An information technology (IT) rack that includes IT appliances, housed by the IT rack, and a set of backplanes. Each backplane includes appliance-interfacing connectors. Insertion of the IT appliances into the IT rack causes mating of backplane-interfacing connectors of the IT appliances with the appliance-interfacing connectors. The IT rack further includes a centrally located interface to which the appliance-interfacing connectors are wired. The centrally located interface determines a connectivity of the IT appliances.