Daikin Applied has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DDC Solutions, a San Diego-based developer of ultra-high-density cooling cabinets and management software for data centres.
This deal is expected to close by month's end. The acquisition will expand Daikin Applied's data centre focused portfolio — adding in-room, rack-level solutions for white space cooling, and underscoring the company's commitment to providing complete data centre cooling solutions.
Daikin Applied chief operating officer, Yu Nishiwaki, said the demand for high-performance data centres is accelerating and the equipment inside those data centres is evolving rapidly.
“This acquisition allows us to deliver a rack-level cooling platform that is resilient, flexible and scalable, and able to support current and next-generation chip sets,” he said.
Daikin Applied executive vice president of sales, service & solutions, James Moe, said nobody knows cooling better than Daikin.
"We've applied that expertise to data centres in the form of HVAC technologies that span from large-tonnage chillers to in-room air handlers. And now we're going further into the computer room to provide an even broader array of cooling solutions,” Moe said.
DDC Solutions offers a patented, self-contained hybrid cooling system that integrates air and liquid cooling directly within the data centre racks.
Unlike traditional air-cooled or plenum-based systems, this design contains heat removal within the rack itself, which improves operational efficiency and eliminates the need for costly infrastructure modifications.
In addition, the cabinets provide excellent fire and water protection and significantly reduce the data centre's acoustic signature. They also come equipped with data centre infrastructure management software for real-time monitoring and automated cooling adjustment on a per cabinet basis.
DDC Solutions CEO, Keith Markley, said the ability to scale quickly across geographies with Daikin's resources is a game changer.
“The global demand for data centre solutions is expanding so quickly and being part of Daikin Applied will allow us to respond to this demand at an even greater level of excellence than before,” he said.
After the closing, DDC Solutions will operate as a subsidiary of Daikin Applied with the full DDC Solutions leadership team remaining in their current roles.
The DDC Solutions cooling platform includes the patented S-Series v4 cabinet technology and its leading dynamic management software. The S-Series supports up to 100 kW air cooling and is liquid to the chip ready to enable ultra-high-density cooling in excess of 1MW per cabinet.