September 1, 2023 - Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has announced the local availability in Africa of the Vertiv SmartCabinet 2, a self-contained micro data centre for edge computing applications, including banking and financial institutes, warehousing, education, government and retail customers.
The SmartCabinet 2 offers the features of a complete data centre in a compact and rapidly deployable package, meeting the requirements of smaller edge computing sites. The system includes an enclosed rack, a 3 500W Vertiv Liebert integrated cooling unit, plus a Vertiv Liebert uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and a power management unit, in a cabinet that is smaller in height, width and depth than other Vertiv SmartCabinet offerings.
“Over the past two years in particular, there has been a significant increase in remote and hybrid work, as well as growing demand for various IT applications in Africa. At the same time, we are increasingly seeing requirements for data centres to be flexible, standardised and resilient. The compact yet powerful Vertiv SmartCabinet 2 micro data centre is an ideal solution for edge spaces, allowing businesses across the continent to expand their IT compute – and meet changing needs – easily and efficiently,” said Wojtek Piorko, Vertiv’s managing director for Africa.
“A number of our African customers said they loved the Vertiv SmartCabinet product, and would be interested in a smaller option. And, thanks to our global engineering team, that’s exactly what we are now able to deliver,” said Amitesh Kumar, integrated rack business manager at Vertiv. “We’re focusing on supporting a new, more efficient deployment of micro data centres.”
Piorko added that drivers for the smaller solution include today’s trends towards increased virtualisation and cloud use, which have limited the requirement for on-premises IT infrastructure, along with an increased need for lower IT energy consumption, of particular importance in Africa.
In addition, scrutiny over data sovereignty – where data is subject to the laws and governance structures of where it’s collected – and compliance requirements have resulted in greater demand for similar infrastructure in factories, retail outlets and educational institutes.
The Vertiv SmartCabinet 2 can be equipped with enhanced security feature options, including video surveillance. The LED lighting around the system can be customised to suit customer branding, given that in many cases it will be in sight of staff and end-users.
SmartCabinet 2 is the latest addition to Vertiv’s broad range of integrated data centre solutions. For more information, visit Vertiv.com.
