Catalog

Tifft Gannon – Vertiv

Topic: How to Design and Deliver Successful High-Performance IT Infrastructure

 AI and GPU-intensive computing are arriving in enterprise environments, colocation facilities, and edge deployments that were never designed for them — and the gap between what those environments can deliver and what high-performance IT actually requires is where projects go wrong. This presentation gives ASHRAE members the tools to close that gap. We will examine what makes high-performance computing fundamentally different from traditional data center environments, walk through the critical infrastructure imperatives across thermal, power, rack, and system management disciplines, and address the coordination requirements that determine whether a project succeeds or requires expensive rework.

Key Learning Objectives:

1. Understand what distinguishes high-performance computing environments from traditional data centers — including power density thresholds, cooling mode transitions, and the infrastructure coordination demands that accompany GPU-intensive deployments.
2. Identify the critical infrastructure imperatives — across thermal, power, rack, system management, and service disciplines — that must be addressed in sequence for a high-performance computing project to succeed.
3. Apply a practical framework for liquid cooling system understanding, including the five key CDU characteristics.
4. Recognize the organizational and cross-disciplinary coordination requirements that separate successful high-performance computing deployments from those that require costly rework after IT hardware decisions have already been made.

 About the Speaker:

 Tifft Gannon is Senior Director of Technical Business Development at Vertiv, where he leads strategic technical engagement with emerging AI providers — working at the front edge of one of the most consequential build-outs in the history of the data center industry. His focus is aligning the physical infrastructure and systems that enable organizations to realize their IT goals before they commit to infrastructure that is expensive, long-lead, and very difficult to undo.

Before moving into his current role, Tifft served as North American Technical Director at Vertiv, where he built and led the Thermal Management Technical and Application Engineering teams into a nationally recognized resource for data center thermal design support. This role encompassed oversight of the technical training of all Vertiv’s local sales teams, creation of industry-facing educational presentations, and development of programs for educating consulting engineering firms on data center systems. Earlier, he spearheaded the launch and product management of Vertiv’s air handler business — developing hands-on expertise from product conception through delivery and ongoing operation. Over the course of his career, he has developed expertise on the thermal management of IT spaces from network closets and edge deployments to hyperscale facilities. That breadth of experience is the foundation of his current work: engaging with clients who are new to AI environments and how infrastructure enables successful AI deployments over the life cycle of the facility.

A member of ASHRAE for more than 15 years, Tifft has contributed to the Society at both the local and national levels through the Columbus, Ohio chapter. He was the presenter for one of ASHRAE’s most successful webcasts — “Selecting the Right Air Handling Approach for Data Centers” — and has delivered technical presentations at chapter meetings, chapter regional conferences, and industry events across North America.

Tifft is known for making dense technical topics land with audiences across engineering, operations, and leadership disciplines. His presentations combine thermal engineering rigor with the kind of frank, sequencing-first advice that comes from working directly with operators navigating decisions that will shape their facilities for decades. Whether he is walking through cooling mode transitions, the imperatives of liquid-cooled system design, or the organizational dynamics that cause AI infrastructure projects to go sideways, attendees leave with frameworks they can use — not just information they have heard. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Gannon has developed an engaging speaking style honed through delivering more than 2,000 talks across professional and informal settings.

Tifft holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University. For more than 25 years, he has volunteered as a youth sports coach and Young Life leader, mentoring young people through one of the most formative seasons of their lives — work he approaches with the same conviction that the right investment early prevents a lot of costly rework later.