When utilizing a cold aisle system, the rest of the data center becomes hot, resulting in high return air temperatures. It also may create operational issues if any non-contained equipment such as low-density storage is installed in the general data center space. Data centers are power- and cooling-intensive facilities where even minor inefficiencies can translate into significant energy and operational costs. In this guide, we'll break down how hot aisle and cold aisle configurations. The system simply aligns server fronts (air intakes) toward a shared cold aisle, and backs (exhausts) toward a shared hot aisle. Cold Aisle: Rows of racks face each other, forming a corridor where cool air is directed. Aisle containment strategies, specifically hot aisle containment (HAC) and cold aisle containment (CAC), have become.