Aligned Data Centers has become the first company to receive the OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale Certification.
The certification was awarded to Aligned’s ORD-02 facility located in the Chicagoland area. The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) is a non-profit dedicated to bringing hyperscale innovations to the broader market.
The ORD-02 facility underwent a rigorous assessment as part of the OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale certification process and achieved exceptional results, according to the Foundation.
The facility excelled in multiple categories, including site access and logistics, structural integrity, cooling efficiency, connectivity, service quality, and other essential certifications.
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The OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale certification awarded to Aligned's ORD-02 coincides with the launch of this new program by the OCP. The certification process was spearheaded by OCP Project Leads Mark Dansie and Scott Sharp, who are part of the Data Centre Facilities Project. This initiative is designed to address the unique requirements of hyperscale data centres, focusing on aspects such as logistics, site access, and base-building infrastructure.
The certification process involves adhering to a comprehensive, community-led checklist, and only those data centres that meet these stringent requirements can earn the OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale designation. By achieving this certification, data centre operators like Aligned, demonstrate their capability to support large-scale, hyperscale deployments across a wide range of critical criteria.
One of the key objectives of the Hyperscale program is to assist hyperscalers in identifying data centres that can meet their needs for space, power, and cooling well in advance of deployment. This is particularly crucial as hyperscalers often require data centres that are in various stages of development, such as core and shell, ready for fit-out, or build-in-progress.
For data centre operators, earning this certification helps avoid the risk of developing unusable infrastructure due to basic building constraints and streamlines the requirements-gathering phase of customer engagements.
Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned Data Centers, commented, "Receiving the first-ever OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale Certification validates our longstanding capabilities in hyperscale deployments.
"From flexible, sustainable designs to industry-leading, high-density cooling technologies—including air, liquid, and hybrid configurations—we unlock seamless scale for hyperscale businesses, maximising efficiency and effectiveness."
Scott Sharp, OCP Ready™ facilities program co-lead commented, "The OCP Ready™ for Hyperscale certification aims to standardise facility criteria that are compatible with all hyperscalers.
"Establishing a standard for base-building infrastructure reduces the time required to select a suitable data centre for deployments.
"As the data centre industry continues to grow rapidly, ensuring new facilities meet customer requirements is critical."
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