It's Time to Rethink What We Mean by a Legacy Datacentre
Computer Weekly, Monday, October 5th, 2026
Older datacentres aren't necessarily obsolete; many can be upgraded for AI and higher densities rather than replaced.
In a Computer Weekly opinion piece, a datacentre engineering adviser says operators, investors and owners increasingly ask whether existing facilities are still fit for purpose, prompted by AI and higher rack densities, acquisition due diligence or cooling struggles in heat waves.
Building age rarely determines the answer, since many sites have already adapted through several generations of servers, power densities and cooling strategies.
The author argues the industry is too quick to label facilities 'legacy' and that upgrading, expanding and modernizing existing sites can unlock commercial value for AI.