Global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, Vertiv is making a name for itself across the African continent for connecting and protecting networks with core-to-edge solutions – and it’s a player that’s got a rich history in this environment.
Vertiv has been around for decades, bringing hardware, software, analytics and services to customers around the world.
Indeed, Vertiv is a massive $5,7-billion company, with 27 000 employees.
The company has a global presence, with 24 manufacturing and assembly locations on six continents, boasting 220 service centres, more than 3 500 service field engineers, about 220 technical support/response resources, and 19 customer experience centres.
In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, there are 10 manufacturing and assembly locations, more than 65 service centres, around 650 service field engineers, more than 100 technical support and response resources, and five customer experience centres.
In addition to data centre and communication networks, Vertiv has a strong presence in the education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, railway and retail markets.
Wojtek Piorko, MD: Africa at Vertiv, explains that the company’s focus is enabling the continuity of today’s and tomorrow’s vital applications.
“Nearly all aspects of our lives involve the use of technology,” he says. “It is how we work and play and do anything in between. This connectivity or use of data is built into the very fabric of our society. It is vital to human progress.
“Vertiv believes there is a better way to meet this accelerating demand for data — one driven by passion and innovation. And this passion is a thread that runs through Vertiv’s entire business.
“Locally, we have kicked off an ‘Africa for Africa’ project that focuses strongly on meeting our local clients’ needs. Not only are we currently creating a new internal structure that focuses strongly on leveraging African skills and knowledge within our team, we’re also setting up offices close to customers, that incorporate Customer Experience Centres, and growing our African network of authorised partners and service providers.”
As an industry expert, Vertiv collaborates with its customers to envision and build future-ready infrastructures. Together with its partners, the company leverages its portfolio of hardware, software, analytics, and services, to enable customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally, and scale with business needs.
Vertiv provides a broad range of power, thermal, and IT and edge infrastructure, solutions and services within three areas:
- Data centres – with hyperscale/cloud, colocation, enterprise and edge solutions;
- Communication networks – with macro site, central office, small cell and data centre offerings; and
- Commercial and industrial – within the healthcare, manufacturing, rail/mass transit, power generation, and oil and gas verticals.
Wojtek Piorko
Wojtek Piorko joined the Middle East and Africa (MEA) team around eight years ago, and over this time has gained deep experience within several roles and regions. Piorko began his career with Vertiv in 2001 as sales manager: Poland & Baltics, Ukraine and Belarus. He completed his studies at the Technical University of Warsaw in the faculty of Mechanics, Robotics and Aeronautical Engineering. Today, he has more than 25 years of technical and management experience, working across various sectors from telecom and IT, and holds the capacity of Managing Director for Africa. Within this role, Piorko is tasked with driving business growth and increasing market penetration in the region.
Vertiv brands
Albér™ – Battery monitoring
Avocent® – IT management
Cybex™ – IT management
E+I Engineering Group – Electrical switchgear, modular power, energy management
Energy Labs™ – Commercial and industrial thermal
Geist™ – Rack PDU
Liebert® – AC power and thermal
Netsure™ – DC power
PowerBar – Busbar Trunking
Vertiv boasts a complete product portfolio
When it comes to data centre solutions, Vertiv offers a full range of products and services that address critical needs.
Critical Power
Protect your critical systems and ensure continuous operations with full featured and cost-effective power solutions.
- Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) – Protect your equipment and applications with our complete range of efficient, reliable UPS systems that can be configured to meet the specific needs of your critical applications.
- DC Power Systems – Allow efficient distribution of your telecom and data centre power utilising these reliable, scalable and flexible DC power products.
- Power Distribution – Adapt to equipment changes and operate data centre to its peak status with flexible and energy efficient power distribution products.
- Static Transfer Switches – Transfer critical loads to emergency sources with our line of quick, reliable and flexible power switching solutions.
- Power Control and Monitoring – Make your data centre run at peak performance by making insightful decisions using our power controls and monitoring products.
- Busway and Busduct – The Vertiv Powerbar patented range of busbar trunking ads overhead power distribution to your data centre, allowing increased accessibility to power loads for maintenance. Our Vertiv Powerbar products also compliment the Vertiv E+I Switchgear range to provide a complete power distribution solution.
- Switchgear – You want a solution that ensures the proper flow of power to electrical circuits, protects your equipment, isolates power systems, and most importantly, does not fail. Discover the best power distribution solution to protect your equipment.
Thermal Management
Get efficient and reliable heat management and humidity control solutions geared to your specific size, location and business goals.
Your mission-critical facilities need the very best in precision cooling, which is what Vertiv delivers with the industry’s most advanced equipment and controls, low operating costs and unparalleled expertise.
- Enclosure Cooling – Manage heat densities of your IT equipment even in remote locations with reliable enclosure cooling solutions.
- Heat Rejection – Efficient, easy to install systems in abundant configurations.
- High Density Solutions – Higher capacity quickly and affordably.
- Room Cooling – Achieve unsurpassed protection, while reducing energy use, saving water and simplifying deployment.
- In-Row Cooling – Ensure reliability and optimise performance in your small and medium data centres with In-Row cooling products.
- Rack Cooling – Maximise cooling efficiency without adding heat with scalable, space-saving cooling solutions for racks up to 35 kW.
- Evaporative Free Cooling – Increase energy efficiency and value for your money with cooling products that cut energy consumption and cost up to 50% less.
- Free Cooling Chillers – Get reliable cooling solutions for vital systems in critical industries with easy-to-install Free Cooling Chillers.
- Thermal Control and Monitoring – Confidently manage your data centre facilities with products that centralise viewing and integrate systems.
Racks and Enclosures
Customers want optimal performance, easy deployment and scalability for their IT systems and data centres.
Vertiv’s data centre racks, cabinets and enclosure solutions provide support and protection to critical IT and facilities.
As organisations grow, Vertiv’s modular solutions and mobile designs adapt to their space and budget needs.
- Integrated Solutions – Meet IT infrastructure needs with scalable Smart Solution products that offer cost and space savings.
- Racks and Containment – Flexible and cost-effective rack and containment products help to secure integral systems in the data centre.
- Outdoor Enclosures – Secure voice, video and data electronics using reliable, customised solutions for small outdoor enclosures to large infrastructure.
Monitoring and management
Monitoring and management is through Vertiv’s flagship Avocent ADX Platform, a series of IT Management devices and software that provides solutions in edge, enterprise and engineering lab environments.
Built on a secure common architecture the Avocent ADX Platform seamlessly integrates and scales to create an open yet resilient IT management fabric.
No matter the user’s location, Avocent and the Cybex keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) switches and serial consoles provide easy, single-point access to valuable system data.
- Digital Infrastructure – The Avocent ADX Ecosystem provides the highest performance and agility, security, and enables automation, management, monitoring and control of all your devices like no other solution in the market.
- Embedded Device Management – Solution development kits that include a commercial-ready implementation of the Open BMC open-source project.
- Serial Console – The Avocent ACS serial consoles provide in-band and out-of-band serial access to remotely manage IT devices anywhere in the world.
- KVM over IP – The Avocent KVM-over-IP switches provide a single point of access to critical systems locally or around the world.
- High Performance KVM – With Avocent HMX 5000/6000/8000 High Performance KVM and the Avocent Matrix system, users can access shared workstations from any number of desktops.
- LCD Tray – The Avocent Local Rack Access (LRA) Console provides simplicity, efficiency, and ease of use to make it the ideal data centre access point.
- Standard Desktop KVM – The Avocent SV 200 and SV300 desktop KVM switches simplify access to essential business systems.
- Secure KVM – The Cybex SC Secure KVM, the SCM Secure Matrix KVM, and the new Cybex Secure MultiViewer KVM keep users’ data secure.
- Software – The Avocent DSView software manages your Avocent hardware via secured web-browser-enabled sessions of infrastructure controls.
Solutions go beyond products
Vertiv is well-positioned to compete with the best when it comes to its data centre solutions – but it goes beyond the ordinary by offering fully-integrated solutions that its partners can provide to their end user customers.
The reality of the IT landscape today is that many applications have changed the traditional definition of the data centre.
As a result, the deployment of IT assets occurs not just in a traditional data centre, but can now be in a store, clinic, factory, warehouse, or home office.
These applications require new solutions to address the different performance, environmental, geographic, and form factor challenges associated with the scale, speed and complexity of these new environments.
Vertiv’s integrated solutions offer pre-engineered and pre-integrated systems that are designed to work together, reducing deployment time and optimising the performance of customers’ IT infrastructure for edge and data centre applications around the world.
Vertiv recognises that every project is different, and that the selection, setup, and configuration of new products can be intimidating.
That’s why it offers a team of product and vertical market experts to help partners and customer to design and build a solution that addresses any challenges.
Whether looking to configure a state-of-the-art micro data centre, expand capacity with colocation and cloud services, or install a prefabricated cable landing station, Vertiv offers a wide range of standardised but also highly-customisable solutions.
Vertiv experts can customise solutions specifically for customer requirements, from network closets to edge and cloud data centres.
The Vertiv’s tried and tested methods ensure tailored products and expedited delivery, with modular, scalable, subsystem building blocks creating an efficient, automated, and low-risk design process.
Tailored integration is enabled because complex mechanical and electrical integration activities are completed at the factory to maintain quality and velocity.
Pre-integration in the factory ensures there are no unnecessary complications, with clear documentation and a dedicated team of engineers enabling on-site teams to assemble the modules easily.
Services underpin solutions
Vertiv ensures continuous uptime of critical operations so that organisations can perform at their peak and maximise resources.
Whether the customer operates a data centre, communications facility, government agency or industrial plant, Vertiv is ready and able to collaborate every step of the way.
- Project Services – Customers can maximise investments, prevent delays and avoid rework with effective project planning and execution.
- UPS and Battery Services – Services to keep the data centre operation running, even when the AC power fails.
- Digital Services – Advanced monitoring to capture and analyse system data, turning it into action.
- Thermal Management Services – Integrated lifecycle services help to maximise the performance of customers’ thermal management systems.
- DC Power Services – Product assessment, integration, and maintenance services to ensure the dependable operation of any DC power system.
- Software – Today’s data centre cannot be managed in a siloed manner. Customers need a comprehensive monitoring software solution that collects all the data needed to run critical infrastructure efficiently, and delivering a real-time, integrated view of the entire IT facility and its subsequent assets.
- Critical Power Infrastructure – Ensure customers’ essential services are protected by ensuring Switchgear Systems are maintained in optimum working condition by fully-trained Vertiv engineers. Plus, ensure the generator system is in optimum condition with Vertiv’s comprehensive range of service, repair and upgrade capabilities.
Vertiv and the channel market
The IT channel is vital to Vertiv as it expands across Africa.
The company offers a wide range of hardware and software solutions that are available to channel partners via distribution. But the provision of solutions and services is where Vertiv really stands out in the channel.
Brent Owens, director of sales enablement at Vertiv in EMEA, explains that the company’s channel engagement is focused on helping partners to build capacity, enhance their offering, and win business.
“Most partner programmes in this industry only think of working with partners that already specialise in their particular niche. But this means the only differentiator a vendor offers is price.
“We would rather help partners that currently operate in different areas – for instance they sell servers or storage now – to start the journey with our solutions by engaging with Vertiv’s world-class support functions,” he explains.
When Vertiv talks about solutions, that’s exactly that they mean: the company offers full solutions – including hardware, software, expertise and services – that partners can on sell.
“For the channel, we think it’s important to get the flow of business going. And we do this by offering complete solutions that include the individual components, pre-sales consulting, configuration and technical support at all levels of the engagement.”
As well as making its’ extensive team of skilled engineers available to assist partners, Vertiv has also developed a range of online tools to help partners configure and visualise finished solutions right at the start of the customer engagement.
These include the Vertiv™ XR app, which brings future critical IT infrastructure to life through the power of augmented reality.
The XR App lets partners and customers realistically visualise Vertiv solutions within their own environment.
The app runs on smartphones or tablets, and users can simply point it to where they might want to install a particular product, choose the product they want, and watch it appear in the space.
This means partners can easily take the guesswork out of the equation when you’re looking to scale critical facilities or future-proof an existing data centre and IT systems.
Read more about the Vertiv XR App on Page 54 in this month’s Product Showcase.
Also available is the Virtual Showroom, which Owens believes will resonate strongly with channel partners. It allows them to explore a future critical IT infrastructure facility and walk customers through various products and solutions.
The experience can be enhanced through the use of virtual reality goggles, which Owens says really brings the experience – and the technology – to life.
Meet the channel team
Dirk Cilliers
Dirk Cilliers is a sales professional with a an unwavering commitment to customer service. His experience in the channel includes 10 years in technology distribution, of which four years was spend in senior sales management. Over the past 15 years Dirk earned trust in his network with relationships in distribution, reseller partners, OEMs and end customers. In his current role as distribution manager for Vertiv he is responsible for building, executing and growing a B2B and B2B2C go-to-market strategy for the Vertiv SADC region, which also includes Vertiv South Africa.
George Moss
George Moss, currently enterprise sales director for Southern Africa at Vertiv, has more than 13 years of channel / distribution experience. Over his career path, Moss worked as part of the Dell team at one of South Africa’s leading distributors covering the SADC region, and during this time was exposed all components key in making a brand successful in the channel, from marketing and logistics, to stock planning. This experience has given him an excellent understanding of how to best assist distributors from a vendor perspective, as well as the challenges faced by resellers. After joining Vertiv in 2022 as channel sales manager for Southern Africa, Moss’s top focus within this sector is trust building.
Jacqui Gradwell
Jacqui Gradwell is Field Marketing Director for Africa at Vertiv. With a wealth of experience in field marketing within the MEA technology industry, Gradwell started her career at a large local IT distributor as product manager, responsible for Hewlett Packard Printers and APC UPSes. Her success in distribution allowed her to secure a position as MEA marketing manager at APC, which she successfully fulfilled for 10 years. Following APC’s acquisition by Schneider Electric, she moved into the strategic marketing manager role for MEA, shortly thereafter becoming vice president of marketing communications: Southern Africa. Subsequently, Gradwell hosted her own datacentre infrastructure exhibition and conference for the South African IT industry over a four-year period. Her most recent permanent role was with Nidec Control Techniques as EMEA marketing manager.
Address: Building 17
Thornhill Office Park
94 Bekker Road
Midrand, Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 (11) 284-9777
Website: www.vertiv.com