Mark Dansie

OCP’s Head of Data Center Facility Programs supporting the development of critical specs, guidelines and certifications for the Open Data Center for AI

[Open Compute Project @OpenComputePrj]

An Open Letter to the Industry: A Call for Collaboration on AI Data Center Infrastructure Standards

Driven by the AI revolution, the data center construction boom is now a major economic force, contributing $355 to $727 billion in annual GDP between 2017-2023 and matching consumer spending's contribution to GDP growth over the first half of 2025. These investments are injecting hundreds of billions of dollars directly into the economy for construction, specialized labor, and the procurement of hardware like GPUs, advanced networking, and liquid cooling systems. This scale of investment necessitates not just an increase in capacity, but a fundamental, strategic evolution in data center design.

To enable rapid data center deployments, a fundamental rethinking of how physical infrastructure is built is required. A primary goal for hyperscalers is to enable late-binding decisions, such as deploying GPUs or other accelerators within a given facility. However, this is difficult when data center partners receive competing design inputs from various hyperscalers, enterprise users, and technology providers. This lack of standardization leads to inefficiencies, slows down deployment, and ultimately hinders innovation. To keep pace with the exponential growth in demand, we need to move towards common infrastructure standards within the data center industry that encompass an interoperable model for data center infrastructure.

To meet the challenges and opportunities of this new era, we, the undersigned, believe it is time for a new level of collaboration across the data center industry.
This effort is not about creating a single, one-size-fits-all solution, but rather about identifying key areas where we can agree on common interfaces and specifications while still allowing for differentiation and innovation. This will require a concerted effort from all stakeholders, including hyperscalers, colocation providers, and key technology partners.

Read the full letter to understand the collaborative workstreams that are forming around Power, Cooling, Mechanical and Telemetry, sign the letter to show your commitment, and get involved here: https://t.co/GU7XpaIOQ5

[Open Compute Project @OpenComputePrj]

Open Compute Project Foundation Launches OCP Academy!

OCP announces the official launch of OCP Academy, a new online learning portal designed to provide comprehensive educational resources for the global data center ecosystem and growing OCP Community. This initiative represents a significant stride in expanding OCP Community resources and fulfilling a long-standing objective of the OCP Foundation to provide continuing education using the extensive technical knowledge contained within the OCP Contributions Database.

OCP Academy builds on the vast information embedded within OCP's contributions—encompassing specifications, designs, white papers, code, configurations, case studies—as well as OCP webinars, and OCP Summit recordings. Additionally, new, purpose-created content will be developed, based on the needs of the Community and the ever-changing data center infrastructure. Given the rapidly evolving landscape of data centers to power AI, OCP Academy will serve as a critical platform for online continuous education and professional development. Its content, presented in an e-learning training format, transforms technically dense written information into interactive and accessible learning, structured as self-paced courses comprising concise lessons.

Read the full story here: https://t.co/QAIH8qlc6H
@OpenComputePrj
#OCPSummit25

[Open Compute Project @OpenComputePrj]

OCP Launches New "Open Data Center for AI" Strategic Initiative!

OCP announces an expansion to its Open Systems for AI, an umbrella initiative with the new Open Data Center for AI Strategic Initiative (SI), to increase efforts on key data center infrastructure challenges: power, cooling, mechanical, and management telemetry. The addition of this new strategic initiative is in response to a large increase in data center physical infrastructure projects and workstreams launched in the past year, learnings from the OCP Open Systems for AI SI workshop series, and the new open-letter call for collaboration. With strong support from the OCP Board and stakeholders, the Foundation invites other organizations to sign this letter, which was initiated by Google, Meta, and Microsoft. This underscores the OCP Foundation's mission to support the entire open data center ecosystem, covering IT as well as physical data center infrastructure and facilities.
The mandate of the Open Data Center for AI SI is to develop standardizations for data center infrastructure allowing advanced high-density AI infrastructure to be deployed as flexibly as traditional compute where facilities are built with a common understanding of management telemetry, advanced power and cooling technologies to enable simpler deployment of a wide variety of AI solutions. The issue faced by data center partners including hyperscalers, neoclouds, co-location providers, enterprise users, and technology providers is that siloed efforts produce competing design requirements that slows innovations and extends deployment timelines. The goal is to identify and specify requirements for AI data centers such that the physical infrastructure common ground enables fungibility for a diverse AI IT infrastructure, especially while aspects of the AI IT elements are rapidly evolving. This will enable colocation data center providers to support a wider range of tenants with fewer customizations.

Read the full story here: https://t.co/guSIBMnhO8
@OpenComputePrj
#OCPSummit25

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

@AlanWeckel @OpenComputePrj @Supermicro_SMCI What does HRV measure on a Garmin watch

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

Great collaboration happening between @OpenComputePrj & @InfraMason

[Open Compute Project @OpenComputePrj]

OCP and iMasons Announce a New Collaboration!
The effort will address one of the industry's greatest challenges, creating sustainable and scalable digital infrastructure capable of meeting the requirements for AI and HPC from the data center to the edge.
https://t.co/N8eAXsTMvd

[route2open @route2open]

🚀 Hey Students!

Guess what? Our awesome Edgecore #SONiC Training, worth 499 EUR, is now TOTALLY FREE for STUDENTS like you!

✅ To learn more, click here: https://t.co/66tUBQYerA

#LetsTalkSONiC #freetraining #freecourse #SONiCtraining #EdgcecoreSONiC #SONiCcourse

[QScale @QScale]

🏆 QScale’s Q01 Facility Crowned North American Data Center Project of the Year at DCD Global Awards 2023
Highlighting Canada’s 142MW OCP Ready™ Data Center Achievement
Read the press release: https://t.co/QGs29kA6Ev
#DCDAwards

[Open Compute Project @OpenComputePrj]

Global Switch Amsterdam East granted OCP Ready™ status! Amsterdam East offers state-of-the-art suites for high-performance computing needs. Each suite will have a capacity of 2MW at an average density of 3,000W/m2.
Full story here: https://t.co/kD0DYXUu1b

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

Great to see @QScale_ca an OCP Ready data center shortlisted for North American Data Center Project of the Year. https://t.co/3nrz389QPz

[QScale @QScale]

We're deeply honored that QScale has been recognized as one of the "Top 20 #HPC Solution Providers 2023" by Enterprise Viewpoint. To be listed among industry giants such as IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Supermicro is truly humbling. https://t.co/aTYqj2LoXq @evbizmag

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

Having Global Switch join the OCP Colo Solution Provider programme is a fantastic addition to the OCP Community. By achieving OCP Ready™ status with their Amsterdam East data centre, Global Switch has demonstrated openness, scalability and... https://t.co/LbfvWR5XBh

[STORDIS – Network People · Open by Design @STORDIS_GmbH]

Day 2 of #OCPSummit23 is off to a great start!

#STORDIS is proud to have been among the speakers at #OCPGlobalSummit 2023. @lukasz_lukowski, your presentation was awesome! 🌟👏

#OCPGlobalSummit #SONiC #OpenNetworking #LetsTalkSONiC #route2open @OpenComputePrj

[STORDIS – Network People · Open by Design @STORDIS_GmbH]

Join us at the #OCPEuropeMeetup on September 5th, 2023, in Berlin! #STORDIS will be taking the stage to present "Deploying #OpenSource Power: Taking Control with #OpenNetworking, #OpenHardware, and #OpenSoftware for Strategic Savings and Efficiency."
➡️ https://t.co/yeXRSOnB5l

[OpenUK @openuk_uk]

OpenUK State of Open: The UK in 2023 Phase Two Report "Show us the Money" 2 Parts, Part 1 shares survey outputs, demonstrating in '22, £13.97bn GVA contribution by UK open source businesses to our UK economy being 27% of UK Tech sectorhttps://openuk.uk/stateofopen/ #opensource

[OpenUK @openuk_uk]

Getting ready to launch our State of Open: The UK in 2023 Report with an analyst briefing in the City with our friends @jimmy_wales of @Wikipedia and Chris Yiu @clry2 of @Meta and @RunaCapital #opensource #ai #openuk

[IP Infusion @IPInfusion]

Telcom Chooses IP Infusion To Upgrade And Interoperate with Cisco, Nokia And Juniper. Read the Press Release: https://t.co/KWnS6IHkQn
@TelcomUK
@NomiosGroup
@EdgecoreNetwork
@UfiSpace

[Quentin Willson @QuentinWillson]

To counter the myth that EV batteries don’t last, here’s a bloke with a Tesla Model 3 who’s covered 369,000 miles on the original motors and battery pack. He charged on superchargers 2,500 times. How many combustion engines can do that mileage?

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

@mrjamesob it's unlikely UBI will be introduced widely, until Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)are also introduced.

[Mark Dansie @markdansie]

Check out "Open UK's Open Technology for Sustainability Day" Sept 14 in Edinburgh #opencompute https://t.co/6jTybZ6YZ3 @Eventbrite

[OpenUK @openuk_uk]

CFP for the OpenUK Open Technology for Sustainability Day is open until noon on 24 May https://t.co/SuQLGUQzeH #opensource #opendata #openhardware #Sustainability #cop28 #copen