Data Centre Magazine - February 2021

datacentremagazine.com

FEBRUARY 2021

A NEW ERA AMONG THE CLOUDS

REAL ESTATE COMPANIES

IXcellerate:

RUSSIA’S HYPERSCALE CLOUD REVOLUTION CORE DATA CENTRES

NTT

STAR2STAR

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FOREWORD

W

elcome to the February edition of Data Centre Magazine.

The data centre industry has had an unprecedented year. Global lockdowns and the en mass shift to remote work, learning and socialisation placed unique challenges and opportunities at the feet of data centre operators everywhere in 2020.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic – which continues to rage across the globe – we’re going to be looking at some of the effects this catastrophe has had on the industry, and examining where the road ahead will lead.

From the future of the cloud to our breakdown of the world’s top 10 data centre real estate firms, join us in taking a closer look at the changing landscape of the sector, as data demand soars and the industry shifts into hyperdrive to keep up.

The other megatrend looming over us all right now is the ongoing fight to marry this insatiable demand for digital infrastructure with the industry’s green ambitions. Last month,

some of the world’s leading data centre and cloud operators officially committed to reaching carbon zero by 2030. From innovative ways of increasing efficiency to new power purchasing strategies, we’ve spoken to some of the world’s leading data centre experts to get their takes on what the future holds for power in the industry.

We’re also bringing you our usual crop of in-depth interviews with some of the most exciting and disruptive firms in the data centre business. IXcellerate – the company bringing the hyperscale revolution to Russia – Core Data Centres, are sitting down with us to talk cloud, power, and delivering more resilient, agile data centre services to the enterprise and hyperscale customer alike.

If you’d like to be a part of the conversation, get in touch with me at h.menear@bizclikmedia.com Enjoy the issue.

Harry Menear, Editor-In-Chief da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก

Lewis Vaughan

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Owen Martin Philline Vincent EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Harry Menear EDITORAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Sophie-Ann Pinnell Sophia Forte Hector Penrose Sam Hubbard Mimi Gunn Justin Smith

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

Kieran Waite DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

Sam Kemp Evelyn Huang Matthew Evans DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Daisy Slater

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Jordan Hubbard MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

James White Richard Turner Mark Cawston DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Stacy Norman PRESIDENT & CEO

Glen White

PROJECT DIRECTORS

Stuart Irving Craig Killingback da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CONTENTS

10 ENABLING RUSSIA’S DIGITAL REVOLUTION

10 24

34

56

44

Data Centre Real Estate Companies

74 NTT Ltd.

108 Core Data Centers

94 Star2Star

10

FEBRUARY 2021

11

IXcellerate: ENABLING RUSSIA’S DIGITAL REVOLUTION WRITTEN BY

JOHN O’HANLON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

IXCELLERATE

IXcellerate, one of the leading Russian Tier III commercial data centre operators in Moscow, is attracting global hypercloud operators into Europe's largest internet market

W

hat are the prerequisites for a successful entrepreneur? The ability to gain the confidence of investors is up there. Before

he ventured into the Russian market in 1998, Guy Willner had already raised seed capital and sub12

sequent funding for his first data centre company IXEurope, floating it on the LSE, surviving the burst of the dotcom bubble and eventually selling to Equinix for £555m. That’s a story in itself, however by 2008, having walked away from the job of European President for Equinix, he was looking for a new challenge. Another characteristic common among entrepreneurs is drive, ambition. Willner comes over more laid back than driven – in his case the driver is creativity. Both his parents were artists, and though their four sons all chose engineering, he says that in his case the creative gene has been a major asset, giving him the imagination to think differently and not to be daunted by entering uncharted territory.

The founding of IXcellerate certainly required these qualities. Already on the board of a number FEBRUARY 2021

2011

Year founded

100

Number of employees

13

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

IXCELLERATE

“ PEOPLE DON’T REALISE THIS IS A COUNTRY TWICE THE SIZE OF THE USA OR CHINA, WITH HUGE DIVERSITY, DOZENS OF NATIONALITIES, ETHNICITIES AND CULTURES” 14

— Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

of companies including Teraco in South Africa, he was approached by the European Bank to chair a Russian data centre company. Thanks to the GFC that funding fell through but the opportunities presented by Russia, clearly an underserved market, had taken his interest. He teamed up with Clifford Gauntlett – a Russian speaker with 25 years’ experience working with tech companies there – to found IXcellerate and raise the capital required to build out some serious data centre capacity in Moscow. It wasn’t easy to find the right location, and they looked at at least 100 sites; however they now have a prime position inside Moscow’s equivalent of London’s M25 and were able to secure first-rate partners such as Arup and Mercury Engineering to execute the project.

There were many reasons why Moscow remained an underinvested market despite Russia’s evident global importance. Foremost among these was a perception among western players that the country is a country with alien customs, philosophy and unreliable business practices. “People

FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Guy Willner Title: CEO

Company: Information Technology & Services

Guy Willner, co-founder and CEO of IXcellerate, is one of the leading international experts in the field of building and operating data centers. He is regularly named among top-50 most influential people in the data center, cloud computing and big data industry within EMEA ( Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Guy has been holding senior positions in high-tech and big data companies for over 20 years. In 1998, he founded IXEurope, starting with the construction of a data center in the suburbs of London and after nine years running a network of 14 data centers in Western Europe. In 2007, IX Europe was acquired for $ 555 million

by Equinix, the undisputed market leader in data centers around the world.

After gaining industry experience Guy started to explore Emerging Markets and created IXcellerate. Known for his charisma, “out of the box” thinking and deep understanding of the market, Guy’s influence over the data centre market continues to grow, holding Non- Executive Board position with Lambda Helix in Greece and co-founding IXAfrica in Kenya. With IDC-G group chair Guy is frequently asked to advise newcomers and investors on market trends and data centre global development.

Guy graduated in 1986 from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc in Engineering. When time allows, he enjoys sailing and playing guitar. da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

15

IXCELLERATE

16 are frightened of Russia,” says Willner.

does not mean relinquishing control

“People are happy enough to invest in

of a customer’s IT systems, and it’s

Singapore and the Middle East where

also his job to explain to IT people

democracy is not much in evidence.

that they still retain control of their

They may say: ‘Russians look like us so

systems, which will be more effectively

why don’t they behave like us?’ They

and securely located than they ever

don’t realise this is a country twice

could be by keeping them close. But

the size of the USA or China, with

Russia is now not merely catching up

huge diversity, dozens of nationalities,

but leapfrogging in many ways, with

ethnicities and cultures.” Like many

interesting e-banking innovations, very

emerging economies, he adds, Russia

fast technological development and

has been wary of outsourcing with a

even self-driving taxis being trialled

strong inclination to keep its data in-

on its streets. All this is inexorably

house. His team has been explaining

driving a new data centre revolution,

why outsourcing makes sense, that it

Willner believes.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ EURASIA PEERING IS A THE BEATING HEART OF THE DATA CENTRE” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

by Sumitomo Corporation, which had been investing in Russia for more than 60 years. “It was a fight as it always is

That’s now, but against this back-

in Russia,” he admits. "But that draws

ground it was quite an achievement

the best out of you, just as creative art-

to get serious backers for his project.

ists are often at their best when they

Nevertheless after talking fruitlessly to

are swimming against the tide of fash-

the European Bank for Reconstruction

ion or even perceived common sense.”

and Development (EBRD), in 2012 the

There have been setbacks, for

World Bank through its subsidiary the

example when his co-founder and

International Finance Corporation

business partner Cliff Gauntlett died

(IFC) came on board, soon followed

in 2014, of a heart attack at the age

IXcellerate Campus - 3D Overview CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:30

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

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IXCELLERATE

18

“ IN NINE YEARS WE HAVE COME FROM BEING THE OUTSIDER, THE FOREIGN INCOMER, TO BEING THE NUMBER TWO DATA CENTRE PLAYER IN THE WHOLE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate FEBRUARY 2021

six years has been impressive.

“Goldman Sachs came in as an investor in 2017, so now we are a very big business with over $100m invested, I00 staff on our books and more than 150 customers. In nine years we have come from being the outsider, the foreign incomer, to being the number two data centre player in the whole of the Russian Federation.”

Since 2016 Guy Willner has also been CEO of Eurasia Peering IX, which enables telecom operators, cloud solution providers, system integrators, content delivery networks (CDNs), ISPs, hosting companies, social networks and the like to exchange traffic seamlessly and optimise traffic routes.

“Eurasia Peering is the beating heart of the data centre. Peering is like a market place but instead of goods you bring content to the marketplace and of just 53. “Cliff knew everyone in the

connect it to users who may be on six

business so I felt very much on my own

or seven different mobile or broad-

when he died so unexpectedly.” It was

band networks, all connected to that

providential though that at the time the

internet exchange (IX), which is basi-

company was hiring a Russian CFO,

cally a collection of networks, network

Dmitry Fokin who was able to take over

operators and content providers - so

the reins of management. The build-up

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Alibaba and

of the business over the intervening

Tencent which are all on our Eurasia da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

19

IXCELLERATE

Peering platform and a host of content providers like Wildberries ('Russia's Amazon') are present on the Eurasia Peering platform and able to exchange information with one another.”

The first data centre, Moscow One, was housed in a 6,000 sq m warehouse, on a leased site, he explains.

“We fitted a small part of it out as a data centre, started putting customers in there, raised more equity and fitted out more till the entire warehouse was full.” Today Moscow One 20

has 1,835 rack spaces and a power capacity of 13.7 MW. Soon an adjacent site also with a warehouse on it became Moscow Two, with 1,580 rack spaces and an additional 13,5 MW power. Moscow Two was inaugurated on October 3, 2019 by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, someone who is well known in Russia as Chairman of the Russo-British Chamber of

and chatting to everyone, insisting

Commerce. “Our Russian guests

on spending more time with the junior

were dumbfounded. Prince Michael

staff than with the leadership!”

is a Romanov by descent, a fluent

The first ten percent of building a

Russian speaker who is very popu-

business in an emerging market takes

lar in Russia – he gave a speech in

five years, Willner estimates. It then

Russian and then spent over an hour

takes two years to build up the next

and a half walking round the facility

40% and maybe 18 months to achieve

FEBRUARY 2021

“WE ARE POSITIONED VERY MUCH AS THE MAJOR WESTERN PLAYER IN RUSSIA, THOUGH WE ARE INDEED A LOCAL RUSSIAN BUSINESS” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

the remaining 50%. “We started with

USA; after that the market began to

a little data centre. Then we found we

really take off so we had to build out

were getting customers colocating

five times that capacity and complete

with us, customers such as Bloomberg,

Moscow One. Suddenly we had

Refinitiv, Orange Business Services,

some big Asian hypercloud clients

Rackspace, NTT and many other

like Tencent and Huawei asking for

e-commerce and financial services

all the capacity we could provide. Our

companies from Europe and the

total capacity on the Moscow North da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

21

IXCELLERATE

22

campus is now 26.5 MW. “It's like

to put another 15 MW of IT load, that

expanding an airport, you try to build

equates to about 25 MW of grid power,

close to where you are: with all the

so the power capacity just on that

infrastructure already there it makes

Moscow North campus will grow from

sense to build your third runway along-

about 26 to 50 MW.�

side the others. Likewise if you have

The final push will start early in

all the networks coming in and upward

2021 with the acquisition of a site in

of 150 customers in your data centre it

the south of the city, a leap ahead

makes sense to build more capacity on

for this fast growing company. Here

that site. We have signed for another

he expects to end up with a further

parcel of land where we are going

potential of 150 MW, which should be

FEBRUARY 2021

23

sufficient for the next 5 to 10 years

reference player, with the regulatory

allowing IXcellerate to remain at an

and sanctions compliance, anti corrup-

optimum scale for the market. “We

tion verification and other security they

are positioned very much as the major

need – and they trust me too because I

western player in Russia, though we

have been in the industry since 1998!

are indeed a local Russian business so any new international customer of the nature of Booking.com, Apple or Nvidia with their new AI platforms, wishing to come into Russia will need to come to us because because we are the da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

CLOUD

A new era for the cloud WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

Industry experts reflect on the changing data centre landscape and the future of cloud.

24

T

he past year has had a profound impact on the enthusiasm with which the global economy has embraced the cloud. As we

approach the first anniversary of life beneath the shadow of COVID-19, the effect of the pandemic on the data centre industry is growing more pronounced. “Thanks to an exponential increase in demand for content delivery in entertainment, education and commerce, 2020 saw a huge spike in demand for data,” says Brian Johnson, global data centre leader at ABB. With lockdowns continuing to require millions of people to work from home, as well as deepening our collective dependency on digital services, data centres have become increasingly essential pieces of infrastructure. “They’ve been crucial to keeping businesses going and people connected,” Johnson adds.

The effects of the pandemic – twinned with the ongoing transformative influence of Industry 4.0

FEBRUARY 2021

25

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

“ Thanks to an exponential increase in demand for content delivery in entertainment, education and commerce, 2020 saw a huge spike in demand for data” — Brian Johnson, Global data centre leader, ABB

– have accelerated a global shift away from enterprise data centres towards the cloud. Over the past year, the data centre industry has split in two, as hyperscale and cloud platform providers have grown, and enterprise spending has fallen. With hyperscalers already scrambling to keep pace with growing demand, Johnson warns that the trend shouldn’t be expected to slow down this year. “It’s difficult to see this decreasing as we look ahead to 2021, as changes to the way we live, work and socialise are set to continue,” he predicts. “Greater connectivity brought about by advances in 5G, including the launch of new 5G compatible devices like the iPhone 12, and greater use of AI and machine learning, is also set to have a huge impact on data centres.”

INSATIABLE DEMAND In a recent report, Gartner predicted that, after experiencing a 10.3% drop in 2020, data centre spending will rebound in 2021. This year, total investment in new and ongoing projects is expected to grow by 6% to reach more than $200bn.

The majority of the decline in 2020, noted Gartner senior research director Naveen da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

27

CLOUD

The Shift to Hyperscale Data Centre spending declined by 10.3% in 2020 Data Centre spending is projected to grow by 6% in 2021 Colocation services will grow at a CAGR of 14.8% between 2020 and 2030

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Worldwide public cloud enduser spending will grow by 18% in 2021

Mishra, is due to larger enterprise data centre sites “hitting pause temporarily,” before resuming in 2021. “However,” he added, “hyperscalers will continue with their global expansion plans due to continued investments in public cloud.”

Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner, noted in another industry report that, “The ability to use on-demand, scalable cloud models to achieve cost efficiency and business continuity is providing the impetus for organisations to rapidly accelerate their digital business transformation plans. The increased use of public cloud services has reinforced

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Hyperscalers will continue with their global expansion plans due to continued investments in public cloud” — Naveen Mishra, Senior research director, Gartner

Continent 8 has experienced the global surge in cloud demand over the past 12 months, particularly driven by a spike in media consumption. “The use of public cloud services continues to grow,” says Stafford, noting that customers increasingly seek out the comprehensive services that the public cloud provides

cloud adoption to be the ‘new normal,’

in order to increase agility and reduce

now more than ever.”

OpEx, as well as gaining access to quick

Keith Stafford, head of cloud architecture at Continent 8 Technologies, agrees with the assessment. With more

burst capacity in order to handle spikes in demand.

The ability to help customers respond

than 60 data centres across Europe,

to these spikes in demand for data

APAC and North and South America,

services has been a hallmark of 2020.

Johnson notes that, “this demand for data has resulted in a real shift in several areas – data centres have had to become increasingly agile to respond to different demand peaks, while maintaining high levels of security and sustainability.” Across the board, however, increased digital transformation and technological innovation are continuing to mount pressure upon data centre operators; by 2026, 5G is expected to account for 54% of all mobile data traffic, reaching a total of 226 exabytes per month; the growth of the internet of things (IoT) is predicted da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

29

CLOUD

to include 37bn connected connected devices by 2025; and the increased use of data centres for big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning based high performance computing (HPC) and quantum computing workloads. “And, as with all sectors, they have had to do this while its workforce adapts to new ways of working,” adds Johnson.

HANDLING AI, IOT, 5G AND HPC In tandem with the ongoing search for a “new normal” amid the COVID-19 pan30

demic, the influence of 5G rollouts, IoT expansion, and increasing adoption of AI and HPC solutions across the digital economy have the potential to put immense strain on cloud service providers and data centre operators.

“Content delivery networks are going to require more and more storage with the roll-out of 5G, and more network speed to avoid latency,” says Johnson. “We’ve seen TVs go to 4G, and YouTube is accepting 8G and 12G video already. Normal video is about 1G, so for every second that’s 12,000 times more information. It’s a tremendous amount of throughput, so the strain on the network will increase, FEBRUARY 2021

“ Just like 4G spawned transformational change in transportation with Lyft and Uber, 5G will bring transformational new capabilities and business opportunities “ — Kevin Deierling, SVP, NVIDIA Networking

and data centres will need to respond.”

Data centre operators in 2021 and beyond won’t merely have to contend with the growing network load caused by 5G. According to Kevin Deierling, senior vice president of NVIDIA Networking, the effects of adopting the next generation of communications technology have the potential to be even more transformative.

“Just like 4G spawned transformational change in transportation with Lyft and Uber, 5G will bring transformational new capabilities and business opportunities,” he explains. “It won’t happen all at once, but you’ll start to see the beginnings of companies seeking to take advantage of the confluence of AI, 5G and new computing platforms.”

AI and HPC are also increasing the demands placed upon data centre operators, as increasingly complex IT loads are being moved to the cloud. Stafford notes that, so far, “the HPC Industry has been slow to embrace cloud,” adding that because “HPC Infrastructure is expensive, complex to setup and maintain, right sizing that environment is a difficult process.” However, he notes that cloud service providers have responded well to demand, and da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

31

CLOUD

“ HPC Infrastructure is expensive, complex to setup and maintain; right-sizing that environment is a difficult process” — Keith Stafford, Head of cloud architecture, Continent 8 Technologies are starting to offer more solutions tailored to the HPC industry’s needs, like “investment in specialised hardware and solutions, which can be 32

consumed in multiple options such as spot instances, reserved instances and hosts to better control costs.”

REACHING MATURITY The pressures of the past year have thrown unprecedented challenges at consumers, enterprises alike. As data centre operators continue to respond

grown from an ‘IT support system’ to

and adapt to increased demand for

an on-demand scalable service, a truly

data and cloud services in response

mission critical industry that enables

to industry trends and the continuing

economies to keep working and families

pandemic, Johnson believes that the

to stay connected,” he says, noting that,

sector is reaching a new era of maturity.

while this is creating new opportuni-

“As a result of our ever-increasing thirst

ties for data centre and cloud platform

for data, 2020 has seen a real maturing

operators, these exciting new develop-

of the data centre landscape. It has

ments will also generate their share of

FEBRUARY 2021

33

challenges, “particularly in protecting

journey from the enterprise to the

against cyber threats and managing

cloud. Bill Fenick, vice president

the impact of digital infrastructure on

of enterprise at Interxion: A Digital

our planet.”

Realty Company, reflects that,

Stafford notes that, for all data

“There is a firm understanding that

centre customers, “moving to the

cloud is the future for almost all

cloud is a journey, not the destina-

enterprises,” adding that “There is

tion.” Much like its customer base,

no “one-size-fits-all” methodology –

the data centre industry is on a

and indeed, a lot of trial and error.” da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

TECHNOLOGY

THE FUTURE IS

WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENE AR

OPEN SOURCE 34

FEBRUARY 2021

Steve Helvie of the OCP Foundation talks efficiency and sustainability through the adoption of open source data centre design Open source software has been an important aspect of technological development for decades. The ability to create, peer review and release code and applications to the community at large accelerates the pace of innovation. However, until relatively recently, it was rare to find organisations and enterprises taking the same approach to hardware.

In 2009, Facebook undertook a fundamental transformation of the way it approached its digital infrastructure.

“As they began to outgrow their infrastructure, they made the decision to start building their own data centres,” explains Steve Helvie, VP of channel development at the OpenCompute Project Foundation (OCP) “As they started to look at that process, they outlined a number of factors for building a facility from the ground up. They were looking at what they could get rid of – what a data centre doesn’t need – how to run servers hotter and so on.”

A small team spent two years building a hyperscale data centre which ended up being 38% more energy efficient to build and 24% less expensive to run than the company’s previous facilities. Following the project’s success, Facebook spun out the Open Compute Project in collaboration with Intel, Rackspace, Goldman Sachs and Andy Bechtolsheim. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

35

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36

Learn More

“ No one had open-sourced hardware and data centre designs like that before” — Steve Helvie, OCP Foundation

companies and Bechtolsheim. In 2020, the foundation’s revenues rose beyond $5bn (excluding revenues reported by its member companies) and, by 2023, the OCP’s revenues are forecasted to reach $11.8bn. Together, the OCP’s members are working on

“They took the process one step

changing the face of the data centre

further; they open-sourced their results

landscape. “We currently have over

to a foundation and a community,

200 companies, and over 8,000

which was pretty much unheard of at

engineers working across 25-30

the time,” Helvie continues. “At the

different common problems throughout

time, open source software was quite

the data centre,” says Helvie.

37

prevalent, but no one had open-sourced hardware and data centre designs

THE OCP PROCESS

like that.”

The OCP’s contribution process is

Today, the OCP’s board of directors comprises seven members – six

similar to extant methodologies for open-sourcing software, but also

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

TECHNOLOGY

exercises tighter controls over the process than, for example, an open source platform like GitHub. “Companies will make a contribution to our open community. Contributors will come together and submit a specification for a cable, switch, rack, etc. That specification is then circulated within its particular project community, which then votes on it,” explains Helvie. “Any piece of approved hardware that ends up on our website has been through a really rigorous review process.”

38

Once approved, the specification is made into a physical product. In order to prevent itself from becoming a vast library of hardware specifications that aren’t available on the market, the OCP adds an interesting stipulation. “One of the things that we’re quite diligent about is that, if you submit a contribution to the OCP, you have to have a supply chain ready to deliver the product within 100 days of the specification being approved,” says Helvie.

SIMPLE, ELEGANT AND EFFICIENT The design philosophy behind OCP innovations is one of extreme simplicFEBRUARY 2021

“ We currently have over 200 companies, and over 8,000 engineers working across 25-30 different common problems throughout the data centre” — Steve Helvie, OCP Foundation

ity and efficiency. “A lot of companies

of the public cloud out there is running

out there – particularly software as a

open hardware. Huge, over-engi-

service companies – don’t want or

neered Tier III data centres just aren’t

need a Tier III data centre. They’re

necessary,” Helvie says. “We ap-

running hybrid clouds and want their

proach an OCP-optimised data centre

private cloud to look very similar to

from a point of view where, instead of

their public cloud environment. Most

packing in additional systems, redundancies, bells and whistles, we ask what it is we don’t need.”

For example, a traditional data centre server rack might use eight 40mm fans for in-rack cooling. An OCP rack, by contrast, uses just two 80mm fans.

This enables the two larger fans to keep the rack at the same temperature while reducing the amount of energy consumed by 7/8th (according to the fan cube law).

OCP hardware is designed to have as few components as possible, with a firm emphasis on modularity. “OCP

“ Any piece of approved hardware that ends up on our website has been through a really rigorous review process” — Steve Helvie, OCP Foundation da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

39

TECHNOLOGY

OCPREG19 – Operationalizing a Global, Circular IT Industry is Both Our Opportunity and Imperative CLICK TO WATCH | 25.49

40 hardware needs to be tool-less. Techni-

for 8% of the world’s energy demands

cians need to be able to repair or replace

by 2030, the need for the industry to

a part of a broken server without using a

decarbonise its facilities has never

tool, and complete the process in under

been greater. Brain Johnson, global

three to four minutes,” Helvie says. As a

data centre leader at ABB, notes that,

result, the server-to-technician ratio in

“Although data centres have managed

an OCP data centre is significantly

to keep their collective power demand

lower than in a traditional facility.

at about 2% of the world’s electricity

Facebook’s open-source designed

use [so far], their energy consumption

facilities – like its hyperscale data

could grow exponentially as demand

centres in Prineville, Oregon – employ

increases. Therefore, data centers

one technician for every 40,000 servers.

will need to implement every possible strategy to maximize their energy

CREATING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

efficiency.” Open source design

With data centres expected to account

principles have the potential to play

FEBRUARY 2021

C H AYO R A TJ1: O CP RE ADY

In October of last year, Chayora’s TJ1 hyperscale facility became the first data centre in China to be OCP-Ready. Located in the Chinese city of Tianjin the facility has a capacity of 25,000 racks and up to 300 MVA of gross power. TJ1 is also strategically located near enough to Beijing’s central business district to provide latencies averaging less than 2 milliseconds per round trip. It has an average power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.2, and is cloud and carrier neutral.

“An OCP Ready data centre has been through a thorough peer review process and achieved recognition for implementing the industry’s best practices

for efficiency and scale. These facilities provide cost and efficiency-optimised operation now and well into the future,” commented Mark Dansie, leader of the OCP Ready program.

Helvie added that, “As the momentum for open hardware designs continues to grow in north Asia, having data centers that are optimised for OCP designs becomes increasingly important. Having Chayora as our first OCP Ready data center in China ensures those enterprises deploying OCP solutions that they will have a strong data center operator who understands open hardware and is committed to openness, scale and efficiency.”

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

41

TECHNOLOGY

“ D ata centers will need to implement every possible strategy to maximize their energy efficiency” — Brian Johnson, ABB

system, disassemble it and move it into

a leading role in that process, not only

the secondary market,” Helvie explains.

by designing increasingly efficient

"What they’ve started doing recently, in

hardware, but also by driving the

response to removing whole racks at a

industry towards adopting a more

time from hyperscalers like Facebook, is

circular economy.

use a team of engineers to sanitise and

With upgrade cycles getting shorter,

42

would remove a server from the

install new applications on a whole rack

as technologies like AI and high perfor-

of servers for resale.” ITRenew then sells

mance computing (HPC) drive data

these racks to companies looking to

centre operators to regularly refit in

reduce their carbon footprint. “ If you’re a

order to increase density, the industry

company with emissions targets, buying

has a huge problem with e-waste.

second-user hardware is going to go a

“Hyperscale data centre operators are

long way towards meeting those goals,”

getting rid of thousands and thousands

he says. The possibilities for sustainable

of used servers every year,” says Helvie.

circular economic practice don’t stop

Operators like Facebook, Google and

there. In November, ITRenew partnered

Microsoft will discard thousands of racks

with Blockheating on a new project in

with each successive upgrade cycle,

Amsterdam. Using second-user

which are growing shorter with each

servers recovered from a hyperscale

passing year. He adds that, “Most of

facility, packaged into an edge-scale

these servers leaving hyperscale data

container unit and refitted with liquid

centres at the end of a hardware cycle

cooling technology, excess heat.

are less than three years old.” One of the

The Netherlands is home to more

OCP’s member companies, ITRenew,

than 3,700 hectares of commercial

has worked for years in the e-waste

greenhouse space. According to

disposal space. “Traditionally, they

Blockheating, the excess heat is

FEBRUARY 2021

enough to help grow “tonnes” of

adoption move from cloud service

tomatoes every year in a single

providers into telecoms and now

greenhouse, while even further

down again into the large scale

reducing the carbon footprint of

enterprise,” reflects Helvie. As with

the data centres.

most hardware cycles, open source adoption takes time. It’s not like a

THE FUTURE IS OPEN SOURCE

software update I can download and

“Over the last three years, we’ve seen

have up and running in an afternoon.”

open source adoption move from

However, the pace of adoption the

cloud service providers into tele-

OCP is experiencing in the enterprise

coms and now down again into the

space is faster than expected. “It’s

large scale enterprise. As with most

still a relatively new idea, this ap-

hardware cycles, open source

proach to buying open hardware and

adoption takes time. It’s not like a

using open source concepts. It’s

software update I can download and

really interesting to watch this

have up and running in an afternoon,”

industry shift from open software

Helvie reflects” to “Over the last

towards open hardware and how it’s

three years, we’ve seen open source

impacting the data centre.” da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

43

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

POWERING THE FUTURE WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENE AR

44

FEBRUARY 2021

45

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

FROM INCREASED EFFICIENCY TO INNOVATIONS IN POWER PURCHASING AND ENERGY STORAGE, DATA CENTRE MAGAZINE TAKES A DEEP DIVE INTO THE FUTURE OF POWERING THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY As the demand for data – the therefore data centres – skyrockets, data centre operators are finding themselves faced with the increasing challenge of meeting insatiable demand while managing the environmental impact of their facilities.

“In today’s ‘on demand’ world, as computationally46

intensive applications such as video on demand, autonomous vehicles and advanced 5G technology grow in popularity, data centres will need to find ways to maintain a focus on sustainable progress through its partners, operations and wider value chain,” says Brian Johnson, global data centre leader at ABB. From increased efficiency to innovations in power purchasing and energy storage, Data Centre Magazine takes a deep dive into the evolving relationship between digital infrastructure demand, the dire need for sustainability, and the innovations reconciling the global hunger for data and the demand for environmental reform in a power-hungry industry.

THE ‘ON DEMAND’ WORLD Global data traffic has grown at an astonishing rate over the past two decades. At the time of the dot com FEBRUARY 2021

“ Data traffic has been growing at an astonishing rate over the years and this has been accelerated in 2020 with the shift to remote working” — Oliver Goodman, Telehouse

47

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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“ If the airline industry was able to demonstrate the same level of efficiency as the data centre sector, it would mean a 747 would be able to fly from New York to London on just 2.8 litres of fuel in around eight minutes” — Brian Johnson, ABB

the soaring number of internet connected devices is primarily due to an explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT).

From smart water metres and industrial temperature gauges to connected doorbells and home hub refrigerators, this will be the decade when every surface, object and piece of infrastructure in our cities becomes an interface with the digital world. As these machines act more and more autonomously, the way in which information is produced will radically change.

Machine to machine (M2M) connec-

crash in 2001, less than 7% of the

tions will account for half of the global

world’s population had access to the

connected devices and connections

internet. By 2017, 50% of the global

by 2023, up from 33% in 2018.

population was online and, by 2023, more than 5.3bn people around the world, representing 66% of humanity, will have access to the internet.

People aren’t the only things connecting to the internet in droves, however.

In two years time, the number of devices connected to IP networks will amount to more than triple the global population. While this trend is being partially driven by increased penetration of smartphones, tablets and personal computers in developing markets, da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

49

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

The amount of information being created, processed, transmitted and stored by these devices is set to grow at an increasingly exponential rate. The expansion of the IoT – alongside advances in AI and high performance computing (HPC), as well as a generational leap in communications networks brought on by 5G – is going to result in a world saturated and fueled by data.

In this data-driven world, data centres are set to become even more crucial pieces of infrastructure, as everything 50

from social media and e-commerce to enterprise functions and government operations progress towards the cloud.

will also be driven by the rise of 5G

The past 12 months have only acceler-

networks, the IoT and edge computing.

ated the trend, with the COVID-19

All of this is increasing the power

pandemic driving a massive spike in

consumption of our facilities, but the

remote work, online learning, video

industry is committed to improving the

streaming and e-commerce.

efficiency of their data centres.”

“Data traffic has been growing at an astonishing rate over the years and this

UNPARALLELED EFFICIENCY

has been accelerated in 2020 with the

While demand for data centre services

shift to remote working,” says Oliver

has risen dramatically over the past

Goodman, head of engineering at

few years, data centre operators have

Telehouse. “This growth will continue

managed to find innovative solutions

in 2021 with employers adapting hybrid

that have prevented power consump-

strategies where some of the work-

tion from rising in step with IT workloads.

force continue to work remotely. It

“Despite the digital acceleration and

FEBRUARY 2021

51 vast proliferation of smart devices and

by using new technology to apply

online culture, a recent study found

simple techniques – like running data

that, while data centres’ computing

centres at higher temperatures, using

output jumped six-fold from 2010 to

virtualisation to better manage unused

2018, energy consumption rose by only

servers’ electricity drain, and improv-

6%,” explains Johnson. “To give an

ing the overall efficiency of modern

idea of just how energy-efficient

CPUs – operators have managed to

data processing has become, if the

keep power demand in check. How-

airline industry was able to demon-

ever, power consumption continues to

strate the same level of efficiency,

creep up, particularly with the increas-

it would mean a 747 would be able

ing use of data centre infrastructure

to fly from New York to London on

to support AI and HPC workloads.

just 2.8 litres of fuel in around eight minutes.”

Johnson continues to explain that,

One of the major issues, Johnson notes, is that the hyper-efficient design and operation practices found in da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

52

state-of-the-art facilities aren’t

increasing efficiency and gaining

economically feasible to adopt for

better insights into power consump-

operators across the board. “There-

tion, the industry is undergoing a

fore, short-term, tactical actions are

generational transition towards

needed that can provide immediate

renewable energy sources.

benefit, yielding significant energy

David Watkins, solutions director for

savings in total power usage and

VIRTUS Data Centres, notes that a

cost,” he explains. “This can range

great deal of progress towards renewa-

from minimising idle IT equipment,

bles adoption has already been made

virtualising servers and storage,

in the UK market, with the trend set to

managing CPU power usage and

gather even more momentum over the

distributing power at different voltages.”

coming year. “Renewables are already widely used within the data centre

POWERING THE FUTURE

industry, and this will increase further

As we enter 2021, the data centre

as the grid moves more towards

industry has the potential to make

renewable energy in the future,” he

huge strides towards reducing its

says. The increased use of renewable

carbon emissions. In addition to

energy has the potential to even

FEBRUARY 2021

U N D ERSTAN DI N G PU E

Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio used to determine how efficiency a data centre uses energy. The metric was originally developed by the Green Grid consortium and first published as a methodology in 2016. A data centre running at 100% efficiently would have a PUE of 1. Currently, the industry standard for data centres is a PUE of around 1.67.

Largely, PUE is agreed upon to be a useful way to measure the efficiency with which a data centre consumes energy.

However, it’s worth noting that a low PUE can sometimes be misleading if used as the sole measurement of a data centre’s sustainability.

Paul Nelson, strategist and director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, notes that PUE is greatly affected by “exterior and interior factors,” adding that a data centre’s PUE

is “relative and varies over time” due to factors like IT utilisation, environmental factors like the time or year or current weather, the hardware used to cool the data centre, and stage of the data centre in its build out.

“The only problem with using PUE as a metric is that there is more than one way to calculate it, making it difficult to compare one facility with another,” notes Johnson, positing that, “What is needed are performance metrics that are more holistic than PUE in measuring data centre efficiency. The key limitation of PUE is that it measures the overall efficiency of an entire building infrastructure supporting a given data centre, indicating nothing about the efficiency of the IT equipment itself. IT efficiency, on the other hand, is the total IT output of a data centre divided by the total input power to IT equipment.”

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

53

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

54

“ The removal of fossil fuel powered equipment from the data centre would be the last stop on the road to a fully renewable future” — David Watkins, VIRTUS Data Centres

FEBRUARY 2021

further drive down the carbon cost of operating digital infrastructure.

According to Watkins, “The removal of fossil fuel powered equipment from the data centre would be the last stop on the road to a fully renewable future.”

While the process of eliminating fossil fuels from data centres remains a long-term goal, continued increases in efficiency and the effectiveness of cooling and power systems are expected to continue having a pronounced impact on the short term.

“As we enter a new year, we believe we will see the quest for efficiency go into overdrive. Adopting a life-cycle carbon footprint approach means that we are already moving away from a purely return-on-investment mindset to a culture of incremental efficiency and a Six-Sigma type commitment to driving down waste,” says Johnson.

“By adopting a focused approach and investing in the most effective technologies to manage power consumption, data centre operators can make the most of the opportunities the ‘decade of data’ will bring and make every watt count.”

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

55

T O P 10

56

FEBRUARY 2021

The Top 10 Data Centre Real Estate Companies From hyperscale operators to REITs, these are the biggest firms currently investing in the data centre real estate market.

57

The world runs on data. The combined effects of 5G adoption, expansion of the Internet of Things, and a global pandemic have seen global data traffic soar over the past 12 months, and the demand for cloud services has responded accordingly. The data centre industry has been one of the lucky few to benefit from the COVID-19 crisis, elevating an already stratospheric growth trajectory. In addition to the

managed services, software, construction and hardware infrastructure industries associated with the data centre market, real estate (one of the largest expenses associated with a data centre, along with cooling and power) has reaped the rewards.

This month, Data Centre Magazine is bringing you our list featuring the Top 10 Data Centre Real Estate Companies.

WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

58

10

$7.6bn MARKET CAP

HQ

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

CEO

WILLIAM MEANEY

Iron Mountain

The Boston-based firm started out as a secure storage provider and in the last few years has cleverly identified data centres as a complementary area of investment. The company has quickly grown its portfolio to include 15 data centres, mostly located in the US, with three in Europe and one in Singapore. With secure storage and data centre facilities built into decommissioned mine shafts and nuclear bunkers, Iron Mountain is certainly one of the most interesting players in the data centre real estate space.

FEBRUARY 2021

$3.8bn MARKET CAP

HQ

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS

CEO CHAD WILLIAMS

09

QTS Realty Trust 59

With an extensive portfolio of 26 facilities spanning more than 7mn square feet of owned data centre floor space across North America and Europe, QTS Realty Trust is one of the industry’s leading providers of colocation and enterprise data centre solutions. As of Q3 2020, QTS Realty Trust controlled $3.68bn in assets under management and provides dedicated connectivity and infrastructure services to more than 1,200 customers.

QTS Realty Trust is the smallest of the US’ five major REITs.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

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To learn more about the American Express Corporate Program, visit www.americanexpress.com.

FEBRUARY 2021

HQ

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

CEO

DAVID C. RUBERG

08

61

Interxion Holding Acquired in October of 2019 as part of an $8.4bn transaction, Interxion is the European arm of Digital Realty. The company operates over 50 data centre facilities throughout 11 European countries and its clients have access to Digital Realty’s portfolio of more than 280 data centres worldwide. The company uses its large scale portfolio of multiple sites to provide carrier-neutral colocation services, connecting its customers to more than 400 individual carriers and ISPs, as well as 18 internet exchanges throughout Europe.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

07

CoreSite Realty

One of a small cadre of real estate investment trusts directly focused on handling data centre infrastructure investments, CoreSite was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Denver Colorado. The company invests, owns and operates 24 data centres across eight markets in the United States. CoreSite’s majority owner, the Carlyle Group, further sold down its holdings in the company in August of 2020.

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$5.36bn MARKET CAP

HQ

DENVER, COLORADO

CEO

PAUL E. SZUREK

FEBRUARY 2021

$60.8bn MARKET CAP

06

HQ

TORONTO, CANADA

CEO BRUCE FLATT

63

Brookfield One of the world’s largest asset management firms, Brookfield has been a dominant player in the digital infrastructure space for over a decade. Brookfield has invested heavily in the data centre space, notably securing the $1.1bn purchase of AT&T’s colocation business through its subsidiary Evoque. Across its infrastructure portfolio, Brookfield commands more than $91bn in assets. The company has investments in 52 data centres, as well as 20,000km of supporting fibre infrastructure.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

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The Department of Defense trusts the cloud with the most tools, technology, and accessibility at the tactical edge.

www.BuildOn.aws FEBRUARY 2021

$33.47bn MARKET CAP

HQ

SHANGHAI, CHINA

CEO

WILLIAM WEI HUANG

05

65

GDS Holdings

As the biggest third-party data centre brand in the Chinese market, GDS Holdings has had a fantastic 2020. The country’s data centre sector is projected to grow at a CAGR of 26% over the next four years. GDS Holdings, which operates a large portfolio of Tier III+ data centres in China’s busiest markets, is poised to capitalise on the trend. At the close of Q3 2020, GDS Holdings’ data centre assets under management covered 279,618 sqm, compared with 198,097 sqm a year earlier. The company has received backing from the likes of SoftBank, CyrusOne, STT and Ping An Insurance.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

04

$3.79bn MARKET CAP

HQ

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

CEO ROB ROY

Switch Switch is a breed unto itself. While in many ways the Las Vegasbased firm rivals some of the biggest data centre players in the industry, Switch’s legendary tech industry CEO Rob Roy has taken the company in a very different direction. Concentrated at four megalithic campuses in the four corners of the US, Switch

66

has built a quartet of massive, hyper-modern data centre campuses that stand alone in terms of both size and technological sophistication. Switch has even gone so far as to establish its own quality certification, Tier V Platinum.

FEBRUARY 2021

$8.46bn MARKET CAP

HQ

DALLAS, TEXAS

CEO

BRUCE DUNCAN

03

67

Cyrusone

Founded in 2001, CyrusOne operates a network of more than 50 data centres across North America, Europe, Latin America and APAC. CyrusOne’s operating strategy emphasises its agile and rapid supply chain, which allows it to move from the design process to spinning up new data centres in shorter amounts of time, a strategy which has conspired to make it the third-largest data centre provider in the US market. Microsoft represents the company’s largest customer, accounting for more than 21% of its gross revenues in 2019.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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T O P 10

$37.85bn MARKET CAP

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

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MarketplaceLIVE 2020 Kick-Off: Global Welcome CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

|

1:49

HQ

CEO BILL STEIN

Digital Realty Trust Digital Realty is one of the world’s leading data centre brands . Structured as a real estate investment trust, the San Francisco-based company operates a network of more than 280 data centres in 22 countries through its Platform Digital offering, which launched in late 2019. In March of 2020, Digital Realty completed an $8.4bn acquisition of European data centre operator Interxion, making it the region’s largest colocation company with a combined European capacity of more than 440MW.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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T O P 10

ESG 360: Deploying & Interconnecting Infrastructure at Software Speed CLICK TO WATCH

|

4:49

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$63.49bn MARKET CAP

HQ

REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA

CEO

CHARLES J. MEYERS

FEBRUARY 2021

Equinix With more than 210 data centres in 25 countries on five continents, the Equinix brand has become synonymous with colocation and cloud-based data centre services over the past two decades, representing one of the largest and fastest-growing players in the data centre real estate sector. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Equinix restructured itself as a REIT back in January 2015. Since then, the company has grown dramatically, both through acquisitions and construction projects. In October, Equinix completed a $780mn acquisition of 13 Canadian data centres from Bell, bringing its total footprint in the country to 15. Later in 2020, the company opened a string of new international business exchanges (IBX), including its first IBX in the Sultanate of Oman, its fifth facility in Singapore, and two new facilities in the Northern Virginia/ Washington DC area, which together represented an investment of more than $200mn in real estate and construction.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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74

Moving up to the hybrid cloud WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

FEBRUARY 2021

75

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

NTT LTD.

How NTT Ltd. is helping CIO/VPs and CFOs achieve business continuity, compliance, and security with the delivery of business-critical applications in the hybrid cloud

NTT Ltd. is an integral part of the global growth story of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) – one of the largest telcos and ICT companies in the world. In the Americas, NTT Ltd. employs more than 7,500 people 76

in a diverse and dynamic workplace. As part of a larger global organization, they have a footprint that spans 57 countries while delivering services in over 200 countries and regions.

“Being the number three data center provider with one of the largest networks in the world, and providing over 50% of global internet traffic, puts us in a unique position to provide our clients with an unparalleled solution set of infrastructure, network, and security allied to application expertise,” explains Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd. “Being a global SAP and Oracle partner, allows us to provide full-stack services for our clients connected globally with all of our low latency networks from marine cables linking Asia to the US market.”

FEBRUARY 2021

77

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

Do More With Data MSP Solutions to Accelerate Your Cloud Services Everyone knows that an organization’s success is driven by its data. Pure Storage delivers a modern data experience supporting businesses Data Transformation projects.

Our solutions empowers your business to drive differentiation,reduce complexity, and enable your hybrid cloud.

NTT Managed Services and Pure Storage partner together for providing world-class storage solutions and enable managed IT operations, application hosting, security, cloud and comprehensive managed multicloud services to enterprises worldwide.

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Pure Storage: Data delivered at scale anywhere, everywhere

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Discover a better way to interact with your data through storage that’s modern, easy to manage and offers flexible ways to consume Pure Storage is driving the simplicity and disruption of access to storage. Futureproofing its capabilities of simplicity, performance and ease of use allows users to be ready for the next generation of technology consumption in the cloud.

“Companies are accelerating their digital transformation journeys, but lack the skills to achieve the best outcome,” warns Jack Hogan, Pure’s Vice President of Technology Strategy.

“NTT is where that expertise is; they can help companies get to those faster outcomes by leveraging solutions like Pure Storage where we’re seeing shutdowns around the world.

A partner like NTT is critical to both provide the venue and the expertise to accelerate transformation, and allow companies the ability to be flexible in these challenging times.”

Pure offers a utility consumption model, supported by its partnership with NTT, to deliver services and solutions to joint customers focused on driving better outcomes rather than just selling products says Hogan.

“Underpinning everything we do is an all-flash technology layer that allows us to achieve sub-millisecond level response times to better manage ERP workloads down from hours to minutes.”

A Modern Data Experience In today’s world, data is the new fuel, the growth engine. However, being able to effectively access and leverage insights from that data is one of the biggest challenges companies now face. “At Pure we’re focused on creating a modern data experience,” reveals Hogan. “As much as 75% of a company’s data is never unutilized, so it’s vital to get a centralized view. Our suite of solutions and services extends both to the on-premise data centre and all the way to the edge via the cloud, offering a centralized storage platform and storage plane.”

Pure & Simple The Purity operating system operates across all of Pure’s platforms which are controlled via SaaS with Pure1. “Companies can see where their data is in all venues; whether different tiers of storage in an individual data center, or across different data centers, or even across different clouds,” pledges Hogan. “Pure is creating that interconnected tissue of how those different data points can come together as one central data hub.”

purestorage.com

NTT LTD.

“ One of the biggest issues in the market today is data latency. We start at ground level making sure your network is secure and your data is not disrupted.”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

Client Centricity Compton credits the successful disruption of companies like Uber for ushering in a business climate where if you’re not digitally transforming you could get left behind.

“We’ve had to adjust how we support our clients so we can help them with their design of the future,” he responds, noting that NTT’s clients today are looking for more than servers, storage and network capacity. “Our clients want business outcomes. They’re looking for ways to be nimble, and really execute against their

80

digital transformation strategies… Whether it’s growth within the US market, growth globally, or being able to interact with a more client-centric offering shifting from what used to be B2B2C to a more B2C approach as supply chains are disrupted.”

Banking, retail and manufacturing, to name just a few, are all sectors responding to, and ripe for, disruption following the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Compton believes this very pressure is expediting the kind of business transformations a purpose-led organisation like NTT excels at. “In current circumstances, it’s a more powerful change than ever, being able to manage your workforce, whether it’s working from home or managing them FEBRUARY 2021

81

5G & IOT Over the last four years, NTT has been in joint venture with Dell Technologies for the city of Las Vegas looking at 5G and IoT solutions for Smart Cities and remains at the forefront of these technologies through its Japanese market leading mobile operator DoCoMo. “What we’re starting to look at with 5G is how to bring siloed data platforms together.

How are cities utilizing all of the data that’s available to them to be

able to help first responders; to help with city services, provide data to city planners for smart building initiatives and to other organisations that need data to help their citizens?

A lot of our work has been around artificial intelligence and machine learning. They become successful when IoT and 5G and other technologies are aligned to the extent that they can provide data at the right time to the right people to make the right decisions.”

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

NTT LTD.

safely in a manufacturing facility,” he says.

application workloads are structured –

“In supporting those points of contact

whether they’re on premise, inside their

we’ve become the number one cyber-

four walls, co-located in another data

security company in the world capable of

center, or if they’re using Software-as-

adapting to meet our clients’ needs.”

a-Service applications (SaaS) – the data is spread across a multitude of

82

Continuity, Compliance & Security

networks along with the users,” he

The fundamental elements of connectivity

the market today is data latency. We

are network and security Compton says.

start at ground level making sure your

“At every organization, the way their

network is secure and your data is not

notes. “One of the biggest issues in

Executive Profile:

Kirk Compton Title: VP Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd. Industry: Information Technology & Services

Kirk Compton has a proven track record of continued success in delivering growth in global and regional leadership roles. A market leader in client focused solution development, delivery and management, Compton drives enterprise growth by aligning corporate strategy ahead of market conditions and ever-changing technology solutions. He has held expansive roles at NTT Ltd. providing global, regional, and vertical leadership across multiple technology platforms – including ERP, hyperscalers, private cloud and most recently Smart Solutions.

Together we do great things CLICK TO WATCH | 1:32

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“ What we’re starting to look at with 5G is how to bring siloed data platforms together. How are cities utilizing all of the data that’s available to them to be able to help first responders; to help with city services, provide data to city planners for smart building initiatives and to other organizations that need data to help their citizens?”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

disrupted. SaaS is a great opportunity for most organizations to transform, but being able to utilize data effectively and make sure our clients are performing at an optimal level really starts at the data center and the network.”

To deliver this continuity, NTT has experts on hand across the Americas working to the highest-level certifications across multiple verticals “whether it be Federal government, PCI or HIPAA” to guarantee a reliable infrastructure for its clients.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

No other SAP global partner offers Cisco’s breadth of innovations designed to power SAP environments.

Cisco SAP portfolio includes: Cisco UCS and HyperFlex integrates compute, storage, and network for cloud-like flexibility.

Cisco Tetration offers comprehensive workloadprotection capability across multicloud Cisco Intersight cloud-based manager simplifies SAP environments, making them more efficient.

Cisco Workload Optimization Manager (CWOM) scales resources up or down assuring workload performance.

AppDynamicsÂŽ SAP Monitoring Agent provides ABAP level visibility to diagnose root-cause failure and overall application performance Thousand Eyes offers a 360-degree view of your hybrid SAP deployment across cloud, SaaS, and the Internet to SAP end-users

Cisco: The leading global partner for SAP innovation Cisco offers the broadest portfolio of solutions designed to modernise on-premise and hybrid cloud SAP landscapes.

SAP is the critical operational backbone of most enterprises and often their largest IT investment.

Enterprise line of business managers demand agility to meet evolving customer requirements without compromising on security or reliability.

How do SAP enterprises protect that investment while modernising their infrastructure without disrupting established business processes?

Cisco’s tried and tested suite of SAP solutions can add new functionality to existing investments and improve performance while reducing TCO with an end-to-end modernisation approach.

Compute, Network & Software “We have the complete portfolio for SAP customers so they don’t have to deal with multiple vendors,” assures Cisco’s Saroj Mohapatra. “Cisco takes investment protection very seriously. From the beginning, our solutions have been built to provide excellent value with scalability and agility. Cisco’s flexibility allows customers to start small and incrementally grow their suite of solutions, investing only when they need to with an approach that saves on CapEx and reduces OpEx.” Cisco modernises SAP HANA and SAP legacy ERP application environments with solutions for

on-premise and multi-cloud platforms offering unified management and monitoring, multi-layered data protection, cybersecurity and policy-based automation. “Compared to our competitors we shine because we look after the network for you; resolving any issues with latency to guarantee the response time needed for best practice with SAP, both today and in the future as customers migrate to HANA,” adds Mohapatra.

Cisco is also working closely with SAP to leverage the power of AI and IoT. Elsewhere, recent acquisitions, such as AppDynamics, work seamlessly with existing solutions to detect performance issues with mission critical applications like SAP. ThousandEyes, another addition to the Cisco arsenal, offers SaaS flexibility to enhance Cisco’s network performance and monitoring capabilities across the enterprise and into the cloud.

Together, NTT, with its SAP consulting expertise, and Cisco deliver a modern and resilient solution to identify SAP customers’ needs to fuel success with competitive value.

Learn more about a robust portfolio of end-to-end SAP solutions here

NTT LTD.

“ As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we’ve got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transformation.”

86

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

data centers,” reveals Compton. “This creates a unique opportunity for us to provide our clients with a dedicated private environment in the same data center where we’re providing hyperscaled services.” Compton explains that being able to cross connect the environments inside the same facilities provides an optimal performance platform where digital latency is significantly reduced.

“Having this network acumen and expertise really puts us in the forefront of hybrid cloud,” he adds. “We can bring all of our other services – whether it be application workload, security, wide area

Hybrid Cloud

network or network-as-a-service – in a

“Traditionally, you had to buy the infra-

combination that’s unique in the market

structure to be able to grow your data

via a platform our clients can trust.”

platforms,” remembers Compton. “And now you can get those on demand.

Partnering for Success

When we look at hybrid cloud… we’re

A key component in NTT’s global

a data center company. We’ve got pri-

success and building that trust over

vate clouds for our clients, but we also

the past 23 years has been the com-

support the hyperscalers.”

pany’s alliance with Cisco. “We have

NTT recently announced a strategic

enjoyed an extensive partnership over

relationship with Microsoft with the

the years,” confirms Compton. “What’s

company moving much of its internal

been really exciting is how we’ve

workloads to the Azure cloud. “As part

grown together. My experience with

of that agreement, Azure is inside our

Cisco began when we were building

FEBRUARY 2021

WHAT THE STACK! Any organization’s needs can be met with one NTT Ltd. solution covering Enterprise Application Services; Managed Services and Managed Cloud, Data Center Network, Infrastructure and physical kit: • Digital Advisory services • Project implementation services • Application managed services • Administration services • Database managed services •O perating system managed services • Infrastructure managed services • Hardware managed services • Data Center managed services da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

87

NTT LTD.

Our best advice for 2021 CLICK TO WATCH | 1:21

88

our cloud platforms for SAP workloads.

They helped us design and build the cloud infrastructure for our Africa and Asia operations. And then as the market matured, and the shift in digital transformation occurred, Cisco has been a great partner in regards to how they build their networking services, and

1952

Year NTT founded

USD11bn NTT Ltd. global revenue

how we’ve been able to leverage their IoT capabilities.”

Cisco’s solutions, including recent acquisitions AppDynamics and ThousandEyes, are helping NTT FEBRUARY 2021

40,000

Number of NTT Ltd. employees globally

89

manage workloads from a top to bottom

2021 and beyond…

perspective with their networking capa-

NTT remains focused on maintain-

bilities and monitoring prowess. “With

ing secure networks and giving its

our stack we provide the network and

clients the ability to scale to support

security around Cisco’s UCS (Unified

increased demand. While organiza-

Computing System) infrastructure which,

tions look to meet the challenges of

in tandem with offerings from the likes

the ‘new normal’ triggered by a global

of Pure Storage and Cohesity, creates a

pandemic leaving millions working

unique opportunity where we can really

from home, NTT are on hand to deliver

drive a lot of these solutions together

the right collaboration tools to allow

paired with ERP applications to realize

them to thrive. Looking beyond to a

the outcomes our clients are looking for,”

post-COVID world, the company is

assures Compton.

working with SAP on the deadline da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

awaKen your DaTa The only data center CPU with builtin AI acceleration. The latest 2nd Gen IntelÂŽ XeonÂŽ Scalable processors feature Intel Deep Learning Boost to accelerate your AI inference up to 30x*.

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*Compared to previous generation hardware. For more complete information about performance and benchmark results, visit www.intel.com/benchmarks

The CollaboraTive Power of The eCosysTem Delivering suCCess As an industry leader with the purpose to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth, Intel has been and is at the forefront of technology growth and development, catering for all business solution needs.

Through a broad ecosystem, Intel is focused on delivering an end-to-end data portfolio that stretches from the edge to the cloud, powered by artificial intelligence all while being more secure.

All of this is enabled and achieved through the strong collaboration of the ecosystem mentioned.

An often overlooked though integral part of the ecosystem is the Service Integrators (SI), also known as Solution Integrators, like NTT Limited, who have a global alliance with Intel, where together they solve difficult challenges and deliver business outcomes.

The role of said Service / Solution Integrators is to influence IT decisions, recommend on the architectural designs and deployment across on-premise and cloud, and ultimately deliver complete end-to-end hardware and software solutions together with the broader ecosystem of OEM & ISV partners like SAP and Cisco.

With enterprises embracing artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data analytics, the solutions are required to access and handle large data sets faster, which can be addressed

by Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory (PMem) which removes I/O bottlenecks to maximize CPU utilization.

Intel & SAP have collaborated to bring Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory support to SAP HANA and Intel and the OEMs, like Cisco, have collaborated on system designs that support Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory modules allowing for a variety of configurations to suit all customer needs.

Intel and NTT Limited have collaborated for a number of years, designing solutions that meet customer needs in industries such as enterprise, manufacturing, agriculture, automotive, financial, and more all around the world, with great success being realized when forces are combined with the greater ecosystem.

It is through insights gained while working through these relationships that Intel is able to create technologies like Intel® Software Guard Extensions (SGX). SGX enhances the last part of the data journey by securing data-in-use, enabling for example AI workloads to be performed on otherwise untapped data sources. In fact, 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors are the only mainstream data center CPU with built-in AI acceleration enabling organizations to deploy highly performant applications without using complex and expensive new hardware.

By collaborating with Intel, along with Service / System Integrators like NTT Limited and the technology ecosystem clients can feel comfortable in the knowledge that their business challenges can be addressed, delivering the best possible outcomes.

This is your DaTa on inTel Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. No product or component can be absolutely secure. Your costs and results may vary. © Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

NTT LTD.

92 IOWN “We’re working on a new network called IOWN (Innovative Optical & Wireless Network) that is going to be very powerful in the industry,” reveals Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas for NTT Ltd. in the Americas. “It’s an initiative for networks and information processing infrastructure that can provide high-speed, highcapacity communication utilizing innovative technology focused on

FEBRUARY 2021

optics, as well as tremendous computational resources. With IOWN we’ve got platform services that now connect multiple clouds together and allow you to manage the network, as well as the security across those cloud platforms. When we start looking at our clients’ needs, but again more importantly, how the industry is trending, having that connectivity and creation across platforms becomes crucial.”

to migrate its clients to the new S/4 HANA solutions.

“As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we’ve got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transform,” pledges Compton. “We’ve been developing the security and migration automation tools for our clients. I think we’re at a time of transition where the maturity in the market – and the way Cisco has matured through application performance – allows us to bring a full solution; it’s the client journey we’re focused on.

Infrastructure isn’t the critical question now, it’s how your applications perform, how your revenue strategies are grow-

“ With IOWN we’ve got platform services that now connect multiple clouds together and allow you to manage the network, as well as the security across those cloud platforms.”

ing and how you’re transforming your own organization. We’re now in a unique position to be able to drive all that for our clients and execute like never before.”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

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FEBRUARY 2021

COMMUNICATIONS AND COLLABORATION FOR THE ENTERPRISE WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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S TA R 2 S TA R

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FEBRUARY 2021

President and Chief Revenue Officer Michelle Accardi discusses Star2Star’s cloud-native offering and its necessity amid COVID-19

S

tar2Star is a unified communications company that offers collaboration, voice, video and text chat integra-

tion capabilities, as well as contact centre and desktop-as-a-service offerings. Michelle Accardi is President and Chief Revenue Officer at the company, responsible for the entire sales and goto-market strategy of the organisation. “We offer a way to take companies into the cloud and great mobile applications to keep people connected, whether they’re in a work from home environment because of the pandemic or because that’s just part of the way the world is working these days.”

Star2Star’s huge experience as a communications company has stood it in good stead for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and re-emphasised the benefits of strong communication. “We’ve really taken a very agile approach to making sure that we’re doing daily calls, helping people understand where they need to be focused, overcoming whatever obstacles and giving them the focus for the next day. And then we use our great tools and

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Hear from Citrix and Star2Star on the latest productivity integrations to help you do your best work as well as the latest trends in digital transformation.

Learn more

“ We build solutions that enable companies to not just get through the pandemic, but to actually thrive” so we can remove those obstacles,” — Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

says Accardi. “It’s certainly why we’ve won workplace awards, because we foster that kind of open but hard working culture.”

everything from our own video meet-

Its approach is why it is favoured by

ings to our own mobile applications to

its customers as a solution provider,

help us all stay connected.” That use

with the highest customer retention

of technology is informed by a culture

rate in the industry at 99.4%. “We

of transparency at the organisation.

are one of the only vendors I know

“I really try to facilitate people bringing

of that focuses so much on customer

forward any challenges they’re having

retention, with our retention rate

The Future Is Here: Connect & Collaborate From Anywhere With Star2Star CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:37

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

99

S TA R 2 S TA R

100 being due to putting the customer at

months, deferments, anything to help

the centre of everything that we do,”

our customers.” The holistic nature

says Accardi. “During the pandemic,

of its solution is another key part of

for instance, we’ve rolled out many

its appeal. “There are a lot of single-

different types of programmes – free

threaded vendors out there who can

2006

Year founded

only do one thing. The fact that we can do so much is very unique to us. I don’t know of any other solution provider like Star2Star that has things like employee alerts as packaged applica-

300

Number of employees FEBRUARY 2021

tions that can be built into workflows, for example.”

Among its raft of solutions is a mobile softphone app. “It’s about being able to get a call to your business phone

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Michelle Accardi Title: President and Chief Revenue Officer Industry: Telecommunications Location: Florida, USA As President and Chief Revenue Officer, Michelle’s mission is to inspire and maintain growth for the company and its partners, ensuring that customers get significant value from Star2Star’s products and services. Michelle works with the executive leadership team of Star2Star to define long-term vision and operational strategy to assure that growth and market potential are achieved.

In pursuit of this goal, Michelle sees engaging and listening to employees, partners, and customers as a primary function of her role in order to keep Star2Star on the optimal strategic path. In this way, customer success is assured as employees and partners are inspired to deliver an excellent product and experience with every interaction.

In her previous position as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Michelle used these same methods to develop new processes and systems to streamline business interactions.

She grew departmental leadership and expanded Star2Star’s support capabilities to better serve customer and partner needs.

Michelle is also regarded as a technical thought leader in next-generation marketing and communications strategies. Her book, Agile Marketing, chronicles her experiences applying agile methodology to the marketing process for better results and faster time to value. She brought her substantial executive-level and tech industry experience with her to Star2Star, having driven innovative, agile, revenue-producing field and channel marketing programs for one of the world’s most relied upon technology companies, Computer Associates.

Michelle holds an MBA from American Intercontinental University and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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S TA R 2 S TA R

“ The fact that we can do so much is very unique to us” 102

— Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

FEBRUARY 2021

103

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

S TA R 2 S TA R

number versus your personal phone

to do things like mass marketing, or

number, right on the mobile app, while

getting information out to people like

also being able to do text messaging,

appointment reminders or curbside

or even fax via a mobile application,”

checkout, which we can help with.”

says Accardi. “You’d be surprised how

A strong enabler of the work

often different industries, whether it’s

Star2Star does is its partnership

healthcare or real estate, need that

with Citrix, with the company being

kind of thing. Those text messaging

the only UCaaS provider certified as

applications, both on mobile and on

Citrix-ready. “They have great tech-

desktop, are really game-changing in

nology that allows companies to put

the pandemic. Businesses are trying

their applications that were previously

104

FEBRUARY 2021

“ How people work and where people work is changing” are literally millions of companies and users who depend on Citrix, so

— Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

we can either provide desktop-as-a-

housed on-premise in the cloud, so

put our communications on top of the

that workers can now work from

Citrix environments they have in place.”

service from Citrix if customers don’t have that capability, or we can simply

everywhere,” says Accardi. “And it

The pandemic has accelerated

can do that in a secure manner. There

changes in the work environment,

105

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

S TA R 2 S TA R

106

with Star2Star serving as a model for how businesses may look going forwards. “Thankfully we’ve always been a cloud-based company and we’ve always had a remote workforce,” says Accardi. “So for us, having everyone go remote just as those people who aren’t in our headquarters means we can understand FEBRUARY 2021

“ We are one of the only vendors I know of that focuses so much on customer retention” — Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

or they prefer to have a mobile app that can communicate via voice, text, or fax.”

As the world bends to precisely the mode of working that Star2Star can facilitate, Accardi is clear that the company’s future is bright. “We see a future where it is going to be a mix of remote and working from home. Once vaccines come about, there will be a return of some workers to the office. But they’re going to want the flexibility to have mobile applications that enable them to work from home when they want to.”

Star2Star is perfectly positioned to allow companies to straddle that gap. “I often like to say: it’s with irritation that you make the pearl. For Star2Star, we build solutions that enable companies to not just get and give all of our customers the

through the pandemic, but to actu-

capability to go remote as well.”

ally thrive as they digitally transform

Accardi sees that as a permanent

because of it.”

change, even once the pandemic has abated. “How people work and where people work is changing. And we have a broad spectrum of solutions that can help them, whether they prefer to have a desk phone, da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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FEBRUARY 2021

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MORE THAN JUST A BUILDING AND POWER PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

WRITTEN BY

RHYS THOMAS

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

CORE DATA CENTRES

Meet industry veteran Bill Henneberry’s new firm, co-founded with Jim Nikopoulos, CEO, a nimble newcomer to Canada’s data centre landscape providing scale and custom solutions in the age of digital transformation

B

ill Henneberry designs data centres in his sleep. The Chief Technology Officer of CORE Data Centres is only half-joking,

admitting that his work, a preoccupation that extends far beyond a means to make a living, is 110

never far from his thoughts. “I’ll be going to sleep at night and I’m already designing the next day’s work,” he says. “To a certain degree I’m always thinking of a design: how it can change and how it has to evolve.”

Data centres and colocation have been a fixation of Henneberry’s “before data centres were really even around”. He’s worked at “all the big companies” and consulted at many more, before founding CORE Data Centres with Jim Nikopoulos, CEO. Core Data is a relative new entrant to the market that nonetheless boasts an agile team of specialists with near unrivalled experience. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s snowier counterpart to Silicon Valley, the business was founded 16 months

FEBRUARY 2021

2019

Year founded

15

Number of employees 111

da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

CORE DATA CENTRES

ago with the underlying philosophy that

To illustrate the point, Henneberry

data centres should be ‘more than just

considers the growing pan-industry

a building and power’ - and a promise to

adoption of artificial intelligence. The

extend these values in its approach to

nascent explosion of interest in this

working with partners.

technology brings unique complexities,

“It’s not just about having a cookie cutter approach. We are not that rigid player that says, ‘because our business

112

many of which businesses are often illequipped to tackle on their own.

“I have clients who didn’t know how to

case says X, this is all we can do to

approach AI,” he says. “So we worked

make our money’,” Henneberry explains.

with them. We put the data centre

“And it’s not just space and power; we

together for them, and then as they

need to provide the right space and the

changed their philosophies on what

right power and the right cooling - and it

they required from a digital perspective,

all extends on from there.”

we can tailor for more power or more

“ DEMAND ISN’T SLOWING DOWN IN THE DATA CENTRE WORLD” FEBRUARY 2021

— Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Bill Henneberry Title: Chief Technology Officer Company: CORE Data Centres The pandemic and organic acceleration of digital transformation at an enterprise level has yielded big business for the data centre sector.

Increased demand, and unique issues requiring equally singular solutions have kept designers and engineers busy. The fast-paced situation has placed great pressure on even the best teams juggling workloads with internal goals. But company culture and the people behind the job titles remain invaluable, Henneberry believes.

“I try to hire people that enjoy what they do. The whole environment here is: you make your bed, you say you’re going to do something, get it done, bottom line. We’re not the type of people that feel the need to micromanage.

Inevitably there will be times when the clients are going to give you a hard time, and you’ve got to work through that process. You have to listen, you have to learn. And if you make a mistake, you say we made a mistake and we’ll fix it.”

Placing power into employees’ hands is one of the best ways to develop a world-leading team.

“So, bottom line, I think the culture here is good,” Henneberry says. “Those are the type of people we have working here, and that I like to work with. But we all need to have fun at work, too. Obviously, in these crazy times, I think we all need to have a little bit of fun. I’ve got a ping pong table in the back, and sometimes we’ll just go play ping pong for half an hour. It’s good to burn off some steam. da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

113

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT HAVING A COOKIE CUTTER APPROACH” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

114

cooling from our point of view. But just

“Clients now can get some indication

understanding the client’s demands

of where things should be by search-

and what they’re trying to do on that

ing online. But I always ask, ‘What’s

digital side impacts how we manage

the end goal? What quality is needed

the relationship with requirements.”

for the solution you’re trying to pro-

Cost is another “interesting” topic of

vide?’ One bullet is never going to fix

conversation customers often thrust

the problem, but we always have a

into the equation at the early stages.

backup plan. I treat everybody equally

Understandably, clients need to

and we’re very good at helping clients

understand how much the operations

understand the technical reasons

will impact their balance sheets, and

of why that element costs that price,

while Google can be a valuable tool in

even in the change order process.

estimation, Henneberry prefers a more

Explaining it at the executive level is

incisive course of action.

very important to understand why cost

FEBRUARY 2021

“Montreal is saturated from a data centre perspective right now,” says Henneberry. “There’s so much supply that’s already there. So we focused on what was missing, and that’s why our Kingston project is a very strategic one. There’s a new fibre build from Montreal to Toronto that the hyperscale firms have demanded, but it has to go through somewhere, and it’s hitting Kingston. Our data centre is going to be a hub for that, and we’re an anchor tenant.”

An additional site is in Vancouver “where it’s hard to find land and good quality data centres”. Henneberry is a key factor, but not always the most

says the region has been undersup-

important factor.”

plied for some time, “So we thought

To better serve Canada’s thriving

we would beef up the supply, and as

business and finance hubs, CORE

the big hyperscale guys come along,

Data Centres has embarked upon an

or government agency demand ramps

ambitious greenfields development

up, we’re available.” That project is

project. A new site will open in Toronto

about three years out, he says, but

to serve the city and its surrounding

will become a key resource for CORE

areas as demand continues to rise.

Data Centre’s future development.

This will be joined by two further pro-

These projects, which will coincide

jects, both aimed at expanding supply

with the excavation and improvement

in strategic locations. One is situated

of major subterranean fibre cable cor-

in Kingston, between the Canadian

ridors, will take some time to come to

capital and Montreal.

fruition. In the meantime, CORE is also da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

115

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ I WOULD NEVER TURN DOWN BUSINESS. EVEN IF I HAVE NO SPACE AVAILABLE, I WILL GIVE IT TO MY COMPETITORS. I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANYBODY WITHOUT A SOLUTION” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres 116

Deploy your critical IT infrastructure with

with EcoStruxureTM Data Center Solutions.

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tier one solution with a generator and a UPS, a bit of backup battery and some cooling,” Henneberry says. “We can deploy these pretty rapidly - although we sometimes run into slowdown from municipalities and government when running fibre - but I think from an edge perspective these are going to make a big, big difference going forward.

“Obviously from there it needs the home run to a real data centre - or a bigger data centre - and that’s where we play that strategic role as well,” he continues. “From the east coast to the deploying a variety of flexible, modular

west coast of Canada there are lots of

container data centres to support

small data centres dotted all over the

smart city initiatives across the coun-

place, and I’ve been a consultant over

try. Launched under the CoreBox

the years on many of those locations.

brand, these 20-40-foot scalable cen-

I have those relationships with those

tres will provide greater supply to rural

clients, so if somebody needs some

areas of Canada, and other enterprise

extra help here or there, I can work

districts beyond the bustling cluster of

with those guys.”

major cities situated just north of the Canada-US border.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and a shift to working from home, remote

“CoreBox is going to serve those

learning, and digital catch-ups with

more remote areas, and these will be

friends brought the critical role of data

set up in strategic areas to serve as the

centres into sharp focus. Increased

edge data centres. They’re relatively

demand for bandwidth and storage,

straightforward solutions, whether you

however, introduced a new set of high

want a tier three design, or a standalone

and low-tech issues. da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

117

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ TO A CERTAIN DEGREE I’M ALWAYS THINKING OF A DESIGN: HOW IT CAN CHANGE AND HOW IT HAS TO EVOLVE” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

118

“Demand isn’t slowing down in the

downtown Toronto, for example. The

data centre world, but we had to

owners of these companies are trying

really change our protocols,” says

to figure out, ‘Okay, what do I do next?’

Henneberry. “We couldn’t just let any-

They’re increasing their bandwidth

body come into our centres without

because, as soon as you leave one loca-

being tested correctly or following the

tion, if you understand networking, and

protocols. That did slow us down with

you have it all over the place, it’s like a

regards to construction or retrofits or

different mesh network. You need to

just having anybody in the data centre

provide a different topology across the

doing what we would normally do.

board on how to connect everything. I’m

“What is changing mostly, though,

working on another project right now

is the way we think. There are a lot of

for a client where, we built an SD LAN

office buildings that are sitting there

solution for them, with firewalls and eve-

empty right now across the way in

rything, to all their remote locations.”

FEBRUARY 2021

and doing sessions on the whiteboard, you’re missing out on those elements.

And I guess, as with everyone out there, keeping our own minds and sanity going is the biggest obstacle,” he admits.

“But from a data centre perspective in Ontario, and in Canada in general, our power costs are pretty high.

Everyone around the world has their challengers on specific things, but for us that’s power costs. We’re coming up with some solutions, going off grid a little bit and using generators as demand power. But there are inherent risks with shifting your loads round on a regular basis.”

So has demand outstripped CORE’s

Heneberry predicts a busy year

ability to supply? Is Henneberry turn-

ahead for the CORE team. The firm is

ing business down?

eyeing some potential M&A activity to

“I would never turn down business.

further solidify its growth, but its first

Even if I have no space available, I will

priority is serving clients: “As clients

give it to my competitors. Trust me. I don’t

come back to us with more demands

want to see anybody without a solution.”

and different situations, which they will,

Even in the fast and tech-driven data

we’re prepared and ready to deal with

centre field, the biggest obstacles

them accordingly.”

facing Henneberry and his team in the short term are the fundamental human principles of business.

“I think not having that face-to-face time with people is tough. Gathering da t a c e nt re ma ga z i n e. com

119

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