NORTEK DCC
Data centre operators are under mounting pressure to rethink how they manage heat. Data Centre Magazine spoke exclusively with Thomas Steen, CTO of Nortek Data Center Cooling( Nortek DCC), on why rigid, one-size-fits-all cooling designs cannot keep pace with this trajectory, and how customisable, collaborative engineering is replacing them instead. From the sustainability case for liquid cooling to the real economics behind its total cost of ownership, Thomas unpacks the misconceptions still holding operators back, and explains how hybrid approaches, including rear-door heat exchangers, offer a practical bridge for legacy facilities.
The AI power surge Nortek Data Center’ s Liquid Cooling playbook highlights a staggering jump in power density, noting that just three years ago racks rarely exceeded 120kW, whereas today they routinely exceed 300 kW, with 1 MW racks on the horizon. How is Nortek future-proofing data centre operators for this exponential leap in AI-driven thermal density?
Future-proofing is not designing a system that attempts to predict where the industry is headed and what pace. That’ s not feasible. Density requirements are evolving much too fast.
If we were to design a rigid, one-sizefits-all cooling solution today, the system would be obsolete by the following year and could not effectively serve the needs of clients today.
“The biggest efficiency gains come from optimising the entire cooling system”
Thomas Steen CTO Nortek DCC
We have to design the ability to adapt, change, tweak and upgrade into our cooling solutions. Customisation is paramount not just because of ballooning densities but because facilities have such a wide range of cooling needs. Every facility has different power, and thermal constraints.
We design for those idiosyncratic challenges with custom, configurable capabilities that allow us to engineer solutions to order, so to speak, while giving operators room to scale.
For this to work, collaboration is key. Our engineers aren’ t just calculating thermal loads and modeling directto-chip manifolds. They’ re acting as engineering partners.
Through our C-Force™ solutions framework, our engineers work closely with customers from design and development through deployment and operation, anticipating challenges rather than reacting to them later.
136 October 2026