Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure, has supported Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a WIOCC Group company, in standardising cooling and power infrastructure at its Parklands data centre in Johannesburg, enabling faster capacity deployment, higher‑density workloads and scalable growth without operational disruption.
Originally deployed by Vertiv as a prefabricated, modular, Tier-III compliant data centre for a pan-African telecommunications provider, the Parklands facility is designed to support phased expansion and evolving workload requirements. By standardising on Vertiv infrastructure, OADC can accelerate deployments, support higher‑density customer workloads and expand data centre capacity without major redesign.
OADC Parklands
The facility uses integrated Vertiv thermal management, power protection, containment, and energy storage, designed to adapt to changing load profiles, improve energy efficiency and support long-term scalability.Today, Parklands supports hyperscaler and AI-driven organisations, where thermal efficiency, power density and deployment agility are critical. The IDC 8 data hall provides a modular, scalable infrastructure foundation designed to support evolving requirements while maintaining efficient operations.
The recently commissioned IDC 10 hall builds on this approach, extending the same modular architecture into a traditional build while maintaining performance, flexibility and product consistency for a broad mix of enterprise needs, helping customers scale confidently as demand grows.
Marc Matthews, engineering director and head of projects at OADC, said: “OADC made an executive decision to standardise on Vertiv infrastructure solutions. The Vertiv brand essentially sells itself; we don’t have to convince our clients of Vertiv efficiencies, which builds confidence from the outset. Vertiv’s technology is tried and tested, with an excellent reputation. Beyond the equipment itself, the local Vertiv team has also played a critical role in supporting our strategy, reinforcing OADC’s decision to appoint Vertiv as one of our preferred vendors.”
Gary Chomse, regional director for Central and Southern Africa at Vertiv, added: “Parklands reflects a broader shift in data centre design across Africa to prioritise flexibility, scalability and efficiency. By combining prefabricated modular infrastructure with high-performance cooling and power and technologies, Vertiv is helping OADC scale capacity while maintaining operational resilience and efficiency.”
Inside OADC’s Scalable Cooling and Power Architecture
OADC’s Parklands facility currently includes more than 100 Vertiv racks, with capacity to scale to almost 300 as demand grows. The solution was engineered to support dynamic performance envelopes rather than fixed operating conditions.
Key elements include:
- Vertiv Liebert PDX direct expansion cooling units: Providing precise, responsive thermal management via variable speed compressor to address fluctuating load profiles and increasing rack densities. The Liebert PDX direct expansion large room cooling unit is equipped with advanced industry cooling system technology, which allows the unit to provide thermal management efficiency for data centres and server rooms.
- Vertiv SmartAisle containment and control: Optimising availability, efficiency and operational adaptability as compute architectures evolve. Available in four different reference designs, which provide data centre managers an easy-to-order product, the solution includes power, cooling, racks, environmental monitoring and control systems required to support the availability of mission critical business operations.
- Vertiv Liebert Trinergy Cube UPS: Delivering exceptional efficiency (up to 99% in power conditioning mode) while supporting high power density per core, enabling flexible growth as load increases.
- Lithium-ion batteries: Enhancing lifecycle efficiency while reducing operational overhead.
