Recently, JSA’s European Media Consultant João Marques Lima had the opportunity to speak with Steve Helvie, Vice President of the Channel for the Open Compute Project (OCP). OCP is a collaborative community focused on redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands on compute infrastructure. Founded in 2011, their mission is to apply the benefits of open source and collaboration to hardware to quicken the pace of innovation in the data center’s networking equipment.

The two covered a range of topics including European data center trends and details on OCP’s valuable work in the data center space. In the European data center, Steve cited a number of fascinating areas that providers have turned their focus to: from innovation in and adoption of advanced cooling methods to shifts in focus to the edge with modular data centers that have helped battle the coronavirus by expanding telehealth availability and disease reporting. 

Additionally, these hardware-focused advancements are paving the way for a number of sustainability initiatives, which will help data centers in their effort to abide by the Climate Data Center Neutrality Pact, whose goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in European data centers by 2030. One such initiative that OCP is working on focuses on decommissioning hyperscalers, where hardware is sanitized and repurposed for use in Tier 1 and 2 facilities around the globe. Steve touches on the advancements in heat redistribution, where heat generated by data centers is distributed to local towns. 

To hear Joao and Steve discuss these initiatives and OCP, watch the full interview below.  

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