Data Centers, Artificial Intelligence, and New Control Approaches: Weidmüller's Perspective

[Cengiz Özemli]

## Data Centers, Artificial Intelligence, and New Control Approaches: Weidmüller's Perspective

While data centers form critical infrastructure for electrical services and industry, they also face significant challenges such as energy consumption, water usage, and cybersecurity. Weidmüller's data center automation and security solutions make a difference in this area.

### Energy and Environmental Regulations
Although there is no single federal energy efficiency law for data centers in the US, facilities voluntarily follow DOE design practices and EPA ENERGY STAR certifications. The SEC's climate-related disclosure rule (enacted in March 2024 but suspended due to litigation) requires large companies to report carbon emissions and climate risks. Additionally, states, particularly regarding water usage, are introducing regulations to increase transparency for practices such as wastewater recycling and closed-loop cooling.

### European Union Regulations
Under the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), EU data centers with an IT load exceeding 500 kW are required to report environmental performance criteria such as PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness), renewable energy share, and waste heat recovery. In this context, Weidmüller offers preparation and indicators compliant with EED and ENERGY STAR standards.

### Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence
Most cyberattacks on data centers do not originate from highly secure servers but from vulnerabilities arising from trust. Weidmüller protects the control of equipment such as chillers, pumps, and valves with a Zero Trust OT architecture based on NIST standards. EU-based NIS2 and ENISA regulations also introduce similar risk management and supply chain security requirements.

While artificial intelligence is often seen as a "black box," the real risk here is scale and data intensity. Digital security within AI systems must be ensured through data classification, isolation, policy-based firewall applications, and comprehensive logging. This prevents artificial intelligence from directly accessing the facility control layer.

### Continuous Updates and Reliability
Frequent system updates in the IT world create a contradictory situation for data centers that require high reliability. Weidmüller proposes a design for uninterrupted operation with different processing speeds, redundant power, and cooling paths to ensure the continuity of automated systems alongside rapid IT updates.

• All monitoring data is used to verify energy efficiency and stability measurements.
• Software patches and automation system updates can be objectively tracked.
• What cannot be measured cannot be managed, what cannot be segmented cannot be protected, and an update that cannot be rolled back is risky.

Weidmüller stabilizes fundamental infrastructure layers such as cabling, input/output, edge connectivity, and secure updates to help facilities achieve their sustainability, security, and reliability goals.

### Weidmüller Data Center and Energy Solutions Features

• Security architecture compliant with NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5, NIST SP 800-82 Rev.3, and NIST SP 800-207 standards
• Compliance with DOE and EPA ENERGY STAR environmental performance standards
• Risk management compliant with SEC and EU NIS2, ENISA regulations
• Classification, isolation, and firewall policies for artificial intelligence data
• Uninterrupted update support with redundant power and cooling infrastructure
• Monitoring of energy usage (PUE), water usage (WUE), and renewable energy ratio

These developments aim to both improve the environmental performance of data centers and reduce security risks.