At Catalyst, free and open source isn't just what we do, it's what we stand for. That's why we're rolling out Open Compute hardware in our Catalyst Cloud data centres.

The Open Compute project is bringing open source to data centre hardware. It produces open designs for data centres, servers and network hardware that are more cost effective, energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

The Open Compute initiative was launched by Facebook in 2011 and was later adopted by companies like Rackspace, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel and many others. The project evaluates the influence of all components within the data centre ecosystem and endeavours to minimise energy consumption and the environmental impact of IT.

Open Compute’s 'vanity-free' design eliminates 2.7kg of materials per server, reducing the amount of materials that need to be produced, transported, assembled, and eventually, disassembled. Multiple techniques are employed to reduce power consumption, such as transforming power once for an entire rack, using larger fans and stripping out unnecessary components from the server boards.

Facebook’s Prineville data centre in Oregon uses the Open Compute standard and is one of the most energy efficient in the world, with a power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 1.09. Its power efficiency can be seen in real time at: https://www.facebook.com/PrinevilleDataCenter/app/399244020173259. 

By comparison, New Zealand’s most efficient data centres currently operate at 1.3 PUE.

Catalyst is the first company in New Zealand to start using this new technology, and we're very excited about the benefits it provides, and the savings we can pass on to our customers. By making this cutting edge technology available to our Catalyst Cloud customers, we're offering a unique combination of benefits that no other New Zealand infrastructure provider can. Kiwis have now access to technology that was previously only available to a few IT giants.

To make this possible, we worked with local company Silicon Systems to establish an Open Compute distribution channel and service centre. This successful partnership brings new energy to the local IT industry and enables other NZ companies to source and service OCP hardware locally.

To read more about our Open Compute hardware and how it works, please visit www.opencompute.org.