizing Infrastructure Efficiency: Airsys PowerOne™ Architecture
The design philosophy behind the Airsys PowerOne solution is built entirely around maximizing available compute power. The promise is simple: less power consumed on cooling means more power driving computing.
By optimizing thermal management to operate with maximum thermodynamic efficiency, PowerOne eliminates the need for massive mechanical refrigeration loops. Instead of wasting precious megawatts fighting local climates, that power is redirected straight into the server racks to generate revenue-producing AI compute.
Next-Gen Liquid Cooling: FluidCool-X™ and LiquidRack™
To handle extreme heat right at the source – largely independently of the environmental conditions — Airsys has engineered liquid cooling technologies designed for seamless, high-density scaling.
FluidCool-X™: Scalable Liquid CDU
As data centers transition from mixed workloads to dedicated AI clusters, scaling infrastructure can be incredibly disruptive. FluidCool-X™ is a liquid Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) engineered for rapid flexibility. From edge AI pods supporting localized low-latency applications to massive hyperscale clusters, FluidCool-X™ provides the precise, high-capacity fluid management required to maintain thermal equilibrium.
LiquidRack™: Extreme Heat Dissipation
For densities that push beyond the physical limits of air, LiquidRack™ brings server-level liquid spray cooling directly to the hardware. By applying specialized liquid cooling right at the chip and chassis level, LiquidRack™ neutralizes extreme heat at the source. This completely eliminates the massive compressor overhead, water consumption concerns, and complex ducting associated with traditional raised-floor air systems.
The Greenfield Advantage: Future-Proofing LATAM Data Center Investments
The LATAM data center market stands at a unique historical juncture. Because a vast majority of the region’s digital infrastructure is being built from the ground up right now, operators possess a distinct “greenfield advantage.” They are not shackled to the legacy, air-chilled architectures that are currently choking older, more established markets.
However, this advantage comes with a hard expiration date for those who build by yesterday’s rules. Deploying standard air infrastructure to meet current demands might feel safe today, but it guarantees an expensive, disruptive retrofit tomorrow. As AI workloads scale exponentially over the next 3 to 5 years, legacy systems will inevitably max out—leaving operators with power-stranded facilities, soaring operational costs, and capital investments that face premature obsolescence.
Choosing advanced liquid cooling today isn’t just about handling next month’s hardware deployment; it is a critical capital protection strategy. By integrating closed-loop architectures like FluidCool-X™ and LiquidRack™ early in the design phase, regional operators can successfully insulate their infrastructure against future thermal spikes. It maximizes their ultimate power efficiency, satisfies strict local sustainability expectations, and future-proofs billions in capital expenditures — ensuring that every single megawatt provisioned today remains competitive, productive, and revenue-generating for a decade to come.
