Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a data centre operator within the WIOCC Group, has standardized power and cooling infrastructure at its Parklands facility in Johannesburg as it prepares the site for higher density workloads and future capacity expansion.
The project builds on infrastructure originally deployed by Vertiv, a company that provides power, cooling, and data centre infrastructure systems, when the Parklands facility was constructed as a prefabricated modular data centre for a pan African telecommunications provider. According to the companies, the design was intended to support phased growth and changing workload requirements.
By adopting standardized infrastructure across the facility, OADC says it can expand capacity faster while avoiding significant redesign work as customer requirements evolve.
The facility combines power protection, thermal management, containment systems, and energy storage technologies designed to accommodate shifting workload demands and changing power profiles. These requirements have become more significant as data centres increasingly support compute intensive environments where power density and cooling efficiency play a larger operational role.
Parklands currently supports hyperscale customers and organizations deploying AI workloads. According to OADC, the IDC 8 data hall was designed using modular architecture to support changing infrastructure requirements while maintaining operational efficiency.
The company has also commissioned the IDC 10 hall using the same infrastructure approach, extending modular design principles into a traditional build while maintaining product consistency across facilities intended to support different enterprise requirements.
“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,” said engineering director and head of projects at OADC, Marc Mathews.
“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 power and cooling technologies, Vertiv is helping OADC scale capacity while maintaining operational resilience and efficiency,” stated regional director for Central and Southern Africa at Vertiv, Gary Chomse.
