An industry at a critical juncture
New Zealand’s data centre industry is on the brink of significant growth, driven by the accelerating pace of digital transformation nationally and a surge in demand from cloud services, video streaming, and 5G networks. Market investment is projected to reach $9.49 billion by 2028 , and the country’s data centre capacity is projected to double between 2024 and 2029 .
To help relieve the considerable pressure impacting local data centre infrastructure, Open Compute Project (OCP) standards are reshaping how data centres are designed, built, and operated.
The OCP offers a transformative approach that focuses on delivering the principle requirements of efficiency, scalability, and sustainability. The approach is based on standardised IT architectures which help reduce energy consumption. In turn, this enhances the environmental sustainability of the data centre. and helps also reduce costs. The streamlined efficiency that OCP makes possible is particularly important as computational needs continue to grow fast.
How does OCP deliver these benefits?
The OCP approach is based on standardised designs. This enables data centres that are both highly efficient and easily scalable. While each data centre has unique characteristics, standardisation allows the replication of best practice design features that are tested and proven through ‘real world’ deployment. This saves the need to start all over again for each build and offers “proof of concept” based on real-world design experience.
A number of other features have been developed to meet specific operational objectives:
● In terms of energy use, OCP eliminates the need for traditional power packs by incorporating direct current (DC) technology. This results in significant energy savings and better space utilisation—an important advantage as data centres become more densely packed.
● To a considerable extent, better sustainability practices can be enabled by a suitable location. Therefore, OCP promotes the use of renewable energy by encouraging data centres to be located close enough to solar and wind farms to minimise transmission losses. Innovations such as water cooling systems also allow waste heat to be repurposed, thereby supporting broader environmental goals.
● Accelerating digitalisation is fast increasing the demand for processing power and storage. The ability to deploy new infrastructure quickly is therefore crucial. Rittal’s turnkey data centre solutions offer pre-engineered systems that can be rapidly installed and customised to specific requirements.
Future-focused solutions
Rittal is deeply involved in the advancement of the data centre industry, and the company’s support of the Open Compute Project (OCP) plays a key role in this. Rittal supplies OCP-compliant solutions, including standardised racks and energy-efficient cooling systems which are both specifically designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s data centres. Backed by a global manufacturing and logistics network, Rittal delivers fully configured racks quickly and efficiently, and ready for immediate deployment.
The Open Compute Project is redefining what it means to build sustainable, cost-effective, and scalable data centre infrastructure. Rittal’s active role in this initiative highlights our dedication to driving this transformation. By adopting OCP standards with Rittal’s solutions, businesses in New Zealand, and beyond can create data centres that are fully equipped to handle the challenges of tomorrow.
To learn more about the OCP rack, visit the Rittal website.
Join Us at the Cloud & Data Centre Convention in Auckland on October 31
Discover how OCP can revolutionise your data centre operations. Rittal’s team will be on-site to discuss our latest OCP-compliant solutions and answer any questions you may have. If you have not already done so, register for the Convention here.