The webinar is set to take place on Wednesday 15 April at 11:00 SAST.

Under the theme ‘AI-Ready Data Centres for Africa: Building Infrastructure for What’s Next’, the webinar will explore what it means to prepare African facilities for AI workloads, highlighting how data centres can support high-density computing driven by AI, cloud and digital transformation.

The session will examine the critical role of power, cooling and modular infrastructure solutions in evolving data centres for operational efficiency and future growth.

Vertiv experts Wojtek Piorko, managing director for Africa; Jon Abbott, technology director; Andrew Carikas, senior manager: technical sales, thermal; and Haroun De-Almeida, senior manager: technical sales, AC power, will address key topics including:

• AI workloads and their impact on African data centre strategies;
• Power and energy efficiency requirements for high-density workloads;
• Cooling evolution, including precision cooling, chilled-water systems and high-density/liquid cooling readiness;
• Modular and scalable approaches for future expansion; and
• Resilient, future-ready facilities to support long-term growth in Africa.

A panel discussion on the topic ‘Powering AI in Africa: Exploring readiness, infrastructure challenges and scalable growth’ will feature insights from Piorko and other industry leaders, including Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centres (OADC).

Says Piorko:

“Africa represents a strategically important market in the global AI landscape, with growing investment in digital infrastructure. This next phase of Vertiv’s AI Innovation Roadshow brings together regional expertise and global insight in a format that allows us to engage a broader audience simultaneously, exploring the practical realities of preparing data centres for AI workloads and the infrastructure strategies needed to support efficient, environmentally responsible growth,” he comments.

This partnership will expand both companies’ reach and access to advanced digital infrastructure solutions in the region.

Gbenga Adebowale, enterprise sales director for Central Africa, Vertiv, noted the important role of technological infrastructure in the world today.

“Everything is hinged on technology to run efficiently and effectively. We provide products and services that the infrastructure needs to ensure data availability at all times. At Vertiv, we pride ourselves on being a leader in everything we do,” Adebowale stated.

Vertiv, a $6.9 billion company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has over 27,000 employees and a presence in more than 30 countries. With over five decades of experience, Vertiv has established itself as the number one provider in thermal management and three-phase large UPS systems. 

The company also leads in power switching and distribution, focusing on data centres, communication networks, and commercial industries across the globe. This wide reach is complemented by Vertiv’s portfolio, including power management, thermal management, and integrated rack solutions. 

“We have consistent partnerships with people that help us maintain our leadership,” Adebowale added, referencing the new collaboration with Coscharis Technologies. “With manufacturing and assembly locations in 22 countries, service centres, and over 240 service field engineers, we are well-equipped to support our customers worldwide.”

Adebowale elaborated on Vertiv’s portfolio, pointing to the company’s recent acquisition of E&I to provide end-to-end solutions in power management. “In thermal management, we offer small thermal systems, including role and rack cooling. We have cooling systems between racks—solutions that ensure we remain leaders in the cooling sector.”

Dr. Emomine Sunday Mukoro, managing director of Coscharis Technologies Limited, described the partnership as a family affair, one based on trust and integrity. “Coscharis is a known name in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. We have been in business for over 50 years,” Mukoro said. 

“Any organisation whose products we represent can trust that they are in capable hands. Vertiv is one such company, and we look forward to scaling up their presence in the region.”

Mukoro stressed Coscharis’ track record of growing the market share of the companies it partners with. “For example, when HP came to Nigeria, they were operating at 0.1% market share. We partnered with them and within six months, increased their market share to 15%. The same approach will be applied with Vertiv.”

He further affirmed that Coscharis Technologies is focused on providing local support to the partnership and expects huge growth in Nigeria and Ghana. “We have a footprint in both countries and aim to expand even further. I believe that bringing Vertiv into our product line will help us achieve our goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue in Nigeria and Ghana,” Mukoro added.

Speaking on business growth, Mukoro asserted Coscharis Technologies’ approach to quality: “We are very particular about which organisations we partner with when choosing to provide their suite of products and solutions. Vertiv has established an excellent level of credibility, with superior products and exceptional service levels, firmly in line with Coscharis Technologies’ focus on quality.”

Wojtek Piorko, managing director for Africa at Vertiv, said: “We are delighted to align with such a prestigious group. This partnership will provide Vertiv with another highly experienced local distributor and add to our strength within the Central African region.”

The partnership is expected to deliver faster and more efficient access to Vertiv’s innovative solutions across Nigeria and Ghana, solidifying both companies’ positions in the IT market. Adebowale said, “Together, we will ensure faster access to our solutions, and we are confident that this partnership will change the narrative in the region.”

Coscharis Technologies will offer Vertiv’s full suite of products and solutions, including uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS), power distribution units (PDUs), and integrated solutions, like rack enclosures and prefabricated data centre modules.

In conclusion, Mukoro emphasised the mutual benefits of the collaboration, stating: “We envisage our new partnership as being a symbiotic relationship, where we assist Vertiv with further growth in their Central African presence, and they provide Coscharis and our clients with innovative solutions that will enable digital transformation.”

The use cases for AI are virtually limitless, from breakthroughs in medicine and enhanced farming techniques, to high-accuracy fraud prevention and personalised education.

It is heartening to see that there is opportunity for great development within Africa. In fact, a paper published in late 2023 by Access Partnership stated that AI is already being used with significant effect in Africa, to help address challenges such as predicting natural disasters, like floods and earthquakes, as well as in the protection of endangered species on the continent, improving food security, and improving maternal health outcomes.

The paper notes that a preliminary assessment by Access Partnership estimates that AI applications could support up to USD136 billion worth of economic benefits for just four sub-Saharan countries (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) by 2030, based on current growth rates and scope of analysis.

‘To put this in perspective, this figure is higher than Kenya’s current GDP and represents 12.7% of the 2022 GDP for these four economies,’ it says.

Making the Move to High-Density

AI is already transforming people’s everyday lives, with local use of technology like ChatGPT, virtual assistants, navigation apps and chatbots on the upswing.

And, just as it is transforming every single industry, it is also beginning to fundamentally change data centre infrastructure, driving significant changes in how high-performance computing (HPC) is powered and cooled.

To put this into perspective, consider the fact that a typical IT rack used to run workloads from five to 10 kilowatts (kW), and racks running loads higher than 20 kW were considered as high-density. AI-chips, however, can require around five times as much power and five times as much cooling capacity in the same space as a traditional server. So, we’re now seeing rack densities of 40 kW per rack, and even more than 100 kW in some instances.

This will require extensive capacity increases across the entire power train; from the grid to chips in each rack.

It also means that, due to traditional cooling methods not being able to handle the heat generated by GPUs running AI calculations, the introduction of liquid-cooling technologies into the data centre white space, and eventually the enterprise server room, will be a requirement for most deployments.

Investments to upgrade the infrastructure needed to both power and cool AI hardware are substantial, and navigating these new design challenges is critical.

The transition will not happen quickly: data centre and server room designers must look for ways to make power and cooling infrastructure future-ready, with considerations for the future growth of their workloads.

Getting enough power to each rack requires upgrades from the grid to the rack. In the white space specifically, this likely means high amperage busway and high-density rack PDUs. To reject the massive amount of heat generated by hardware running AI workloads, two liquid cooling technologies are emerging as primary options:

1. Direct-to-chip liquid cooling: Cold plates sit atop the heat-generating components (usually chips such as CPUs and GPUs) to draw off heat. Pumped single-phase or two-phase fluid draws off heat from the cold plates to send it out of the data centre, exchanging heat but not fluids with the chip. This can remove between 70 to 75 percent of the heat generated by equipment in the rack, leaving 25 to 30 percent to be removed by air-cooling systems.
2. Rear-door heat exchangers: Passive or active heat exchangers replace the rear door of the IT rack with heat exchanging coils, through which fluid absorbs heat produced in the rack. These systems are often combined with other cooling systems as either a strategy to maintain room neutrality, or as part of a transitional design starting the journey into liquid cooling.

While direct-to-chip liquid cooling offers significantly higher density cooling capacity than air, it is important to note that there is still excess heat that the cold plates cannot capture.

This heat will be rejected into the data room unless it is contained and removed through other means such as rear-door heat exchangers or room air cooling.

Supporting the Higher Power and Cooling Requirements of AI

Because power and cooling are becoming such integral parts of IT solution design in the data room, we’re seeing a blurring of the borders between IT and facilities teams, something that can add complexity when it comes to design, deployment and operation.

Thus, partnerships and full-solution expertise rank as top requirements for smooth transitions to higher densities.

To simplify this shift, Vertiv recently introduced the new Vertiv 360AI portfolio to EMEA and boost customers’ AI plans.

These solutions provide a streamlined approach for scalable AI infrastructure, addressing the evolving challenges posed by high-performance computing. Vertiv 360AI is designed to help accelerate retrofits of air-cooled edge and enterprise data centres, as well as the development of hyperscale greenfield projects.”

Vertiv 360AI also features prefabricated modular solutions to enable customers to deploy AI without disturbing existing workloads and without consuming floorspace.

Initial Vertiv 360AI solutions can power and cool over 130kW per rack, and include designs optimised for retrofits.

As a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, Vertiv provides a broad range of power, thermal, and IT and edge infrastructure, solutions and services within three areas, namely; Data centres, Communication networks, and Commercial and industrial.

Vertiv is a US $5.7-billion company, with 27 000 employees worldwide. The company has a global presence, with 24 manufacturing and assembly locations on six continents.

Vertiv moved to its new office and customer experience in Lagos (Nigeria) barely three months after the opening of the African head office in Jo’burg, a demonstration of the company’s efforts to player bigger in the market(s).

Techeconomy’s Peter Oluka had a chat with Karsten Winther, Vertiv’s EMEA President, and Wojtek Piorko, Managing Director for Africa.

Karsten said, already, the company accounts for 220 service centres, more than 3 500 service field engineers, about 220 technical support/response resources, and 19 customer experience centres.

In how many African countries is Vertiv currently present?

Wojtek responds:

Vertiv has offices in the following five countries: Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and South Africa.

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, there are 10 manufacturing and assembly locations, more than 65 service centres, around 650 service field engineers, more than 100 technical support and response resources, and five customer experience centres.

How does Vertiv manage its presence in Africa according to regions? What are its main hubs within the continent?

Vertiv has divided the continent into five sub-regions and established offices in Lagos (Nigeria); Cairo (Egypt), Casablanca (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya), and Johannesburg (South Africa).

In addition, we have representation (by partners) throughout the continent.

Why is Africa as a region important to Vertiv’s global business strategy, and what is the ‘Africa for Africa’ initiative that the company has put in place?

Karsten has this to say:

As organisations increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, Vertiv plays a vital role in ensuring the uninterrupted operation of critical systems and applications. Furthermore, as data centre growth around Africa continues to rise, this means that Africa plays a significant role in our global strategy.

If we briefly look at information around the rise of data centres within the African region, we find the following:

According to a 2022 study release by Xalam Analytics, a digital infrastructure investment consultancy, the African data centre market has been showing a remarkable growth surge and has become one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for commercial data centre deployments.

The study, The African Date Centre Gigawatt, shows that African data centre providers have spent a cumulative $2 billion (R35 billion) on building data centre facilities during the period 2017/2018 to 2022, bringing to market more than 200MW of fresh commercial IT load capacity – which, according to the report, was more than over the entire previous decade.

In its report, Xalam covered Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco and Cote d’Ivoire.

Xalam says around 70 new facilities were built during a five-year period, with 2022 the biggest year of construction to date. It further notes that Africa’s commercial data centre hosting capacity has surged and is now doubling every three years.

And so, returning to the role that Vertiv has to play: the ‘Africa for Africa’ project focuses strongly on meeting our local clients’ needs. We are currently creating a new internal structure that focuses strongly on leveraging African skills and knowledge within our team, as well as setting up local manufacturing with expansion plans.

In addition, we are also establishing offices close to customers, that incorporate Customer Experience Centres and Showrooms, and growing our African network of authorised partners and service providers on both the sales and service sides. The initiative is aimed at addressing our African clients’ needs and we’re doing this by creating a new internal structure that focuses strongly on leveraging local skills and knowledge within our team.

As previously outlined, our teams of Vertiv experts are based in five main locations on the continent, namely Cairo (Egypt), Casablanca (Morocco), Lagos (Nigeria), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Nairobi (Kenya). Each office is equipped with the latest technology in our Customer Showrooms, which provide presales, sales and service authorisation courses.

I see exciting times ahead for Vertiv in Africa, as we now have more independence and focus within the company’s EMEA regional division. Overall, we have been gearing up for growth this past year, and will continue to do so moving forward.

How long has Vertiv been in Nigeria?

Wojtek said;

Vertiv began our business operations in Nigeria in 2002 and officially registered the entity in 2006.

What role does Nigeria play in Africa’s digital transformation journey?

Nigeria’s global strategic importance derives from its position as having Africa’s largest population and also its largest economy, as outlined by a 2023 report from the Oxford Business Group.

Nigeria is an important country, both politically and economically, in West Africa. As noted by National Geographic, it is richer than all other West African nations and holds considerable power. Nigeria’s most important export is oil, more than half of which is shipped to the United States.

As a business, Vertiv has placed serious focus on the African region, and Nigeria is a critical country for us, due to its strategic importance in the region. With around 70 percent of the Nigerian population under 30, this bodes well for the ongoing digitalisation of the country, as it is today’s youth in particular who are comfortable with the online world.

Which sectors are of importance to Vertiv locally?

Vertiv has a strong presence in the education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, railway, retail and telecommunications verticals.

Please tell me more about the new Customer Showroom?

The Lagos Customer Experience Centre provides customers with the opportunity to get up close and personal with Vertiv’s diverse range of critical infrastructure solutions for applications from the edge of the network to the cloud.

These include :

• Vertiv SmartCabinet – a pre-configured, self-contained solution that offers efficiency, economy, interoperability, and control; and
• Vertiv Liebert EXS UPS – optimised and integrated three-phase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solution with high efficiency power protection.

In addition to the products physically available at the showroom, Vertiv offers the experience of its large-scale modular data centres, power and cooling solutions through virtual reality (VR) to African customers.

Using our VR offering, clients can embark on a unique virtual trip to experience Vertiv’s solutions capabilities, giving both novices and seasoned experts of Vertiv products a way to fully understand the entire layout of an edge solution.

“Successful deployment of localised solutions in Africa requires greater education and training,” Wojtek Piorko, Managing Director for Vertiv (Africa), submits.

Unprecedented customer demand for cloud services, high-quality streaming, social media and other digital services has set off a record-setting construction boom for all the major hyperscalers.

Structure Research estimates that the total global hyperscale self-build capacity reached 13,117 megawatts (MW) in 2022 and an additional 13,652 MW is expected to be added over the next five to 10 years. During this time, the traditional makeup of the average data centre is changing.

Many new builds focus on efficiency, act as the hub of hybrid networks and increasingly lean on prefabricated modular solutions and design.

“Prefabricated modular data centre solutions come in the form of smaller prefabricated components, such as integrated racks, rows, aisles or skids built in the factory and deployed with servers and infrastructure included,” explains Wojtek Piorko, Managing Director, Africa at Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions.

“They can also be deployed as all-in-one modules featuring integrated IT, power and thermal management. These fully integrated prefabricated modules resemble compact building blocks and can be used for new data centre builds or added to existing facilities.”

Prefabricated modular data centre solutions are built and integrated under tightly controlled factory conditions by trained specialists, which helps shorten construction timelines when time and labour are at a premium.

These solutions also help to reduce certain project costs and improve the total cost of ownership (TCO) by shortening the time it takes to start generating revenue, he says. “Depending on the architecture of the data centre, prefabricated modular designs can greatly reduce the physical footprint of the systems compared to a traditional build.”

Standardisation versus localisation: a subtle, yet important difference

Major hyperscalers often use standardised prefabricated data centre designs that allow organisations to design and engineer on the front end and repeat the build wherever they are in the world.

This method may be more accepted in areas such as the United States or certain parts of the EMEA region, where there’s greater cohesion across various industry practices and regulations, adds Piorko. However, there are opportunities everywhere, and global organisations need to consider the requirements of each region before deploying a standardised solution.

“The alternative to this approach is what’s called ‘localisation’, a crucial distinction where a standardised design is slightly modified and customised to comply with local requirements. Once a solution has been localised for a specific region, it can help mitigate some of the difficulties found in traditional installations by simplifying compliance with building codes, standards and regulations.”

As far as the adoption of prefabricated modular data centre solutions goes, most of the major players in the region prefer one of three options: a fully customised solution; a solution using standard components that are combined for specific customer specifications; or a pre-designed standard solution.

Each of these options provides different levels of design customisation, growth phasing/expansion capabilities, and deployment time to meet specific business requirements.

Examining the global reach of prefabricated modular data centres

EMEA

In the EMEA region, the major hyperscalers (Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, and Microsoft) are the biggest market drivers in terms of adopting prefabricated modular data centre solutions. Hyperscalers are building in remote areas, and these wide-open spaces make it easier to deploy some of the larger, standardised modules.

In Europe particularly, there has been growing public concern regarding data centre resource consumption.

To help alleviate some of these issues, hyperscalers in parts of this region have used customised elements of prefabricated modules to reclaim heat in the data centre and provide district heating for local populations.

While sustainability will continue to be a pressing topic in the region and beyond, the nature of shipping these large blocks by sea makes true sustainability a balancing act. The more that equipment providers can incorporate sustainable materials and manufacturing methods into prefab solutions, the easier it will be to balance these elements.

Africa

Africa has experienced massive data centre capacity growth in recent years, with expectations that the region will expand to 675 MW by 2026, according to Xalam Analytics.

“While still considered an emerging market, prefabricated modular data centres have been around in Africa since 2008,” states Piorko.

“Adoption in the region will continue to grow as African countries continue to pass various data privacy laws to protect personal data and allow more countries to manage their data within the continent.”

The transition from 2G to 5G, and the increased demand for data in African universities, are also driving growth for hyperscalers and colo providers in the region, he says.

“Prefabricated modular data centre solutions have been a huge help in increasing the speed to market for hyperscalers and colo providers. As we see the market grow, organisations entering the region will need to familiarise themselves with the nuances of each country to ensure they’re bringing in the right solutions, localising that solution for each region, and adding capacity without disrupting existing infrastructure.

“These considerations include climate differences, local construction codes, certifications, standing contracts, and import duties between individual components versus a full solution. Similar to other emerging regions, the challenge of finding skilled labour looms large across the African continent,” he comments. “The rapid deployment of standardised prefabricated solutions has made them more popular for hyperscalers and colo providers in Africa. However, proper education is still needed to ensure successful deployments.”

According to Piorko, organisations like Vertiv are working to establish more training centres in Africa to help educate the local businesses on all types of data centre solutions. Vertiv has five training facilities in Africa with certification programmes for technicians and salespeople. Once a prefabricated module is assembled and tested in the factory, Vertiv may also send engineers from the factory team to the building site so they can provide a factory-like presence while helping local engineers install complete solutions.

North America

Prefabricated modular data centre solutions appeal to the major hyperscalers and colocation providers in North America because their speed and ease of deployment helps stabilise construction schedules at a time when organisations are trying to meet unprecedented capacity demand.

According to CBRE’s 2022 North American Data Center Trends Report, organisations from the seven primary U.S. data centre market added a record 686.8 MW of net absorption of data centre space. In this region, hyperscalers and colo providers have the advantage of proximity, and the major third-party integrators have a local presence with easy access to equipment providers. This benefit allows these integrators to deliver these solutions to various parts of the region within days.

LATAM

Latin America (LATAM) is establishing itself as an emerging market for prefabricated modular data centre solutions.

This is largely credited to major developments such as Google purchasing 30 hectares of land for a data centre in Uruguay in 2021 and Scala Data Centers launching the largest vertical data centre in the region last year. In this region, the costs and risks associated with new stick build data centre and changing regional markets have made the scalability of prefabricated modular solutions more appealing. While organisations moving into the LATAM region want to standardise as much as possible, they must understand the various codes and jurisdictions and correctly localise these solutions for successful deployment.

Asia-Pacific

Colocation is the most important data centre sector in the Asia-Pacific region, largely because hyperscalers often lack access to in-country staff to build data centres there. Instead, they leverage established colocation data centres with a local presence, expertise and cable connectivity to meet demand.

Even so, the region still faces the challenge of having enough data centre builders in each country to keep up with demand.

While this lack of skilled labour on site would make a strong case for organisations to look into adopting more standardised solutions, there are several reasons why prefabricated modular data centres in the Asia-Pacific region are still in relative infancy compared to the rest of the world.

For example, much of the local expertise lies in traditional brick-and-mortar data centre builds, and many data centre builders in the region prefer the look and feel of a traditional data centre, rather than the container-like appearance of a prefabricated modular data centre.

Additionally, supply chain woes persist in the region. The current lead times to ship these prefabricated solutions can minimise the speed to deployment benefits that prefabricated solutions typically provide.

Preparing for a prefabricated future

An Omdia global survey of 228 companies that operate their own data centre found that 52 percent already use prefabricated modular data centre technology, and a whopping 99 percent said this technology would be a part of their future data centre strategy.

“While these regions differ in how these solutions are adopted, the evidence is clear: for hyperscalers, traditional data centres are fading into the background as prefabricated, modular buildings and components become the norm,” Piorko concludes.

Interested in more information on this topic? To download the Vertiv white paper ‘2023 Hyperscale Data Center Design: A Global View of Standardization and Localization’, click here.

To support its customers in accelerating their digitalisation efforts, Vertiv has recently launched the Vertiv XR App and virtual reality tools that enable in-depth exploration of its products, including prefabricated modular solutions. The app guides users through product selection and placement, using augmented reality to deliver an immersive, realistic depiction of the product in the location of their choosing, with the intent of improving understanding of how the infrastructure will support their compute and impact on the physical footprint. Download the app to find out more

Vertiv, today, announced the appointment of a new managing director for Africa. Vertiv has promoted Wojtek Piorko with immediate effect, from his previous position as South East Africa regional director.

The role was previously held by Pierre Havenga, who will be leaving Vertiv at the end of June after 12 years as strategic leader in the region.

“Wojtek joined the Middle East and Africa (MEA) team eight years ago, and during that time has gained experience in various different roles and regions, excelling in each and every challenge. I have been able to rely on him completely and no task has ever been too great or too challenging,” Havenga states. “Wojtek Piorko has many strong leadership attributes and we applaud his focus on people. It is with great pleasure that I hand the baton to him to drive Vertiv’s Africa business to the next level.”

As managing director for Vertiv Africa, Piorko will drive business growth and market penetration, as well as orders, revenue and profitability targets. He will manage, coordinate and optimise the commercial activity within the region, balancing the entire portfolio to increase customer satisfaction within Africa, while implementing the go-to-market strategy in coordination with the various functional leaders.

Wojtek Piorko will provide regional leadership to the sales, service, operations and technical solutions teams, as well as to finance, HR, IT, legal and marketing, to engender a cohesive Africa team and deliver on Vertiv’s ambitions in the region.

“Firstly, I’d like to thank Pierre for his mentorship, leadership and dedication to our customers in Africa. Under his guidance, I have learned a lot and we as a team have made impressive business and talent progressions in a quickly developing and strategically valuable region,” says Piorko. “Moving forward, I will continue to elevate our work in Africa and look for new ways to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction whilst also nurturing the best talent within our business.”

Karsten Winther, Vertiv president, EMEA, said, “We are grateful for Pierre’s tireless dedication, energy and commitment, and for his role in driving the development of business and talent. In turn, we wish Wojtek every success in his new responsibilities. I am confident that with his previous experience in Africa, combined with his long-term success over the years, Wojtek will continue to excel in his new role.”

Wojtek Piorko began his career with Vertiv in 2001 as sales manager Poland & Baltics, Ukraine and Belarus.

He completed his studies at the Technical University of Warsaw in the faculty of Mechanics, Robotics and Aeronautical Engineering. Today, he has more than 25 years of technical and management experience, working across various sectors from telecom and IT.