DCD AI Week 2026: From Blueprint to Build - Designing Smarter with Reference Architectures and Digital Twins
Vertiv, Monday, September 7th, 2026
Vertiv and Dassault Systemes explain how reference architectures and digital twins validate AI factory designs before construction.
In the third episode of DCD AI Week 2026, Vertiv's Viktor Petik and Dassault Systemes' Stephane Sireau discuss how AI factories have become tightly coupled systems where power, cooling, network, and compute must be optimized together.
They argue failures occur at the interfaces between components, so the whole system must be validated rather than individual products. Traditional sequential engineering is giving way to continuous co-design based on living, model-based reference architectures built from pre-validated building blocks.
Digital twins let teams simulate designs before breaking ground and maintain digital continuity through procurement, construction, commissioning, and operations.