Data centers house a wide range of equipment, including servers, storage systems and networking gear. If these devices overheat, the consequences can be severe. Thermal imaging, combined with AI and other sensors, plays an important role in helping data centers detect and prevent overheating.
Challenges facing data centers usually come from several fronts. One is
security, where intrusion and data theft may be committed by hostile actors, both internal and external. Security solutions such as perimeter defense systems and access control can play an effective role in this regard.
But inside the data center, users also face various operational challenges, one of them being equipment overheating. “Equipment overheating is a serious issue in data centers, especially as rack densities and power loads increase in AI environments. The components most likely to overheat include connectors, busbars, PDUs, electrical joints and terminations, and liquid-cooling interfaces,” said Dan Jarvis, Global Senior Director of Sales at Teledyne FLIR OEM.
The causes of equipment overheating can vary. According to Ettiene Van Der Watt, VP of Axis Communications APAC, overheating may be linked to equipment load, cooling inefficiency, airflow restrictions, blocked vents, poor rack layout, cable congestion, aging components, power issues, or localized hotspots that traditional room-level temperature monitoring may not immediately detect.
If left unattended, overheating can lead to dire consequences. “It can lead to equipment degradation, unplanned maintenance, shortened asset lifespan, service disruption, or in more severe cases, smoke, fire, and downtime. For data centers, downtime is not simply an operational inconvenience – it can affect customer trust, contractual obligations, regulatory expectations, and business continuity,” Van Der Watt said.
Thermal imaging comes in handy
To overcome the above challenges, security solutions can be leveraged. One of the most effective solutions addressing overheat issues in data centers is thermal imaging, which offers several advantages compared to other technologies.
“Unlike visible-light cameras, thermal imaging measures heat directly rather than relying on visible signs of failure like smoke or ambient lighting. Unlike point sensors or wired probes, it can monitor multiple connectors, PDU sections, manifold branches, or other components at the same time across an entire field of view,” Jarvis said.
According to him, within thermal imaging, two sensor approaches have traditionally been used for condition monitoring and early fire detection: thermopile arrays and microbolometers. “The key specification that differentiates them is resolution, because resolution determines how much thermal detail the sensor can capture. Thermopile arrays have historically offered a lower-cost option, but their limited pixel count restricts the amount of information they can provide. Microbolometers, by contrast, deliver substantially higher resolution, such as 160x120, and therefore provide much richer thermal data,” Jarvis said.
As for what types of thermal cameras to deploy in data centers, Axis said this depends on the use case. “For monitoring specific equipment, racks, electrical rooms, generator areas, battery rooms, or mechanical spaces, thermometric cameras are especially useful because they can measure temperature within defined areas. For larger sites or external areas, operators may use thermal cameras with wider coverage, longer detection range, or positioning capabilities,” Van Der Watt said.
It should also be noted that thermal cameras used for data center applications are typically divided into two categories: fixed and handheld. For continuous monitoring, the former is more suitable.
“For most data center applications, fixed-mount radiometric thermal cameras are ideal because they enable continuous 24/7 monitoring and can detect developing issues without relying on periodic manual inspections. Handheld cameras are still useful for spot checks, troubleshooting, and follow-up inspections, but fixed cameras are typically the better choice for ongoing overheating detection,” Jarvis said.
Pairing with AI
Increasingly, AI is used in conjunction with thermal solutions to enable faster and more accurate detection of equipment overheating.
“AI can analyze thermal patterns over time and distinguish meaningful anomalies based on factors such as magnitude, persistence, rate of change, baseline deviation, and thermal asymmetry. When combined with other data, such as room temperature, equipment load, maintenance history, or cooling performance, it can help identify issues earlier and reduce false alarms,” Jarvis said.
And this functionality is increasingly moving to the edge so it’s closer to the data point. Van Der Watt cites Axis’s own solutions as examples.
“Axis thermal cameras are built on a powerful analytics platform, allowing heat-based images to be used together with analytics to enhance detection and reduce false alarms. In data centers, this can support use cases such as early fire detection, hotspot monitoring, perimeter detection, equipment monitoring, and automated operator alerts,” Van Der Watt said. “The important point is that AI should support human decision-making. It helps operators prioritize, verify, and respond faster, especially across large or multi-site facilities.”
Sensor fusion and other integrations
But the real magic comes when thermal imaging works with other sensors, for example humidity sensors, differential pressure sensors and airflow sensors, to ensure better detection, verification and response.
“When combined with visible cameras, environmental sensors, and telemetry such as power draw, fan speed, coolant temperature, flow status, humidity, or system-performance data, thermal imaging provides better context, improves decision-making, and helps reduce false alarms,” Jarvis said. “Once overheating is detected, operators can trigger alerts, inspect the affected connector, joint, or cooling interface, make targeted maintenance interventions, adjust cooling, redistribute workloads, reduce load, or shut down affected equipment if necessary.”
Integrations with other security solutions can also work wonders. “For example, thermal cameras can be integrated with visible cameras, access control, environmental sensors, speakers, alarms, and a video management system. If a temperature threshold is breached, the system can trigger automatic alerts, pull up live video for verification, notify operators, activate an audio warning, escalate to maintenance teams, adjust response workflows, or integrate with building management procedures,” Van Der Watt said. “In a data center, that connected workflow is critical. The goal is not only to detect a problem, but to shorten the time between detection, verification, and response.”