Global Switch, a carrier-neutral data center operator in Europe and Asia Pacific, has been granted Stage 1 of its new Amsterdam East data center Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) ready status.
The OCP Ready™ program was launched in 2018 to assist end users in finding data centers where OCP IT equipment can be deployed at scale. Global Switch Amsterdam East joins only seven colocation data centers in EMEA to receive the coveted certification.
The first stage of Global Switch Amsterdam East, which will launch in the first quarter of 2024, achieved Optimum ratings in several key categories, such as electrical and cooling. It also received mostly Optimum ratings in the other categories. Global Switch passed a validation process and earned the OCP certification by complying with OCP's guidelines and showing the data center's efficiency, openness, impact and scale.
Located adjacent to Global Switch’s existing Amsterdam West data center, Amsterdam East will increase the campus by offering 32,000 sq m of space with technical suites to accommodate customers’ high-performance computing needs. Each suite will have a capacity of 2MW at an average density of 3,000W/m2 and contiguous space of 4MW can be provided. This will enable customers to optimize their IT infrastructure and meet their business needs.
The new data center meets the guidelines of OCP Ready™ by providing high-density space that has high structural imposed floor loading capacity, is accessible without any ramps and has clear access routes to allow fully populated OCP-compliant racks to be transported into the technical space.
Open Rack Version 3 (ORV3) racks are an improved innovation of the open rack that Global Switch is proud to support. These racks can accommodate high-density deployments of up to 30kW per rack or more significant, as was demonstrated at the OCP Global Summit.
Specifically, OCP Ready data centers offer many advantages for Machine Learning or AI applications, as they can handle high-density workloads with air cooling. This is a significant benefit for these emerging technologies requiring much computing power. Liquid-cooled via the ORV3 rack will be supported in future stages of the development to provide super-high rack deployment for chipsets that cannot be supported by air.
“Amsterdam East will enjoy both high density and open compute design, ensuring that customers can deploy at scale faster, more cost-effectively, and efficiently, and protect their investment,” said René Olde Olthof, managing director, Amsterdam of Global Switch. “In addition, customers will immediately benefit from direct access to the already network-dense ecosystem of Amsterdam West that is home to many of the world’s major cloud service providers.”
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