Global Switch Amsterdam East granted OCP Ready™ status

LONDON, United Kingdom – 14 November 2023 - Global Switch, a leading owner, operator and developer of large-scale network dense, carrier and cloud neutral multi-customer data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific, has announced that the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) has granted Stage 1 of its new Amsterdam East data centre OCP Ready™ status.

The OCP Ready™ programme was launched in 2018 in order to assist end users find data centres where OCP IT equipment can be deployed at scale and with ease. Global Switch Amsterdam East joins only seven other colocation data centres in EMEA to receive the coveted certification.

The first stage of Global Switch Amsterdam East, launching in Q1 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 centre's efficiency, openness, impact and scale.

Amsterdam East, located adjacent to Global Switch’s existing Amsterdam West data centre, will increase the campus by offering 32,000 sq m of space with state of the art technical suites that can 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 optimise their IT infrastructure and meet their business needs.

The new data centre meets the guidelines of OCP Ready™ by providing high density space which 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 greater, as was demonstrated at the OCP Global Summit. ORV3 racks offer improved efficiency, scalability and flexibility for our customers. OCP Ready data centres 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 that require a lot of 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 are unable to be supported by air.

René Olde Olthof, Managing Director, Amsterdam, Global Switch, said “Amsterdam East will enjoy both high density and open compute design ensuring that customers can deploy at scale faster, more cost effectively, and efficiently, as well as protect their investment. 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.”

Steve Helvie, VP of Emerging Markets, OCP, said: "Having Global Switch join the OCP Colo Solution Provider programme is a fantastic addition to the OCP Community. By achieving OCP Ready™ status with their Amsterdam East data centre, Global Switch has demonstrated openness, scalability and sustainability providing a new location for optimising deployments of OCP recognised hardware."

Mark Dansie, OCP Ready Facilities Lead, OCP, added “An OCP Ready™ data centre has been through a thorough peer review process and achieved recognition for implementing the industry’s best practices for efficiency and scale. This facility has been designed to be environmentally sustainable and at the same time able to support AI applications running on high density compute racks such Open Rack V3”.