Panduit confident of meeting data center infrastructure demand in Malaysia

Panduit’s new infrastructure solutions are backed by its robust local manufacturing presence, with its manufacturing facility in Johor Bahru, serving as a vital supply chain hub regionally.

As Malaysia continues to see a boom in data centers being built in the country, ensuring there is sufficient supply of components needed to power and run these data centers is imperative. While water and energy remain core components, there is also the need to have sufficient supply of the back-end hardware that supports the data centers.

This includes the network cables, racks, switches, and other key components which Panduit is seeing an increased demand in the country. Panduit’s end-to-end solutions support a wide range of critical industries in the country, including hyperscale data centre operators, several leading technology companies, and top financial institutions,

At the recent Panduit Technology Day Malaysia, the company introduced three new infrastructure solutions designed to help organizations address increasing power, connectivity, and scalability demands. They include the EL2P Intelligent Power Distribution Unit, Gen 7 SAN Director Connectivity, and Fault Managed Power System (FMPS).

Panduit also showcased its AI infrastructure readiness with the introduction of its next-generation Very Small Form Factor (VSSF) fiber optic portfolio. Featuring MMC connectivity and shuffle cables, this new range is specifically engineered to support advanced AI GPU architectures, including NVIDIA Vera Rubin. By providing higher fibre density and performance optimized for AI environments, the VSSF portfolio helps support the scalability requirements of next-generation computing environments.

According to Simin Sirun, Business Director for ASEAN, India, and Korea at Panduit, the American company working with data center developers and contractors that are building the data centers for the tenants. He said the tenants include both local and international players such as the hyperscalers.

Sirun also pointed out that Panduit is also among the top players to provide compliant and compatible products to ensure the GPU performance, including NVIDIA GPUs, is guaranteed in terms of its transmission.

“In terms of our ecosystems, we actually sell through our authorized distributor. And through the distributor, we have got our partner ecosystems in Malaysia that perform the installation. In our partner program itself, we have got platinum, gold, silver, and registered partners. We have got about 45 companies in Malaysia who support our businesses regularly on all these infrastructure build-ups, ranging from enterprise data center manufacturing facilities,” Sirun said.

Ensuring supply chain

Given the supply chain challenges in the data center industry, especially when it comes to getting sufficient chips for GPUs and such, Sirun explained that Panduit has a strong plan in place in how it manages its supply chain.

“We have our own warehouse. We don't rely heavily on third parties, so we have our own. In Asia, for example, we have warehouses in China, in Japan, in Singapore, and in Australia too. So, for us, we have undertaken a lot of large, massive projects and we are able to do it because we have the supply chain capability and also we plan to build that,” Surin said.

He added that Panduit was also able to fulfil most customer expectations as they build the products in advance and inventoried them in their own warehouse, which is then inventoried by Panduit’s distributor partners.

“Our distributor in Malaysia is keeping a pretty high inventory right now because of the surge in demand. We want to make sure that those customers that we have committed to are able to deliver. We are engaged right at the customer, so we know exactly the timing. So, we want to make sure that the product comes before the whole execution,” he added.

Surin also mentioned that Panduit engages customers from the start to implementation.

“When you want to implement all these in data centers, it's also not easy because it's massive. You have good product; you also need to have people that know how to install properly,” he said.

Panduit’s new infrastructure solutions are backed by its robust local manufacturing presence. The company's manufacturing facility in Johor Bahru, which commenced operations in October 2023, serves as a vital supply chain hub regionally. The facility, equipped with advanced robotics, automation, and energy-efficient design practices, directly supports the objectives of Malaysia's New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030) to accelerate high-value industrial growth and sustainable manufacturing.

Beyond manufacturing excellence, the Johor Bahru manufacturing facility has created over 200 employment opportunities across various sectors such as engineering, technical, and production roles, contributing significantly to the development of Malaysia’s skilled industrial workforce.