From left: Katrina Tirante-Uy, marketing director at Vertiv Asia; Pierre San Diego, head of design and construction at ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Philippines; Orvin Reyes, head of data center business development, innovations and product development at VITRO Inc.; and Chris Mandahl, senior director for customer experience at Vertiv Asia.
Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure, gathered more than 100 engineers, builders, and consultants at its annual Vertiv Masterclass in Manila. The event, part of an Asia-wide roadshow, focused on how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping data centers, with special emphasis on power and cooling solutions needed to support the next wave of high-performance computing.
The program opened with a keynote from Chris Mandahl, senior director for customer experience at Vertiv Asia. In his talk, “Data Center as a Unit of Compute – A Vision for 2030 and Beyond,” he outlined how AI is transforming critical infrastructure and emphasized Vertiv’s role in helping customers adapt with end-to-end solutions.
Anna Chua, sales manager for Vertiv Philippines, followed with a presentation on “Data Center Excellence through Convergence of Power, Cooling, and Intelligence.” She highlighted the importance of integrating advanced systems to improve efficiency, strengthen resilience, and enable industries to deploy AI more effectively.
One of the day’s highlights was a panel discussion featuring industry experts:
- Pierre San Diego, head of design and construction at ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Philippines
- Orvin Reyes, head of data center business development, innovations, and product development at VITRO Inc.
- Chris Mandahl of Vertiv
Moderated by Vertiv Asia marketing director Katrina Tirante-Uy, the panel examined how AI is pushing companies to rethink traditional data center design. The speakers stressed the shift from standalone, product-based solutions toward integrated, system-centric platforms—an approach they said is vital to meet the massive computing and energy demands of AI workloads.
The afternoon sessions offered deeper technical discussions on topics such as power train design, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) strategies, and thermal management systems, equipping participants with practical knowledge of the latest technologies.
“Vertiv Masterclass is more than just a technical training program. It’s a platform for collaboration,” said Mandahl. “With the Philippines experiencing rapid digital growth and AI driving new infrastructure demands, we aim to provide engineers and industry leaders with actionable insights, best practices, and future-ready solutions.”
The Manila leg of the Masterclass follows successful events in Singapore and Malaysia, reaffirming Vertiv’s commitment to empowering Asia’s digital infrastructure community with the expertise and tools needed for the next era of innovation.
For more information, visit Vertiv.com.