From Cloud to AI: Engineering Next-Gen Data Centers

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we explore how artificial intelligence is driving an unprecedented expansion of data center infrastructure. While the cloud era transformed digital services, AI workloads are fundamentally changing how data centers must be designed, powered, and cooled.

Our guest, Ty Schmitt, Vice President and Dell Fellow in Dell Technologies’ Infrastructure Solutions Group CTO organization, brings more than three decades of experience in server hardware, thermal design, and data center engineering. Drawing on his work shaping Dell’s data center technology and sustainability strategy, Ty explains why AI infrastructure is scaling so rapidly and what makes it technically different from the cloud systems that came before.
We discuss the engineering challenges behind high-power AI chips, the industry’s shift from air to liquid cooling, and how data center builders are adapting to rising energy demands and community concerns as AI infrastructure expands.