Rows of server racks may define every data center, but their size, cooling and power requirements are anything but standard. This creates the need for custom rack enclosures designed around each facility’s unique equipment and layout.
Along with meeting surface requirements, a rack designed around your data center’s specifications can shorten deployment times and prolong the lifespan of expensive electrical equipment. For decades, Vander-Bend has designed and fabricated custom infrastructure components and assemblies for data centers and other high-tech industries.
Explore our expert insights into custom rack enclosures below and reach out to our team to find out more about our capabilities.
The Limitations of Standard Enclosures
Standard server cabinets are designed for the broad market, which translates to low upfront costs but forced compromises that end up leading to larger expenses down the line. They might be the right height for your application but lack the depth that modern GPU servers require and the airflow-friendly doors that help with thermal management.
OEMs and Tier suppliers typically make up for these gaps with aftermarket brackets and field modifications. This added labor not only increases overhead but can also result in deployment failures. Custom rack enclosures eliminate the guesswork and the band aid solutions by engineering the enclosure to align with your exact infrastructure.
Top Design Considerations for Custom Rack Enclosures
Ensuring Adequate Cooling
Heat is the enemy of data centers, especially hyperscale facilities with AI racks, where a single rack can exceed 40 kW. This level of thermal management requires custom doors and panels with perforation patterns that provide open area without compromising structural rigidity.
Integrated seals also prevent hot exhaust from entering the cold aisle. Additionally, data centers using rear-door heat exchangers or direct-to-chip cooling need their own mounting space for manifolds and fluid connections.
Structural Load and Transport
Dense server configurations can create static loads of several thousand pounds. Material gauge and frame geometry along with weld placement ensure that the weight can be reliably supported over years of operation.
Rack-and-roll integration, where equipment is installed and tested before the rack ships, is another significant concern as the frame must be able to withstand the dynamic loads during transit. Furthermore, facilities in areas prone to seismic events often require bracing and anchoring features. Standard racks may not meet these application-specific structural demands.
Power Distribution and Cable Routing
Poor cable routing is more than eyesore. A tangled bundle of cords can impede airflow and complicate maintenance. It also makes it more difficult to troubleshoot during an outage.
Custom rack enclosures allow engineers to position vertical cable management systems and PDU brackets according to each facility’s equipment layout. The result is a cleaner configuration that technicians can easily access.
Physical Security
Colocation facilities and other highly regulated industries often have a limited number of personnel that are authorized to access important electrical systems. Standard enclosures often lack features like locking mechanisms and split rear doors that you can get with custom rack enclosures.
Get Custom Rack Enclosures from Vander-Bend
Sourcing server racks for a data center? Turn to Vander-Bend for custom rack enclosures. We take the time to understand the needs of your application, including cooling strategy, cable management, and load. From there, we fabricate and assemble enclosures tailored to those requirements. Reach out to our team now and find out how our range of advanced capabilities can drive your production forward with tailored solutions.