As Australian businesses continue investing in digital infrastructure, the role of the data centre is changing rapidly. Growing data volumes, increasing cloud adoption, AI workloads, and rising expectations around uptime are placing greater pressure on infrastructure performance, while energy efficiency and sustainability are becoming equally important considerations.

For many organisations, the challenge is no longer simply building more IT capacity. It is designing infrastructure that can scale reliably, operate efficiently, and support long-term sustainability goals without compromising performance.

As featured in Be Top – The Magazine of Friedhelm Loh Group, premium appliance manufacturer BORA recently developed a new data centre environment focused on reliability, scalability, and sustainable operation. The project demonstrates how integrated infrastructure solutions can support both operational performance and energy efficiency in modern IT environments.

Designing for Reliability & Sustainability

As BORA expanded globally, its existing IT infrastructure reached capacity limits. The company required a new data centre capable of supporting future growth while aligning with broader sustainability objectives.

This balance between operational reliability and energy efficiency is becoming increasingly familiar across the Australian industry.

Whether supporting manufacturing, logistics, mining, utilities, or enterprise operations, modern IT environments must maintain high availability while reducing operational energy consumption and supporting ESG targets.

For BORA, redundancy and uptime were essential design priorities.

As Christian Dewina, IT Systems Administrator at BORA, explained:

“Redundancy and high availability are vital for us, because BORA prioritises its customers’ interests and can’t afford any outages.”

Smarter Cooling for Modern Data Centres

Cooling infrastructure played a major role in the project.

Rather than relying solely on traditional mechanical cooling systems, the solution incorporated a water-based cooling approach supported by Rittal Liquid Cooling Packages (LCPs).

The project used available well water as part of the cooling circuit, significantly reducing reliance on conventional chiller systems and lowering overall energy consumption.

According to the project team, this approach reduced cooling energy requirements by up to 70 per cent.

While Australian operating environments differ significantly from Austria, the broader principle remains highly relevant locally: improving cooling efficiency is becoming one of the biggest opportunities for reducing data centre operating costs and supporting sustainability outcomes.

As rack densities increase and AI-driven workloads place greater demands on infrastructure, cooling performance becomes critical to both reliability and operational efficiency.

Supporting High-Density Infrastructure

The project also highlighted the importance of scalable rack infrastructure and integrated system design.

Rittal VX IT rack systems were deployed to support the server environment, alongside integrated power and cable management infrastructure.

For modern data centres and IT rooms, infrastructure standardisation is increasingly important.

Consistent rack platforms help simplify:

• Deployment and expansion
• Cable management
• Maintenance workflows
• Cooling optimisation
• Monitoring and access control integration

This becomes particularly valuable as organisations scale infrastructure across multiple environments, including enterprise facilities, edge deployments, and distributed operational sites.

Resilience Beyond the Rack

The project also demonstrates a growing shift toward holistic infrastructure thinking.

Rather than viewing racks, cooling, power, and monitoring as separate components, modern facilities increasingly require integrated infrastructure ecosystems designed to operate together efficiently.

For BORA, this included:

• Redundant cooling strategies
• Backup cooling systems
• Separate technology and server rooms
• Uninterruptible power supply integration
• Simulated outage testing prior to commissioning

These approaches are becoming increasingly relevant across Australian industry as businesses place greater focus on operational continuity and infrastructure resilience.

The Future of Sustainable Data Infrastructure

As Australian organisations continue modernising their IT environments, balancing performance, scalability, and sustainability will remain a key challenge.

Projects like BORA’s demonstrate that reliable, high-performance infrastructure and energy-efficient operation do not need to be competing priorities.

Through integrated rack systems, advanced cooling technologies, and scalable infrastructure platforms, organisations can build environments that support both operational reliability and long-term sustainability objectives.

Read the full original article from Be Top – The Magazine of Friedhelm Loh Group:
https://betop.friedhelm-loh-group.com/experience/sustainably-cool.html

BORA Sustainably cool article, originally published by Be Top – The Magazine of Friedhelm Loh Group
Adapted for the Australian market by Rittal Australia.