PiTek: Servicing the physical side of data centres

With CDCS for mission critical solutions Robert Keegan.

What data centre infrastructure services do you specialise in? 

We specialise in the physical items that service the white floor space including electrical distribution busway, racks, in-rack power distribution, raised floors, structural ceilings, airflow management, server lifting equipment, power and environmental monitoring.

When did your company first get involved in this area? 

PiTek is a relatively new trading name for a business that has been in this space for many
 years. Our management team brings over 70 years of combined experience in this industry, offering a wealth of expertise to our customers.

What credentials do you have that apply to data centres? 

Our credentials and certifications come from the suppliers we represent, so we do not concentrate on industry-wide accreditations but more so product-specific ones. We are factory-qualified by our suppliers to support the products we represent and we call on outside support services when engineering certifications are required.

Do you use a distributor to procure the products you supply? 

PiTek is both the distributor and VAR for the majority of products we represent. We purchase the majority of our products from both local and overseas manufacturers.

Have you heard about any cool developments in the data centre space recently? 

We consider just about everything we do to be somewhat innovative but at present we are seeing significant strides in the area of power distribution and management as well as new and interesting floor, ceiling and containment systems that will continue to change the way the industry deploys these technologies.

Can you tell us about a recent project?

We have an upcoming project for a new co-lo data centre provider where they have agreed to use our floors, ceilings, busway, racks and power distribution products within a number of new builds they are deploying all around Australia over the next few years.

What is driving customers’ data centre projects? 

Cost, efficiency, modularity, availability of power, white floor space flexibility and speed to market are critical factors in today’s data centre designs and builds. There is a divide though, between the requirements of a co-location data centre and an enterprise-funded data centre. There is also a lot of talk and work being done around the deployment of edge data centres but that is still a developing part of the industry.

Data centre infrastructure is…?

The products and systems that are installed to support the IT equipment and software systems deployed within those data centres. ​