According to standards and best practices in the industry, installing blanking panels is the easiest and most effective way to manage the airflow in data centers and containment systems.
The panels cover the empty spaces, not used in cabinets and server racks and prevent the air from the hot aisle to get inside the frames and mix with the air in the cold aisle. By preventing the hot air to circulate forward frames, you reduce the overall temperature of the air drawn by the equipment which also contributes to the extension of their lifetimes.
Large sections of unused spaces cabinets can be locked in seconds.