Circle B, Rittal and Switch Datacenters have launched the first European Open Compute Project (OCP) Experience Center. The fully-functional OCP environment is located in one of the three facilities that Switch Datacenters operates in the Amsterdam area. The OCP Experience Center is available as a demo center, but may also be used for testing new OCP Accepted™ and OCP Inspired™ data centre environments and telco solutions.

Circle B is one of the first European channel partners that has acquired the status of OCP Solution Provider®. Solution Providers are a special group of companies within the OCP ecosystem. They develop, test, deliver and support ready-made systems and environments based on OCP designs. Rittal is a well-known manufacturer of infrastructure solutions for data centres. As part of their product portfolio, Rittal designs, manufactures and sells racks and cooling solutions that are based on OCP designs. Switch Datacenters is one of the largest carrier-neutral data centre operators in The Netherlands. Right now Switch Datacenters is building a new data centre in Amsterdam based on OCP principles.

First European OCP Experience Center

The three companies have determined that within the technology sector, IT managers at large enterprises and governments in the European region have yet to adopt OCP principles on a large scale. These principles form the basis on which many hyperscalers operate. By adopting OCP designs in their data centres large enterprises and governments can benefit from the same advantages as the hyperscalers: cost reductions, lower energy usage and much more flexibility.

The European OCP Experience Center that Rittal, Circle B and Switch Datacenters have now launched aims to help IT managers and data center managers to fully understand the impact of OCP designs on their data centres. The center will also allow them to test specific OCP-based solutions that are relevant to their IT environments.

“It's exciting to see how the European Members continue to drive OCP across the region by bringing the region's first OCP Experience Center. Circle B, Rittal and Switch Datacenters have put together a great showcase for open hardware designs and it highlights the strength of each Member in delivering OCP solutions throughout Europe”, stated Steve Helvie, VP of Channel for the Open Compute Project Foundation.

The European OCP Experience Center is located very close to Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. The opening of the center coincides with the first annual OCP Regional Summit which will be held in Amsterdam on 1 and 2 October 2018 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre.