Nature proved early on that in complex systems, modular designs are the ones that survive and thrive. An important contributor to this success is the critical reliability advantage of fault tolerance, in which a modular system can shift operation from failed modules to healthy ones while repairs are made. In data centers, modular design has already taken root in new fault-tolerant architectures for servers and storage systems. As data centers continue to evolve and borrow from nature’s blueprints, data center physical infrastructure (DCPI) must also evolve to support new strategies for survival, recovery, and growth.