Data Centre Magazine - April 2022 by datacentremagazine

APRIL 2022 | datacentremagazine.com

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC leads new era of data centre sustainability and climate fight

EcoDataCenter:

The data centre industry is fighting to reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable goals

WOMEN IN DATA CENTRES FEATURING:

N2S & Acceleron:

The global data centre industry builds a circular economy model

Wyoming Hyperscale | NTTs Global Data Centers | KDDI Telehouse

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The DataCentre Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HARRY MENEAR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

SAM STEERS

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

PHILLINE VICENTE JANE ARNETA ELLA CHADNEY

CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON JORDAN WOOD CALLUM HOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS

MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN

MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

MOTION DESIGNER TYLER LIVINGSTONE

MANAGING DIRECTOR

MARKETING MANAGER

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ROSS GARRIGAN PROJECT DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

JASON WESTGATE RICHARD TURNER JAMES WHITE LEWIS VAUGHAN CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

AWS’ Next Big Idea: Smaller data centres? “[Smaller countries] may not need the full capability [of hyperscale cloud regions] ... but need much more local infrastructure” PHIL DAVIS, APAC DIRECTOR, AWS

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Despite being one of the biggest builders of the world’s biggest hyperscale cloud data centres, Amazon Web Services may be about to take a different tack as it tries to strengthen its position in the APAC region. Increasingly, the way to conquer lots of smaller markets seems to be, well, lots of smaller data centres. For the last five years, when AWS built a data centre, it built a sprawling, multi-megawatt hyperscale site. Then, it built three more next to it for good measure. These massive campuses have formed the company’s cloud regions in North America, Europe, and beyond — including in some of APAC’s larger markets like Japan, Australia, India and Hong Kong. As the company looks to push into less mature markets however, AWS’ APAC director Phil Davis has said that these smaller countries “may not need the full capability [of hyperscale cloud regions] ... but need much more local infrastructure." It's a new approach for a new type of target market; unlike in large markets like the US, and the highly interconnected, functionally identical markets that make up the EU, APAC is a patchwork of discrete countries that can’t readily be served by a single large cloud region. In response, one of the world’s biggest cloud companies looks like it’s going small.

HARRY MENEAR

harry.menear@bizclikmedia.com

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 12 Big Picture 14 The Brief 16 Timeline: 2022 according to Juniper Networks 18 Trailblazer: Nancy Novak 22 Five Minutes With: Miriam Murphy

Schneider Electric

Shaping a new era of data centre sustainability

Hyperscale

"Climate neutral" is a myth

Wyoming Hyperscale

How Wyoming Hyperscale formed the world's ideal data centre

NTTs Global Data Centers Delivering NTT's global digital backbone

Cloud & Edge

A new chapter for Korea’s data centre industry

Sustainability

Closing the circle: the road to a truly circular economy

94 KDDI

KDDI set to enter the Thailand market with Telehouse Carrier Neutral DC

25 - 27 April | Monaco The premier leadership gathering for senior executives across the data centre, cloud, edge, digital infrastructure and AI industries

Chris Thompson Account Director, BroadGroup + 44 (0) 207 303 1760 chris.thompson@broad-group.com

www.datacloudcongress.com

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144

Europe is having a reckoning with the cloud

EU data centres and global telecom services

Technology

Neterra

116

156

ClusterPower is a green hyperscale DC set to take over

Your one-stop infrastructure as a service partner for LATAM

ClusterPower

EdgeUno

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Women in data centres

DataQube’s mission: scalable, flexible and sustainable pods

Top 10

DataQube Global

Shaping the Future of Technology & AI

2022 23rd - 24th June

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Join us at Technology & AI LIVE Showcase your values, products and services to your partners and customers at Technology & AI LIVE 2022.

Brought to you by BizClik Media Group, the hybrid event will be held in London co-located with sister events: Cyber LIVE and 5G & Cloud LIVE between June 23rd24th and broadcast live to the world.

Global giants and innovative startups will all find the perfect platform with direct access to an engaged and active audience. You can’t afford to miss this opportunity.

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BIG PICTURE

April 2022

SEOUL DATA CENTRE PIPELINE WIDENS SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA From Digital Realty to new Singaprean platform SC Zeus (backed by SC Capital Partners, which is kicking off its pan-APAC expansion with a 45 MW site in Seoul), overseas investment is working hard to break into what promises to be one of the world’s fastest-growing cloud markets over the coming decade.

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THE BRIEF “ A power-hungry industry and a society trying to [decouple] from fossil fuels don't go hand-in-hand”

SEA: Scrapping to be the next Singapore

LARS SCHEDIN Senior Advisor, EcoDataCenter READ MORE

“ Perfectly usable equipment is routinely discarded… with almost 20% of it going straight to landfill or incineration” ANDREW GOMARSALL MBE Executive Chairman, N2S READ MORE

“ South Korea is currently at the nascent stage of developing its public cloud sector” JAY WEON KHYM

Country Manager, Korea, Digital Realty READ MORE

April 2022

Singapore’s data centre industry was at capacity before the moratorium, and a post-freeze market isn’t going to get back to prefreeze levels. Maybe ever. Sounds like bad news for Singapore. But it’s great news for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia - for the whole rest of Southeast Asia, actually. All that demand has to go somewhere, I guess. Exactly. And SEA countries are ready to assure the data centre industry that they aren’t going to be as

“precious” about little stuff like climate change if it means hyperscale business. The Philippines have less than 10% the capacity of Singapore, but the newly “selective” approach by the Singaporean government “has pushed the interest to other countries in Southeast Asia that can absorb that demand such as Malaysia, Thailand, and now the Philippines,” said Santos-Knight Frank exec Monica Gonzalez earlier this year. Sounds like the region’s about to change. And fast.

BY THE NUMBERS Is the Data Centre Industry “Recession-Proof?”

70% YES

30% NO

EDITOR'S CHOICE HOW DO YOU OPTIMISE THE OPERATING COSTS OF A DATA CENTRE? Jon Healy, Operations Director at Keysource Ltd, explains how to get the most out of data centre operating costs TERACO ANNOUNCES ACCESS TO ORACLE CLOUD VIA FASTCONNECT: African colocation data centre provider Teraco is offering access to connectivity through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) FastConnect platform TOP 10 EUROPEAN DESIGN, BUILD AND ENGINEERING COMPANIES: We’re taking a look at 10 of the best and biggest European design, build and engineering companies who operate in the data centre industry

 NIGERIAN DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY With the number of internet users in Nigeria estimated at 100 million in 2021, and recent investment by overseas firms like Equinix, Lagos’ data centre market (along with Nigera at large) is set to boom.  NORTHC Dutch data centre operator NorthC has installed green hydrogen fuel cells at its facility in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, reportedly making it the first European data centre to use green hydrogen for its UPS.  GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN Despite robust demand for new data centres, worsening supply chain headwinds could bite the industry even harder this year, increasing construction costs and hampering development.  QTS REALTY TRUST A string of vocal protests over the construction of an 800+ acre campus (part of a much larger, 2,000+ acre rezoning project that’s also been widely condemned by locals) in Northern Virginia is continuing to create friction for the firm.

U P APRIL

2022

D O W N

datacentremagazine.com

TIMELINE

2022

ACCORDING TO JUNIPER NETWORKS

From remote working to widespread digital transformation acceleration, as we enter our third year of the pandemic, its influence over global communications networks and data centres can’t be underestimated. This month, Cathy Gadecki, Senior Director of Enterprise Marketing at Juniper Networks, shares her five predictions for the year to come. 16

April 2022

Reliability will replace agility as the objective for network operators For years, companies have sought out more agile operations. Insightful operators have realised that speed is not the goal, it’s merely a symptom of a broader target: reliability. The reason most companies don’t move faster is that networks are fragile, and change represents risk. Going fast isn’t a function of merely speeding up keystrokes, it’s more a product of knowing that those keystrokes will work the same way, every time, without fail.

Day Two will become all the rage The focus will shift to optimising Day 2 operations in 2022. Provisioning will yield to root cause identification and automated remediation. Basic workflow composers will fade to the background as multi-domain observability takes the stage.

Teams will become more diverse Remote work is becoming more than just popular—it’s table stakes for a lot of the workforce now. This will naturally loosen the stranglehold on tech jobs that Silicon Valley has held for decades. The net result? Remote work will fuel a more inclusive industry.

Out: nerd knobs. In: standard deployments One of the common misconceptions about cloud is that cloud is just “someone else’s servers.” It’s not the servers that make cloud offerings important; it’s the operations. To make operations really fly, architects have realised they need to simplify and standardise.

Supply chain diversification will become a priority It’s hard to go anywhere without running into supply chain constraints. Christmas gifts, cars, and yes, network equipment. As companies stare down the supply chain, expect 2022 to launch an architectural renaissance focused on how to reduce the risks that come with a concentrated set of suppliers. datacentremagazine.com

TRAILBLAZER

Advocating for Real Change N A M E : Nancy Novak J O B T I T L E : Chief Innovation Officer C O M P A N Y : Compass Datacenters

he need for enterprises in the tech sphere to readdress their approach to diversity and inclusion has never been more apparent, both for the sake of fostering a more inclusive, just industry, and addressing the growing skills shortage already being felt throughout the industry. More than ever, the industry needs to cultivate and advocate for diverse talent. “The urgency of the need for diversity is not simply one of fairness and equal opportunity,” wrote Nancy Novak, Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Datacenters, in a recent opinion piece. “It’s not hyperbolic to say that this is an existential issue for companies fighting to win the war for talent to enable them to put the right people in the right roles to be competitive today and tomorrow.”

April 2022

Years experience

30+

With more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry - during which time she has overseen the delivery of more than $3.5bn worth of critical infrastructure projects Nancy Novak is a true infrastructure veteran who has, and continues to, vocally champion the cultivation of a more diverse talent pool in the industry. “Organisations that aren’t actively working to diversify their workforces run the risk of stunting their ability to grow by artificially limiting their access to talent,” she continues. While Novak is a vocal proponent of increasing mentorship aimed at fostering greater diversity, she also goes beyond typical rhetoric to point out that the industry needs to go even further: towards true advocacy. “Real change only happens when people in positions of influence and power take on the roles of advocates for talented women and minorities,” she stresses.

datacentremagazine.com

TRAILBLAZER

“Real change only happens when people in positions of influence and power take on the roles of advocates for talented women and minorities”

April 2022

“Mentorship without advocacy by people with influence is a recipe for preparing women and minorities for an unattainable career path.” In addition to her role as a thought leader at the cutting edge of the data centre industry’s ongoing evolution, Novak is herself working to embody the kind of advocacy that is required to foster true, lasting diversity in the industry. She is a member of the iMason’s advisory council and is actively involved in numerous organisations dedicated to advocating for the advancement of women and minorities in the data centre sector, including Above the Glass Ceiling, Women in Government Relations (WGE), Women Construction Owners and Executives (WCOE), The World Trade Center Initiative, Fortune Media’s Most Powerful Women and the National Women’s Party. Prior to joining Compass Datacenters, Novak held a number of roles as a construction executive at Balfour Beatty and Hensel Phelps, during which time she worked on renovations and construction projects for airports, hospitals and even the Pentagon, before retiring at the age of forty seven. She came out of retirement three years later, joining Compass Datacentres in 2017, and has since driven the adoption of cutting edge technology, lean practices, and fostered an innovative culture through diversity of thought at the company. In October of 2020, Novak was also recognised by Capacity Media at the 2020 Global Women in Telco and Tech awards, receiving the title of the year’s “Best Woman in Data Centre”. datacentremagazine.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Miriam Murphy

AS THE INCOMING CEO OF NTT IN EUROPE, MIRIAM MURPHY IS TAKING THE REINS OF A SIZEABLE DATA CENTRE OPERATOR AT A PIVOTAL TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY. AT THE OUTSET OF HER ROLE, WE SAT DOWN WITH MIRIAM MURPHY TO FIND OUT WHERE SHE (AND NTT) STAND ON THE COMPANY’S FUTURE IN EUROPE. 22

April 2022

What are your priorities for the new role, Miriam? Are there any challenges or opportunities in Europe that you want to focus NTT's efforts on? One of the key priorities for me as I get stuck into the new role is to accelerate the integration of NTT, bringing the reality of the vision to our clients in Europe. The aim is to grow our business across the region, connecting with our clients to ensure our capabilities of enabling business transformation are understood. NTT has very strong core propositions. With an industry-leading digital backbone, a secure multi-cloud

platform and a broad portfolio of global services, the key to our success will be working with our clients across our full portfolio, both in Europe and from a global standpoint.

You've got an impressive tech resume. Are there lessons you've learned over the course of your career that you apply no matter where you go? I believe that every role provides a series of learnings, and there are a few that stand out the most for me. I’ve learnt that listening and understanding are crucial when stepping into a new role, and it’s very important to

be available to meet the teams and hear their views and input. Clarity of mission and quality of communication, to the management team and wider business, are also important. We should also strive to help build skills and develop people. The technology industry is an ongoing journey and it’s not just about developing digital skills, but business skills too. Finally, honesty and humility are fundamental skills; you have to be open with individuals about the business objectives, the strengths and the areas for improvement. You also need the datacentremagazine.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

humility to know you need to work as a team to achieve the goals. Nothing can be achieved alone, which is why this very closely aligns to clarity of the mission and open communication.

launching into Madrid in Spain, as well as growing in Germany (Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Rhine Rhur), Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich and significantly in the UK.

How would you characterise NTT's current position in Europe's data centre and connectivity markets? Currently, we are the third largest data centre company globally. In Europe, NTT has a strong position we are the number one data centre company in Frankfurt, which is in the top data centre markets in Europe We are expanding aggressively across Europe, with a 40% increase between 2021 and 2023, including

April 2022

Are there any broader industry trends you see poised to shape the direction of Europe's data centre industry in the near future? In industry terms, the move to digital means we’re continuing to see significant demand from the big cloud providers. In the enterprise space the journey to cloud continues to grow at pace, resulting in continued growth in Hybrid IT solutions as part of the discussion with our clients.

“Honesty and humility are fundamental skills; you have to be open with individuals about the business objectives” Security, while certainly not a new trend, continues to grow in importance and impact to a business and its workforce every day as new threats emerge. Finally, the importance of sustainability is continuing to rise. Data centres are a large carbon footprint for IT because it's where IT resides.

What can we expect to see from NTT over the coming months? In short – a lot. We will continue to work with our clients across our full portfolio, helping companies achieve digital transformation by leveraging leading edge technologies and decisioning, real-time intelligence

and insights, and the pervasive use of AI, all in a secure environment. We will be opening our new Data Centre in Spain in late Spring and holding our second iNTTerconnected thought leadership event in March, this time with Connected Industries as the theme. In July, we will see our most public example of digital transformation in a business – our partnership with the A.S.O. at the Tour de France. As the event’s official technology partner, NTT is implementing a technology roadmap to provide a rich digital experience for fans on site and remotely. Much more news to come on this as we approach the race start. datacentremagazine.com

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2022 27th - 28th April

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CPO

Image Credit: EcoDataCenter

April 2022

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

SHAPING A NEW ERA OF DATA CENTRE SUSTAINABILIT Y AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: BLAISE HOPE

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

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SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Schneider Electric leads new era of data centre sustainability with industry-first framework for long-term, strategic commitments to fight climate change

chneider Electric has just ranked number one on Sustainability Magazine’s Top 100 Companies list, hot on the heels of being named ‘The World’s Most Sustainable Company’ by Canadian media research firm Corporate Knights in January 2021. In 2021, it also made the Financial Times ranking as a Top 50 Diversity leader for the second year running, the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for a fourth year, FORTUNE’s ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ and Forbes’ list of America’s ‘Best Employers for Diversity’. I asked Rob McKernan, Senior Vice President of its Secure Power Division for Europe, how Schneider had achieved this. His answer: “Sustainability has been at the core of our strategic decision-making for some time.” The secret is not complicated – early, decisive planning – but it is the grand strategy’s execution and results that are wildly impressive. McKernan, holding the same portfolio for North and South America before moving to Paris five years ago, has been leading the companies’ data centre sustainability efforts in Europe. A lesson in modern sustainable business strategy McKernan says the sustainability awards are “testament to what our ethos is. We want to help customers make the most of their energy, the most of their resources, so we’ve been talking to them about efficiency, reliability, and sustainability through digitisation and electrification.

April 2022

Image Credit: Schneider Electric Example of

an image caption datacentremagazine.com

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“ We want to be our customers' partner for efficiency and sustainability – helping them drive energy efficiency throughout all parts of the life cycle” ROB MCKERNAN

SENIOR VP OF SECURE POWER & DATA CENTRE DIVISION FOR EUROPE, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

It’s not something new to us in 2022, it’s been part of our culture for many, many years.” Schneider Electric has positioned itself as a world leader in sustainability and has solidified its position as a leader in sustainable technologies. It earns 76% of its revenue from sustainable, Green Premium solutions and 73% of its investments go right back into R&D. It is the leading name 32

April 2022

in global power management and its achievements to date are setting the stage for those to come. “We've been talking about metrics like PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) for many years, and we've been an early advocate of measuring how well your data centre performs from an efficiency standpoint,” says McKernan. Amalgamation and green management operations Schneider Electric has acquired greentech startups and is amalgamating them into a world-leading tech management offering. With its track record and the state of play in sustainability worldwide, it is building a primary application of greentech management solutions. Its January acquisition of climatetech platform Zeigo followed similarly headlinegrabbing news of the launch of its IoT management software EcoStruxure Resource

ROB MCKERNAN TITLE: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF SECURE POWER AND DATA CENTRE DIVISION FOR EUROPE

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: PARIS Rob McKernan is Senior Vice President for Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division in Europe. Across the region he empowers country leaders to support customer digital transformation through resilient, adaptive, sustainable and efficient data centres. Rob holds a bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and is a strong advocate for embracing sustainable business practices. He believes that by integrating resilient digital infrastructure with renewables and the grid, and by selecting resource efficient technologies, the data centres of the future can support the needs of the digital and electrical world, helping to transform businesses sustainably.

datacentremagazine.com

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Advisor and the energy ‘buying’ portal NEO Network. All of it is building a comprehensive ecosystem for Schneider Electric to remain “the leader of the digital transformation of energy management and automation.” Its leading edge is a history of sustainable data centre management that solidified through the move from corporate data centres to cloud-based solutions. Much of this started in 2007 with the acquisition of American Power Conversion (APC™), a transaction that brought McKernan himself into Schneider Electric. In 2017, as part of a 10-year update on the deal, the company explained that “the idea was to take the leader in the IT room or white space of data centres – APC – and combine it with the company’s leadership position in the grey space or electrical rooms – Schneider Electric – to create a single data centre powerhouse.” Schneider Electric had, at the time, been building up its presence as an end-to-end powertrain solutions provider. This meant it had little customer competition with APC and the US$6 bn acquisition allowed data centres to quickly become a pillar in its global business. That acquisition allowed the French multinational to leverage its capabilities, sustainable practises, and market position to become a data centre powerhouse and then to move rapidly into the future by building the greenest possible solutions for the sector. A prescient move as the business world transitioned steadily into the cloud and climate change rose steadily up corporate agendas. “We see this, the data centre of the future, continuing to evolve with needs to be sustainable, efficient, resilient and adaptive,” says McKernan. “It's really interesting when we bring our partners into the fold, whether 34

April 2022

Image Credit: EcoDataCenter

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

it's inside a data centre or a building or [as] part of our ecosystem, there's a lot of additional value that we can provide.” “Looking at the data centre industry from a sustainability perspective has been quite a natural evolution,” says McKernan. “I think we were starting to do that even before we were using the word sustainability in many ways! In Europe we’re having conversations around carbon neutrality, around the removal of gas (SF6), and the issue of water usage. By focusing on what the industry's looking to do here, which is to reach net zero emissions by 2030, we can help operators plan and reach their aggressive CO2 reduction targets.”

“The journey continues, but I can tell you it’s a very effective conversation for clients that are looking for companies to help them drive sustainability across the data centre space” ROB MCKERNAN

SENIOR VP OF SECURE POWER DATA CENTRE DIVISION FOR EUROPE, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“When I came to Europe five years ago, I had the experience of running the North American and South American business – those of a very mature market in the US, in Canada, and very much of a developing market throughout central and south America,” says McKernan. “So when you look at the diversity here in Europe, the countries that I'm responsible for and the Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris (FLAP regions), those have been the historical centres for the industry.” Schneider Electric has worked with numerous businesses across Europe, from end-users to owners and operators including cloud, colocation and hyperscale service datacentremagazine.com

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

providers. It has also supported the efforts of world leading businesses to expand their services across the region. Here customers include Interxion (a Digital Realty Company), Iron Mountain, SuperNAP and EcoDataCenter, the world’s first climate positive data centre. “The interesting part is that connectivity demands are growing across the entire region, and in southern and central Europe, new hubs are beginning to establish themselves to service this requirement. We’re seeing the build out of new data centres in Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Athens and Milan, nowhere near the FLAP countries. We’re more than prepared here, seeing this evolution once in North America and now experiencing it through a slightly different lens, there’s a lot of similarities between the two. Interestingly, the word sustainability was not used quite as frequently, five, six, seven years ago. Now it’s very much in the forefront of our discussions, if not the first thing we talk about with decision-makers.” The importance of standardised measurements Talking about what sustainability needs is one thing – providing a means to achieve it is another. One of the biggest issues in sustainability is figuring out and agreeing, cross-sector and cross-organisation, how to measure it. That is where Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Sustainability Metrics and Framework, launched in December 2021, comes in. “Last year I was on a panel with a couple of key industry leaders, and we were talking about each of our companies’ focus on sustainability. You quickly realise that everyone is going about this a little bit differently, everyone is trying to measure what it means,” says McKernan. “We felt that one of the key challenges is that we’ve never 36

April 2022

really had a standard set of environmental metrics that we can report on both here in Europe and throughout the globe.” Schneider Electric’s first-of-a-kind Sustainability Framework allows for the tracking and reporting of standardised sustainability metrics, helping drive internal collaboration to make it more effective in achieving company-wide targets, while increasing transparency for external stakeholders like customers and regulators. It was created by a team of ESG experts, sustainability consultants, data centre scientists and data centre solution architects to help operators who are at the

Beginning, Advanced or Leading stages of their sustainability journey, reduce their environmental impact. The comprehensive framework includes 23 key metrics for standardised reporting and identifies the 17 most relevant sustainability frameworks to guide operators in both setting measurable targets and reporting them. Further, Schneider Electric is recommending that data centre operators utilise holistic environmental strategies, which means being inclusive of five key areas of environmental impact such as Energy use, GHG emissions, Water, Waste, Land and biodiversity.

Using the framework removes the hassle of selecting impactful metrics for tracking, improves internal communication and empowers effective action on sustainability objectives. Moreover, it enables businesses to act on the data to improve operations, which, in turn, enables regular and consistent reporting for external stakeholders, and standardises benchmarking. “We realise a lot of companies are either not measuring their environmental footprint or really don’t know how to,” says McKernan. “So by empowering the industry, we can really help it to standardise the way it reports and reduce its environmental impact.” datacentremagazine.com

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

How culture breeds sustainable success An inclusive company culture has helped the firm to reach its highest sustainable ambitions. Its people join the business with the same vision and values, ensuring that sustainability remains central to its purpose. McKernan says these developments are a product of Schneider Electric’s sustainability-led company culture: “It’s driven from the top-down, it comes from our CEO, through his leadership team and then the top 100 leaders. We are really focused on this, not as the fifth KPI on a sheet, but really talking about how we drive sustainability within our organisation.”

Image Credit: EcoDataCenter

April 2022

“ At Schneider, we realise a lot of companies are either not measuring their environmental footprint or really don’t know how to” ROB MCKERNAN

SENIOR VP OF SECURE POWER & DATA CENTRE DIVISION FOR EUROPE, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“We also have a real focus on measurement. In fact, we’ve been measuring our company’s sustainability for several years, measuring our improvement in each of our facilities, each of our manufacturing plants and very aggressively looking at our suppliers. It’s not just one or two things we can do ourselves. We realise we have to do it throughout our ecosystem. We take that mentality when we go talk to our customers, whether they’re building a new manufacturing facility or, in my case, a data centre.” Now that Schneider Electric’s ascent to a pinnacle of sustainability is getting recognised in the business mainstream, McKernan says it is the drive to continuously improve that

both led it there and will keep it there into the future: “There’s more to the equation of helping the customers, whether it’s through the design process, through the build process or through the operational process.” “We want to be our customers' partner for efficiency and sustainability – helping them drive energy efficiency throughout all parts of that life cycle. So, I would say that the journey continues, but I can tell you it’s a very effective conversation for clients that are looking for companies to help them drive sustainability in these spaces.”

datacentremagazine.com

HYPERSCALE

IS A MYTH

he data centre industry is fighting - harder every year to reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable goals. On the one hand, demand for capacity to support digital services, high performance computing, 5G, the edge, IoT - you name it - continues to grow with no 40

April 2022

sign of slowing down this decade. By 2027, the industry is expected to grow from just under $60 bn to well over $145 bn. At the same time, the need to draw down on energy usage - both as a way of curtailing the industry’s own Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as well as reducing their overall impact on already

Lars Schedin, head of one of the world’s greenest data centre companies, on why carbon neutral is a lie the industry tells itself and its customers WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

overstretched renewable energy grids - is an existential concern. “The shortage of power in Europe in general will also be felt in our industry this year,” says Lars Schedin, a Senior Advisor at EcoDataCenter (who served as the company’s CEO until summer last year), one of the greenest data centre operators

in the Nordics. “In the FLAP-D markets, projects have been banned, there have been environmental protests, and other hurdles due to the fact that this industry is very power intensive. A power hungry industry and a society trying to undergo the process of electrification and decoupling from fossil fuels don't go hand-in-hand.” datacentremagazine.com

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EcoDataCenter - The World's Greenest Data Center

“ A POWER HUNGRY INDUSTRY AND A SOCIETY TRYING TO UNDERGO THE PROCESS OF ELECTRIFICATION AND DECOUPLING FROM FOSSIL FUELS DON'T GO HAND-IN-HAND” LARS SCHEDIN SENIOR ADVISOR, ECODATACENTER

It’s not only rare that executives from within the industry acknowledge the data centre industry’s broader impact on their utility grids, buying up disproportionate amounts of green power to the detriment of residential areas and other industries, but it’s virtually unheard of to hear someone broach the idea that using “renewable power” and “green energy” to make data centres “climate neutral” might not be the sustainability panacea it’s sold as. “My mission for this year is to get people to understand that there is no such thing as climate neutral renewable power production. Even renewable power comes with embedded carbon. There is no such thing as climate neutral,” he says. “The ways that people are getting to count themselves as "climate neutral" are by doing something with their excess heat, or by purchasing climate datacentremagazine.com

Lars Schedin Senior Advisor, EcoDataCenter

“MIX AND MATCH THE SIZE. KEEP THE STYLE CONSISTENT SAME ARTICLE” NAME SURNAME JOB TITLE, COMPANY NAME

April 2022

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emissions credits. We can't avoid emitting carbon. You can't test your diesel backup generators once a month and not be emitting carbon. It's impossible.” The idea that a company purchasing 100% renewable power is 100% carbon neutral is, at best, naive. At worst, it’s deliberately evasive. The challenge lies, Schedin explains, in a lack of true, nuanced examination of a company’s Scope 3 emissions - which he calls “the next big hurdle for the industry's sustainability efforts.”

100% renewable power will only get you so far, however. Schedin stresses that it’s imperative that data centre operators make use of the excess heat emitted by their servers. While he notes that it doesn't matter what you're connected to (in the last year I’ve seen data centres hooked up to swimming pools, housing complexes, and even a lobster farm), but “you need some way to recapture, redirect, and reuse heat from your servers.” EcoDataCenters’ site redirects excess heat into a local district heating system. Going as Green “The combined heat as Possible and power plant EcoDataCenter is a where we redirect our solid contender for the excess heat is only title of “world’s most 200 m away from our sustainable data centre Falun data centre, so company”. It even we can recapture a bills its flagship site in large portion of our Falun, Sweden, as the emitted heat and use world’s first “climate it to warm local homes positive” data centre. very efficiently,” To give an idea of Schedin says. how EcoDataCenter Additionally, excess can be climate positive heat that isn't needed LARS SCHEDIN in a world where even by the district heating SENIOR ADVISOR, ECODATACENTER climate neutrality is a system is redirected myth, Schedin breaks to a sawdust pellet down the steps for getting as close as factory, which creates fuel that can be possible to a supposedly unattainable goal. stored, sold to homes and industries in the “First, your power supply should obviously wintertime, and burned for fuel. be renewable, but you should also be as “We avoid a lot of emissions, both in our own close to the source of that power generation operations and in the district heating system as possible in order to minimise distribution - because when it really gets cold, the district losses,” he says. “Keep in mind that, in will peak its heating with oil or gas,” Schedin Sweden, the third largest consumer of explains. “When we calculate our emissions, power is distribution loss.” He adds that the we also try to track exactly how many carbon Falun site is located more or less adjacent to emissions we're avoiding with things like heat the hydroelectric power plant that supplies recapture.” The result of using excess heat most of its electricity. recapture and renewable energy, then, is that

“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CLIMATE NEUTRAL RENEWABLE POWER PRODUCTION; EVEN RENEWABLE POWER COMES WITH EMBEDDED CARBON”

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“ WE'RE AVOIDING MORE EMISSIONS THAN WE ACTUALLY CREATE, BUT THAT SHOULDN'T BE USED TO HIDE THE FACT WE ARE EMITTING 16 G OF CARBON PER KWH” LARS SCHEDIN

SENIOR ADVISOR, ECODATACENTER

EcoDataCentres flagship site in Falun, Sweden

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EcoDataCentres is preventing the emission of more carbon than it emits itself. This, Schedin explains, is where many data centre operators stop. “However, while we're avoiding more emissions than we actually create, that shouldn't be used to hide the fact that we are emitting 16 g of carbon per kWh,” he says. “We can't avoid that fact. The industry can't avoid that fact, and we shouldn't be trying to hide it.”

In Bed with Embedded Carbon All modern manufacturing comes with the uncomfortable reality of embedded carbon. EcoDataCenters keeps the embedded carbon in its physical buildings very low by primarily using laminated wood in the construction process. Schedin explains that the alternatives, steel and concrete, are both “very environmentally impactful materials,” adding that “Concrete still accounts for something like 8% of all global emissions.” datacentremagazine.com

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This is where the cracks in the idea of climate neutral or completely green power start to show. “The hydroelectric power plant where we source our 100% renewable power contains a lot of concrete. Even if that plant's embedded impact is spread out over its entire life cycle, it's still so much concrete that each kWh we consume from that hydro plant comes with 9 g of embedded carbon emissions attached,” says Schedin. “Hydro comes with 9 g/kWh, wind comes with 12 grams - and that's if you're experiencing 0% distribution losses, which is never the case, and could increase your emissions by as much as 10%.”

Hydroelectirc power plant

“THE KIND OF RHETORIC THAT CALLS GENERATION METHODS LIKE GEOTHERMAL RENEWABLE, AND CALLS A DATA CENTRE 'CLIMATE NEUTRAL' MAKES LIFE A BIT TOO EASY” LARS SCHEDIN

SENIOR ADVISOR, ECODATACENTER

April 2022

Wind and hydro aren’t the only sources of “green power” that Schedin notes aren’t as sustainable as they seem. “There are places like Iceland, which use a lot of geothermal power. And geothermal emits no carbon. It emits a lot of methane, which is much, much worse,” he says. “Geothermal is actually a really dirty energy source that might be as bad as coal. It's billed as a renewable power source, but in places like Turkey and Indonesia it's generating as many greenhouse gases as coal. Even in Iceland, where it's a little better, they've only managed to get the equivalent embedded carbon down to about 40-50 g/kWh, but that's still 10 times more than nuclear power.” In an industry where conversations about sustainability are only going to get harder, Schedin stresses that “the kind of rhetoric that calls generation methods like geothermal renewable, and calls a data centre 'climate neutral' makes life a bit too easy. You need to dig deeper.” As Scope 3 emissions become a bigger part of the conversation, and the data centre industry’s customers place genuine sustainability at the core of their business models, it feels like the industry is on track for a reckoning. “These truths need to be disclosed. Emissions need to be examined transparently, and knowledge needs to be shared so that the industry as a whole can build the most efficient data centres that it can, wherever those sites are located,” Schedin reflects. “Renewable power comes with embedded carbon. No one can argue with that statement, but still we have companies out there in the industry claiming to be 100% climate neutral. The market and the industry may not be ready for these difficult conversations, but the customers are ready for it, and I think that will drive some serious changes quickly.” datacentremagazine.com

DELIVERING

NTT'S GLOBAL

DIGITAL

BACKBONE AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: BLAISE HOPE

April 2022

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

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NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

NTT provides a data centre platform and end-to-end solution from edge to core to cloud, for a future of speed, security, and sustainability in every region

igital transformation is driving the need for more bandwidth across the world and across every vertical, whether healthcare, scientific research, content streaming, education technology, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, as well as business continuity and resiliency services. Everything now demands greater data capacity, connectivity, flexibility, and ease of deployment. NTT Ltd. was formed to meet the needs of this digital world, providing end-to-end ICTmanaged services solutions across networks, data centres, security and collaboration. A series of strategic acquisitions has made NTT a global digital solutions provider. This expertise combined with its strong heritage as a communications provider makes NTT Ltd. well placed to serve the exponential growth in the market for data centre capacity, alongside the adoption of cloud infrastructure and services that will define this decade. Now, it is one of the world’s top three global data centre companies. Masaaki Moribayashi, the President and Board Director of NTT, has been with the wider NTT company for over 30 years and overseen much of its growth strategy. He has held leadership positions internationally for NTT in Hong Kong, US, Japan and UK and played a key role in the company’s data

April 2022

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NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

“ We are very excited to expand the business” MASAAKI MORIBAYASHI

PRESIDENT AND BOARD DIRECTOR, NTT LTD.

centre growth and investment strategy. He joined NTT Ltd. in London in 2019 and took up his current position as President in 2021. “I have spent much of my career in the data centre industry” says Moribayashi “and have worked in different regions for NTT, building and growing our data centre footprint and infrastructure to allow NTT to serve its clients and help deliver digital transformation across the globe.” 54

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Florian Winkler is the Chief Executive Officer of NTT Global Data Centers EMEA and has 25 years in the ICT sector and 10 years in data centres. “This is a very dynamic environment,” says Winkler. “I worked for global players like Siemens, and then 10 years at British Telecom. It is useful to have had that experience when developing the data centre division in a corporate setting: it has all the strengths and backing of NTT while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that keeps us agile and eager for growth. I really enjoy working in a dynamic environment with lots of growth and expansion with the international cooperation we have under the NTT family. That is what excites me — that

FLORIAN WINKLER TITLE: CEO OF GLOBAL DATA CENTERS EMEA, NTT LTD. INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: GLOBAL Florian Winkler has over 20 years of experience in the ICT and data centre sectors. He has developed ICT solutions for major clients, as well as built and run client-oriented organisations and processes in various roles covering consultancy, business development and general management. In 2019, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Global Data Centers EMEA, where he is responsible for the operational management and further expansion of the business in that region. Florian holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Augsburg (Germany) and an MBA from the University of Dayton (USA).

NTT’s history and the rapid creation of a global data centre giant NTT was a state monopoly founded in 1952, with roots tracing back to the beginning of modern communications. It privatised in 1985 and two years later made history with a stock offering of US$36.6bn. Today, it is a global telecommunications leader whose actions change our world and with huge strength in its digital backbone. It employs more than 300,000 people in 200 countries and has US$109bn in revenue across its divisions. NTT Ltd. was launched on July 1, 2019, and has become one of the

EXECUTIVE BIO

global presence and the solutions we can bring to help our client’s transform.”

NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

MASAAKI MORIBAYASHI TITLE: PRESIDENT AND BOARD DIRECTOR, NTT LTD. INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: GLOBAL

EXECUTIVE BIO

Masaaki Moribayashi was appointed President and Board Director in April 2021, and he is directly responsible for Global Data Center business, mobile and IoT business, submarine cable business, and Japanese multi-national clients. Prior to his current position, he was SEVP Services and Board Director at NTT Ltd. from July 2019 to April 2021. From June 2018 to June 2019, he was SEVP at NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) based in Japan, where he was responsible for technology, services, operation, information security, and global businesses. From 1984, he experienced a variety of positions in NTT Group including SVP and Board Director at NTT Com, responsible for Global Data Centers and Cloud businesses, Managing Director of NTT Europe Limited based in London, and President and CEO of NTT Com Asia Limited in Hong Kong.

“ We are the only one that is not just a pure data centre or colocation provider. The strengths of NTT as a company are unprecedented” FLORIAN WINKLER

CEO OF GLOBAL DATA CENTERS EMEA NTT LTD

world’s largest ICT providers and top three data centre providers. It was formed by bringing together 31 brands from a series of acquisitions, amalgamated into one NTT brand for the future of digital transformation. Major names were folded into NTT’s Global Data Centers division, including e-shelter, RagingWire, Gyron, Netmagic, and NTT Communications Nexcenter. These brands serve every continent and bring together decades of data centre experience and businesses that have allowed NTT to establish its market-leading position. While these acquisitions provided a nonorganic growth basis for NTT, its organic investment strategy is now growing its global footprint significantly. In September 2021, it announced a 20% footprint expansion over the following 18 months. Today, NTT Ltd. has a revenue of US$11bn, 40,000 employees, and NTT Group has invested an annual average of US$5bn in research and development for the next five years. Meeting diverse priorities of sustainability, speed and security in data centre demand NTT’s Global Data Centers is able to provide retail, wholesale and hyperscale solutions datacentremagazine.com

NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

that deliver on the priorities in each region. “What we call the digital backbone is our fabric between the edge and the cloud,” says Winkler. “Our proposition delivers hybrid IT solutions that include data centre infrastructure that is specific to our clients' security and vertical needs.” Winkler and Moribayashi have observed how the data centre evolves from region to region, for example, trends, like cloud computing, might emerge in the US for example and then transfer to EMEA and APAC, and today the focus is very much on sustainability. “Sustainability is a key focus,” says Moribayashi. “A good example is when we started using renewable energies and invested in a solar and wind power plant in India. Meanwhile, our data centres in London use 100% renewable energy and have a unique cooling system, which has significantly reduced the power consumption.” NTT’s Global Data Centers has committed to the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, which commits the company to operating their data centres in the EU in a climateneutral way by 2030. Indeed, it is the first large data centre operator in the UK to achieve the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology certification (BREEAM) rating of Excellent for their London 1 site, certifying that it meets the high standards of the world’s longest established environmental assessment methods. What sets NTT’s Global Data Centers apart from the rest of the industry NTT’s Global Data Centers has a broad range of clients. However, the majority of their client base is made up of cloud providers and big enterprises, like banks – two industries experiencing worldwide innovation, investment, growth and the 58

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promotion and expansion of digital services. All of them plug neatly into the solution stack that the company has built. “We are special among the top data centre players in the world,” says Winkler. ”We are the only company that is not just a pure data centre or colocation provider. The strengths of NTT as a company are unprecedented.” Winkler says this allows NTT to fulfil the changing requirements of any industry. “This gives us the ability to serve multiple types of clients. We can provide exactly what's

good for hyperscalers, but also what’s good for the enterprise market. That's why this service portfolio — combining what we have in data centres with the strength of our network, security and managed services — is compelling because ICT is always transforming.” “NTT’s Global Data Center Interconnect (GDCI) — an integrated global network fabric service — delivers a cross regional data centre network and private secure connection to major cloud service providers and contributes to client’s digital transformation as a digital backbone. On the mobile side, with private

5G, NTT owns the major mobile company in Japan, so that means we can provide a secure managed network end-to-end from the device to the cloud,” says Moribayashi. “This is a differentiator for NTT across the data centre and telecoms industries. Telecom competitors don’t operate their own data centres as many spun those operations off some time ago. Data centre companies don’t have the network. We have both. We believe having the secure end-to-end infrastructure provides huge potential for us to serve our clients and communities.” datacentremagazine.com

NTT's GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

April 2022

“On the mobile side, with private 5G, NTT owns the major mobile company in Japan, so that means we can provide a secure managed network end-to-end from the device to the cloud” MASAAKI MORIBAYASHI PRESIDENT AND BOARD DIRECTOR, NTT LTD.

Building a total solution for our sustainable future through the IOWN initiative The company is also looking to build a world that transcends the typical constraints of physical connectivity operations, bridging all current infrastructure together. A powerful illustration of this offering is the IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) initiative, which promises the “total mobilisation of city and mobility” with a roadmap through to 2030 to offer a sustainable and regenerative solution for businesses. NTT will maximise the benefits of its technologies by building out an all photonics network that will provide end-toend coordination of ICT resources. Included is a Super White Box that supports the next generation of computing platforms as well as quantum cryptographic communication and traffic flow management: systematically and methodically dealing firmly with issues of latency, security and bandwidth flow

that plague international communications. Through Digital Twin computing and a cognitive foundation, its network will allow for predictive action, analysis and optimisation, marking a complete departure from disaggregated computing, and the entrance of an era of low power consumption, large capacity with high quality, and low latency. The initiative promises 100x less power, 125x greater transmission capacity, and a latency reduction of 200*3. NTT believes this will deliver a sustainability-first. NTT is well placed, with its digital backbone, data centre footprint and expertise, to provide end-to-end solutions that are secure, sustainable and connected and help their clients across all sectors navigate their digital transformation.

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SUSTAINABILITY

CLOSING THE CIRCLE: THE ROAD TO A TRULY CIRCULAR ECONOMY With the need for emissions reduction more dire than ever, we take a look at the data centre industry’s need for a more circular economy

April 2022

I R EA N ME Y R WRITTEN BY: HAR

n recent years, the global data centre industry has worked miracles. In 2015, the total energy consumed by the global data centre industry totalled approximately 189 terawatt hours, with traditional enterprise and colocation data centres accounting for the lion’s share (97.62 TWh) of that consumption. While global data centre capacity has grown significantly each year - especially across APAC - the 2021 total estimated energy consumption of the data centre industry equalled 189 TWh. Despite adding Gigawatts of capacity each year, the aggregate power consumption in the industry has managed to remain essentially flat, as it increasingly transitions towards a cloud-centric model built around massive hyperscale campuses. These campuses leverage economies of scale and, most importantly, cutting edge innovations in hardware (from liquid cooling and renewable power to more efficient and powerful server designs) to flatten what could otherwise be an exponentially rising curve.

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SUSTAINABILITY

Capacity, computing power, and efficiency have all increased farther and faster than anyone could have expected allowing the industry to, for a few brief years, at least, match both the need for more (more, more, more!) capacity while flattening operational carbon emissions. Data centres, at least from this operational perspective, work at a level of efficiency that is nothing short of miraculous. However, this progress, innovation, and growth has a hidden cost. “With the increasing shift to the cloud, hyperscale and third party hosting/ colocation data centres, the IT equipment upgrade cycles are shortening to perhaps every two or three years, and certainly no more than five years,” says Andrew Gomarsall, MBE, the Executive Chairman of N2S. With an unprecedented appetite for capacity, especially in the growing

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N2S

bio chemist in lab

hyperscale portion of the industry, upgrade cycles are getting shorter as new technology is used to boost efficiency. However, as innovations (ironically often aimed at reducing the operating emissions of data centres) accelerate rapidly, “IT consumption volumes are accelerating enormously while the typical hardware life cycles are shortening due to this incredible acceleration in innovations,” he explains, noting that “While the data centre industry in general is clearly making huge strides in the race to net zero - through energy efficiency and other areas of sustainability, such as the use of 100% renewable power, on-site generation of solar and wind energy, more efficient servers, and cooling there is still much more to be done to optimise the lifecycle of hardware.” In short, despite messaging to the contrary, “We are still continuing to bend a linear model,” Gomarsall reflects.

recycle

April 2022

make

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Statista: Energy demand in data centers worldwide from 2015 to 2021, by type (in terawatt hours)

189 TWh Total power demand in 2015

“IT equipment upgrade cycles are shortening to perhaps every two or three years” ANDREW GOMARSALL MBE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, N2S

189 TWh Total power demand in 2018

DATA SUSTAINABILITY CENTRES

Kuul Evolution FirePro® Evaporative Cooling Media Keeping data centers at optimal temperatures using U.S. sourced, inorganic materials with innovative technology. Durable and sustainable evaporative media designed to keep the cloud going.

™

SUSTAINABILITY

“Perfectly usable equipment is routinely discarded… with almost 20% of it going straight to landfill or incineration” ANDREW GOMARSALL MBE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, N2S

N2S:

Circuit boards

“A one-way, non-stop ‘cradle to grave’ linear economy is not only wasteful, it creates toxic gases with the asset disposal often being carried out thousands of miles away in Africa and Asia, poisoning local communities.” Bending the Line Despite widespread efforts to draw down on operational emissions throughout the industry, the looming spectre of Scope 3 emissions (embedded carbon and other greenhouse

gases released as a result of looking farther up a value chain, from building materials to the emissions created by shipping equipment from the point of manufacture to the data centre) needs to be addressed, and quickly. A linear economic model, in which raw materials are mined, manufactured, used, and discarded, is no longer sufficient especially as electronic waste (e-waste) continues to be one of the fastest growing, most environmentally damaging (not to mention economically wasteful) sources of emissions.

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dispose X

“IN A LINEAR ECONOMY, A DATA CENTRE SERVER IS MANUFACTURED AND, WITHIN AROUND THREE YEARS, IT’S READY FOR DECOMMISSIONING” - Andrew Gomarsall MBE, Executive Chairman, N2S datacentremagazine.com

SUSTAINABILITY

Aceleron: Modular, Sustainable Power Storage For a More Circular Economy “Data centres require a resilient, constant and vast power supply which means that investing in several ‘layers’ of primary and backup power is a necessary evil. Not only is the equipment and energy itself far from cheap, but using diesel powered generators as a backup - although reliable - won’t help reduce a company’s carbon footprint,” says Carlton Cummins, co-founder and chief technical officer at clean technology firm Aceleron. “Many data centres already use batteries as a form of backup power, but often buy the cheapest lead-acid batteries available. There are several drawbacks to these types of battery: they don’t last particularly long, don’t store as much energy as other batteries, and can be temperamental due to their chemistry. For a facility that needs reliability and resilience, lead-acid batteries are clearly far

from an ideal solution. Add to this the serious issue of battery waste and the toxic process of recycling them and it becomes clear that now is the time for data centres to take another look at their power supply, sourcing more environmentally safe, longer term solutions.” Aceleron has turned to Lithium-ion batteries as a solution. The company’s Omega system provides 50kWh of energy storage per stack - up to three times more in the same footprint as a lead-acid battery. With a highly modular design, solar arrays integrated into the backup system to ease strain on the batteries, and more efficient storage, Aceleron claims its UPS systems lengthen life cycles, reduce emissions during use (as well as the embedded carbon in the manufacturing process), and are designed to be maintained rather than discarded and replaced.

Carlton Cummins co-founder and chief technical officer at clean technology firm Aceleron

April 2022

“A more accountable and circular data centre economy model ensures assets are being responsibly reclaimed, refurbished, resold and reused much closer to home” ANDREW GOMARSALL MBE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, N2S

“In a linear economy, a data centre server is manufactured and, within around three years, it’s ready for decommissioning which typically means disposal and ending up in landfill or being burned,” says Gomarsall. “Often, still perfectly usable equipment is routinely discarded, and with almost 20% of it going straight to landfill or incineration (according to UN estimates), far too much material, precious metals, earth materials and other valuable components are being wasted.” Globally, more than 50 million tonnes of e-waste are generated each year (the equivalent of all the commercial aircraft ever built). If nothing is done, that figure is expected to more than double by 2050 to around 120 million tonnes. “The material value of all this waste is unimaginable,” adds Gomarsall. “For printed circuit board waste alone, the UN puts the figure at $62.5 billion per year. These discarded components contain up to 40 rare and precious metals

including gold, silver, platinum, copper and palladium. Many of the materials used are in increasingly limited supply, or hard to access and are lost due to ritual processes with a detrimental effect to our planet. The irony is, a circular economy would drive better quality yields of material, for example, one tonne of iPhones would deliver 300 times more gold than a tonne of gold ore and 6.5 times more silver than a tonne of silver ore.”

Omega: single stack system by Aceleron

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SUSTAINABILITY

April 2022

Completing the Circle Whereas a linear economic model turns raw materials into a valuable good, then disposes of said good when its life cycle ends (the value of an iPhone drops from around a thousand dollars to essentially $0 when it breaks), a circular economic model creates cascading levels of value as the good receives “at least a second, if not a third or fourth or fifth life,” Gomarsall explains, “following the initial usage phase, with it being refurbished and used again, perhaps by the same organisation as before, or resold on the open market and used by another organisation.” He reflects that, “A more accountable and circular data centre economy model ensures assets are being responsibly reclaimed, refurbished, resold and reused much closer to home and, at the end of life, ethically and responsibly disposed and recycled by licensed operators.” The result isn’t just the much-needed decarbonisation of the data centre supply chain; potential benefits range from job creation and reduced supply chain issues to a healthier bottom line for data centre operators, as initial capital expenditures are recouped by selling still-functional, refurbished hardware to smaller operators.

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HOW WYOMING HYPERSCALE FORMED THE WORLD'S IDEAL DATA CENTRE

WRITTEN BY: BLAISE HOPE PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

April 2022

WYOMING HYPERSCALE

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WYOMING HYPERSCALE

Wyoming Hyperscale is Trenton Thornock's vision of a liquid-cooled, renewable-fueled, minimal power, no-water, and carbon-negative data centre made real

yoming Hyperscale White Box, or just Wyoming Hyperscale, has a story behind it that is a modern version of an old corporate founding retelling. A forwardthinking, future-proof, family firm in the Old American West. Wyoming Hyperscale is the brainchild of siblings on a family ranch near Evanston, Wyoming. Bought from a bankruptcy in the 1990s, the 12,000-acre plot sits 2,316 metres (7,600 feet) above sea level, on the northern ridgetop of Aspen Mountain. The tagline “The End of Air Cooling” spells out neatly how innovative the project is. It is a fully sustainable, innovative and allinclusive data centre solution. The project offers: a 30MW critical IT load, 10MW vaults using under 1200 square metres, a dedicated on-site substation with 120MW design capacity, 8 0kW average rack density, 100+kW/rack high-density compute capacity at scale, less than half the per megawatt capital cost of comparable cold plate HPC [high-performance computing] expansions. It is also the first “geothermalcoupled” hyperscale data centre known. According to the company itself, it is “the hyperscale you should have been planning and permitting for immediate construction two years ago” with the “potential for infinite runtime with diverse natural gas storage and multiple high pressure gas transmission lines 74

April 2022

Example of an image caption datacentremagazine.com

WYOMING HYPERSCALE

Wyoming Hyperscale

running through adjoining acreage owned by the family.” Trenton Thornock, the Founder and Managing Member of Wyoming Hyperscale White Box, says “one of the things we wanted to do was to create a situation where our tenants could find things that they can't find anywhere else in the world.” “My background as a CFO had me doing large scale industrial developments all over the world,” says Thornock. “I've built plants in China, started businesses in Russia and South America, and just everywhere else you can imagine.” Wyoming Hyperscale is Thornock’s purpose-driven mission and feels like a grand opus to a career of formidable industry and business relationships. Wyoming Hyperscale is a data centre project that uses negligible water and power by relying on Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC). “In addition to the operating efficiency…is a connection to an indoor farming facility.” 76

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Farming is carbon negative and by growing produce that is sold locally on the same land as the data centre, obviating the need for haulage from elsewhere, social value impact is embedded here for the community, climate and customer. The project uses resources on site, taps into renewable sources and maximises the use of an ideal situation by, frankly, making sure it is ideal from the planning stage. Benefits of the set-up run deep and by building the concept from the ground-up, Thornock can maximise the benefits of using LIC to speed up construction. “One of the benefits we get from liquid cooling is we don't have to hang a lot of stuff overhead, so all that HVAC equipment goes away,” says Thornock. “We still have pipes where we have to move the heat, but those can be on the floor, which means we don't have a lot of suspended stuff overhead. “That has a knock on effect in the engineering, in that our data halls are clear

span, metal buildings. To build a clear span metal building on a concrete slab takes less than three months.” The core benefit, though, is that switching from air cooling to Liquid Cooling reduces cost of cooling by 95%. Thornock runs the business, his brother Brady the ranch, and the five other siblings are silent partners. It is Thornock’s career supervising major industrial builds that makes the project possible. Bringing in all the right partners and expertise has also allowed the project to come online in just a few years. Construction on Phase 1 is ongoing but the partnerships that brought it together mean progress has been rapid. Construction began on January 3, 2022. The current expectation is to install 10 megawatts in October 2022, ten megawatts in November 2022, and ten megawatts in December 2022. Full commissioning of the first ten megawatts is expected to complete by the end of 2022.

TITLE: FOUNDER AND MANAGING MEMBER INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE LOCATION: HOUSTON, TEXAS, US

EXECUTIVE BIO

How partnerships and knowledge shaped a Hyperscale of the future Wyoming Hyperscale is the product of a lot of experience, a lot of expertise, a lot of interest from very large companies. Unsurprisingly, it is largely focused on providing for very large Content Delivery Networks, and while Thornock cannot name the clients lined up, they have been partners in the process, too. The will to set the solution up effectively comes in from all angles. That everybody involved knows what the market wants, could articulate it and then could make it happen actually owes less to the serendipity of the site itself and more to the people Wyoming Hyperscale has been able to draw on. Partnerships define this project’s success.

TRENTON THORNOCK

Trenton K. Thornock is Founder and Managing Member of Wyoming Hyperscale White Box, Chief Financial Officer of Wyoming Hyperscale Indoor Farms, and a Senior Consultant with the Boxley Group. He is also an owner of Hyperfuels, the first e-commerce racing fuels retailer and US distributor of TOTAL racing lubricants. Trenton was previously Chief Financial Officer for The Miller Group, a Trinity Hunt Partners portfolio company and Group Chief Financial Officer for WellDog, a high-growth energy technology company backed by Shell Ventures. He was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Scientific Drilling International, the world’s largest private horizontal and directional drilling company. He has served in senior and board roles at the Breitling Energy Corporation, ACI Jet, Duratherm, and U.S. Zinc. Thornock began his career at Arthur Andersen after graduating from the University of Utah and later held finance positions at PPG Industries, working across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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WYOMING HYPERSCALE

“ One of the things we wanted to do was to create a situation where our tenants could find things that they can't find anywhere else in the world” TRENTON THORNOCK

FOUNDER AND MANAGING MEMBER, WYOMING HYPERSCALE

Just as he cherry-picked technologies, Thornock did the same with people. “If I were to build this from scratch and hire all of these people,” explains Thornock, “first of all, it probably wouldn't be possible. And even if I had all the money in the world and it was possible to get all of these people to leave their current organisations and join me at a startup, it would take years to put together this team.

Lumen Technologies, a Fortune 500 telecoms company, joins J.M. Gross Engineering (and its owner John Gross), engineering firm BCER and smart data centre solutions firm Submer as key partners in the project. Sustainable goals all meet in one at Wyoming Hyperscale Wyoming Hyperscale is special in that, in a region experiencing a megadrought, it uses no water and while it uses far less energy than other data centres, what it does use is renewable. “There are two reasons we selected this location for the data centre,” says Thornock. “On the power side, we are surrounded by more than 400MW of existing wind power and our procurement agreement with Rocky Mountain Power has a 138KV power datacentremagazine.com

30MW Critical IT load 10MW vaults consuming less than 13,000 square feet of space each

120MW Design capacity at dedicated on-site substation

80kW Average rack density

100+kW Rack high-density compute capacity at scale, less than 1/2 the per megawatt capital cost of comparable cold plate HPC [high-performance computing] expansions

April 2022

WYOMING HYPERSCALE

line coming out of the switch where this wind power converges on the grid. As a former commodities firm CFO… We see a lot of our competitors going out and buying swaps or entering into power purchase agreements, but the electrons that they're consuming are not actually green. They're probably coming from a gas fired or coalfired plant somewhere.” This would have been the case for Wyoming Hyperscale, until it wasn’t. “In November 2021, when Bill Gates and TerraPower announced they're building an advanced nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which happens to be where the base load power on our local grid comes from… By 2028, we'll be still plugged into the same wind switch, but the baseload power on that grid is going to be nuclear. We'll be on one of the first completely decarbonised, non-hydro grids in North America. So now you've got a situation where the entire power generation is decarbonised. You've got a data centre that's 50% more efficient from a power consumption standpoint than air-cooled data centres. And it consumes no water.” Thornock has also made sure the project is linked into key data centre clusters and is using fibre in the area that is lying unused. “I think that it's important to note for people who want to understand the project that even though we're still in the construction phase, through our partnership with Lumen, we've activated a lot of the dark fibre that was already terminated near the site,” says Thornock. Aspen Mountain itself has a history that made this possible. It is one of the highest points on the Union Pacific railway line. Fibre cannot be laid inside active rail tunnels, so telecoms companies instead had to run them over the mountain to rejoin the tracks datacentremagazine.com

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WYOMING HYPERSCALE

right-of-way below. This meant all the work for splicing out from the fibre line and regenerating the signals was done - making it a far simpler proposition for network providers to get on board with. Wyoming Hyperscale is also fully plugged into strategic fibre exchanges. Thornock: “so the main Equinix exchange in Ashburn, we have private wavelength connection already, either ordered or being provisioned there. Same thing for downtown Manhattan and Wall Street, 32 Avenue of the Americas, a CoreSite LA 1, where we have the Asian cables landing and all the media connections, the Westin Exchange up in Seattle, the main exchange in Chicago, the

KEY PARTNERS: Lumen, J.M. Gross Engineering, BCER, Submer, Burns & McDonnell, FFKR Architects, Gensler, Forell | Elsesser structural engineers, Layton Construction, ZincFive, and many others

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DID YOU KNOW...

WYOMING HYPERSCALE

• No water consumption exacerbating the megadrought • No CRAC units, refrigerants or compressors with obsolescence risk of phasedown of production and consumption of hydroflourocarbons • No water near the ITE in the data halls - biodegradable dielectric cooling fluid [Submer SmartCoolant] only in the data hall side of the cooling system • UI Tier III, upgradeable to Tier IV • The hyperscale that will be left standing in only a few short years when any level of CFM air cooling at any temperature simply will not do the job • Data Center PUE around 1.05 with credits for heat produced monetised and returned to tenants resulting an an economic tPUE less than 1 • Low-carbon footprint, safe Zinc|Nickel battery powered UPS from ZincFive • Agricultural CO2 capture offsets available to tenants from Wyoming • Hyperscale Indoor Farms affiliate 'waste' heat reuse • REVIT-linked Carbon Life Cycle Assessment tracking building construction • Live facility level energy and sustainability reporting portal accessible to the public • Live tenant level energy and sustainability reporting via secure, private portal for tenants

April 2022

“So now you've got a situation where the entire power generation is decarbonized. You've got a data centre that's 50% more efficient from a power consumption standpoint than air cold data centres. And it consumes no water” TRENTON THORNOCK

FOUNDER AND MANAGING MEMBER, WYOMING HYPERSCALE

main exchange in Atlanta, we're connected to all those already, or those are currently being [set up]. “So that means that the Cisco switches that will connect the wavelengths are either in those facilities or being provisioned right now.” Sustainability in the 2020s is becoming defined by the embrace and collaborative approach of agendas by major firms across sectors. The importance of data centres as an underpinning to a hyperconnected world and supply chain has come hand-in-hand with the desire to build the future out with sustainability, emissions, water conservation, social value and business sense in mind. Wyoming Hyperscale is a case study for all of them.

datacentremagazine.com

CLOUD & EDGE

A NEW CHAPTER FOR KOREA’S DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY 86

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Increasing digitalisation of South Korea’s economy and a rush for the cloud is opening the door to a fundamental change in the peninsula’s data centre industry. WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

Jay Weon Khym Country Manager Korea, Digital Realty

rom an outsider’s perspective, South Korea’s economy presents itself as something of a contradiction. South Korea’s economy is the fourthlargest in Asia (10th in the world), and in many respects ranks among the most digitally transformed markets on the planet. The first commercial 5G network was launched in Korea, the country is home to the world’s largest electronics manufacturer (Samsung), and its government is only investing further into leveraging technology as the foundation of the Korean economy for the foreseeable future. Hard economics aside, South Korea’s cultural capital is on the rise as well. The country has rigorously promoted, packaged, and sold cultural assets (from K-Dramas and fashion to BTS) overseas, and its soft power has grown appropriately. By all accounts, South Korea is a major economic and social player in a globalised digital world. However, for international tech firms, one of the world’s leading digital economies remains largely untapped and inaccessible. However, this state of affairs is starting to change. “The South Korean economy has long been led by a select group of conglomerates,” explains Jay Weon Khym, Korean Country Manager at Digital Realty, referring to the large industrial conglomerates, known as “chaebol”, that dominate the country’s economy. datacentremagazine.com

CLOUD & EDGE

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CLOUD & EDGE

“The shift to a digital economy has created significant levels of demand for internet-based infrastructure” JAY WEON KHYM

COUNTRY MANAGER KOREA, DIGITAL REALTY

Samsung, Hyundai, SK Group, and LG Group are among the country’s most prominent chaebols and are each owned and run dynastically by a single family; it’s a system that verges on oligarchical, with conglomerates operating throughout virtually every level and facet of Korea society, from real estate and convenience stores to cutting edge telecom tech and, increasingly, digital infrastructure. In recent years, however, the growing digital transformation of Korea’s economy, driven by next generation industries such as payment technologies, AdTech, gaming and fintech, has created new room to breathe for servicebased digital enterprises, explains Khym. As a result, the country’s demand for digital

infrastructure is growing at an accelerated rate, and is starting to put cracks in the walls put up by domestic firms over the past three decades. “The shift to a digital economy has created significant levels of demand for internet-based infrastructure. Many Korean startups and enterprises are deploying cloud infrastructure platforms and the supporting ecosystem around this infrastructure will only continue to mature,” explains Kyme. “The emergence of South Korea as a rising data centre market has prompted data centre providers to expand their operations in this country. Global REITs or asset managements are constructing or planning to construct their own data centres in the country through joint ventures with local construction and engineering companies.” Digital Realty is one of the latest global data centre operators to capitalise on growing Korean demand for digital infrastructure, opening its first carrier-neutral data centre in the country earlier this year. datacentremagazine.com

CLOUD & EDGE

ICN10 - Digital Seoul 1 Located in the northwest region of Seoul, within the Sangam Digital Media City, Digital Seoul 1 is a 22,000 square foot, carrier-neutral site which Kyme explains “offers enterprises superior connectivity with direct access to all local exchange carriers in the South Korean market,” and will serve as the foundation for further data centre developments already underway.

Digital Realty's Digital Seoul 1 (ICN10) Data Center Virtual Tour

April 2022

“ South Korea is currently at the nascent stage of developing its public cloud sector” JAY WEON KHYM

COUNTRY MANAGER KOREA, DIGITAL REALTY

While South Korea’s digital economy already leads the world in some areas, like 5G, the country’s development in relative isolation from the rest of APAC and the west has left its public cloud and AI sectors behind the curve. As these verticals begin to see greater investment - both foreign and domestic - however, the next few years are poised to present immense opportunities for the companies with an established presence. “South Korea is currently at the nascent stage of developing its public cloud sector,

but the sector is poised to witness significant growth in the coming years,” Khym explains. He highlights a recent study from BCG, which found the South Korean public cloud market is expected to double in size within five years, reaching $3.1 billion in 2023. As of 2020, the cloud utilisation rate by South Korean enterprises stood at just 12.9%, less than half of the average OECD rate of 30.6%. “However, demand has since grown significantly, as many turn to cloud solutions to continue schooling, working and datacentremagazine.com

CLOUD & EDGE

conducting business as per normal during the pandemic,” Khym continues. He adds: “Interestingly, while domestic technology conglomerates such as Naver have been increasingly growing their cloud presence, the cloud computing market remains dominated by global cloud service providers, who are top players across the three main as-a-service categories: infrastructure,

“ Hyperscalers from the United States and China are set to advance into Korea to capture a slice of the growing cloud service market” JAY WEON KHYM

COUNTRY MANAGER KOREA, DIGITAL REALTY

software, and platform. However, competition is heating up. Hyperscalers from the United States and China are set to advance into Korea to capture a slice of the growing cloud service market. At the same time, many Korean companies are stepping up their efforts to boost their presence in the market, and the government too has continued to invest heavily in building out its domestic cloud ecosystem. In particular, there is a strong focus from the government on large-scale cloud transformation of entire public sectors including public information systems, civilian cloud support and other government-initiated cloud projects. To achieve this, the government has introduced cloud-friendly budget guidelines, contract systems for dedicated digital services, and dedicated professional distribution platforms of digital services.” 92

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In the decade to come, South Korea is poised for explosive data centre growth. While the country leads the world in adoption of data intensive technologies, including 5G, big data analytics, media streaming, and industrial IoT automation, South Korea’s data centre sector is still affecting the transition from enterprise facilities to a colocationcentric market. Currently, the country hosts

just half a dozen hyperscale data centres - a figure that’s expected to explode along with the country’s public cloud industry over the coming decade, but the world’s 10th largest economy still finds itself scrambling to develop a data centre sector worth less than $6 billion. “From hyperscale to edge to colocation, global data centre platforms that house

all the elements of this digital ecosystem, and have access to the right public cloud platforms, are far and few between in a market like South Korea,” Khym explains, adding that Digital Realty’s global PlatformDIGITAL hopes to be (a very profitable) part of the solution to any digital growing pains the Peninsula is about to experience. datacentremagazine.com

KDDI SET TO ENTER

THE THAILAND MARKET WITH

TELEHOUSE CARRIER NEUTRAL DC

April 2022

AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: ILKHAN OZSEVIM PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

datacentremagazine.com

KDDI TELEHOUSE

The Carrier-Neutral Data Centre company KDDI Telehouse is preparing to enter the Thailand market to meet growing demand in a rapidly developing data ecosystem

magine that you live in a city where you could enjoy all of your daily activities and entertainment in one place without going out of town, such as a shopping mall or amusement park. The concept of a carrier neutral data centre (DC) is the same” says Manabu Takagi, General Manager of KDDI Telehouse, Global Data Center Business. Carrier-Neutral DCs are a breed of DC architecture that resolve connectivity issues that can transpire from being attached to more conventional data centres. ‘With multiple connectivity partners located in a carrier-neutral DC, customers can obtain all the connectivity services they need - such as internet services - from service providers within the DC. They also benefit from the low latency, greater efficiency and reliability, and greater flexibility that the DC environment can offer’ he says. The obvious implication is that data centres lacking carrier neutrality can suffer from the limitations that KDDI Telehouse is providing solutions for. Data centres that are ‘carrier-biased’ can restrict their users to just a single connectivity service, a need to venture out of their remote digital villages to access their limited digital services, which can be inconvenient, costly and even risky. KDDI Telehouse solves this problem by allowing its clients the freedom to quickly shift between the multiple services available to their customers within their carrier neutral network.

April 2022

Manabu

TAKAGI

Example of an image caption datacentremagazine.com

MANABU TAKAGI TITLE: G ENERAL MANAGER OF GLOBAL DATA CENTER BUSINESS INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: JAPAN Manabu Takagi is the general manager of Global Data Center Business at KDDI headquarter excluding Japan. He leads the international business unit that manages strategic planning and business development such as M&A and partnering, and also manages the profitability of overseas data center business. With an over 15-year specialized experience in the data center and business development field and joined KDDI after working for PwC and a consulting firm specializing in DC. Manabu holds a master’s degree in Law from Waseda University in Japan.

“ AS AN ENERGY SAVING STRATEGY, ONE OF OUR BIGGEST STRENGTHS CONSISTS OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT DATA CENTRES WITH A LOW PUE (POWER USAGE EFFECTIVENESS)”

KDDI TELEHOUSE

“Moreover,” says Manabu Takagi, “carrierneutral DCs can increase speed to market by enabling connections to providers quickly and creating strategic networks with customers to improve their service offerings. Customers can therefore enjoy the rich connectivity and flourish in this DC ‘city’.” Before joining KDDI Telehouse, Takagi worked with a consulting firm - one of the Big Four, plus another firm specialising in DC’s and has had over 10 years of experience in the data centre industry. He joined KDDI in 2017 as Strategic Planning Manager. Now General Manager of Telehouse, Global Data Center Business, Manabu Takagi is responsible for the global Data Centre team excluding Japan - with roles and responsibilities spanning across strategic planning, business development and business management. KDDI Telehouse opened its first data centre in New York in 1989, initially providing services for Japanese banks and trading companies. They gradually expanded their global footprint

as a result of increased demand in the market. Takagi says,“the growth of public cloud has changed the market significantly and they have changed their strategy accordingly, to focus on building interconnection hubs in key and upcoming data centre markets”. Sustaining DCCI operation and expansion through Sustainability Describing KDDI Telehouse’s approach to sustainability, he says, “We understand that sustainability - and especially achieving carbon neutrality - is a major initiative for our customers and the data centre market as a whole. KDDI Telehouse has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and we’re working on achieving 50% by 2030 against a 2019 baseline”. In order to implement actionable steps, KDDI Telehouse has departmentalised the process, thereby creating measurable systems and organisational feedback loops to achieve these goals. datacentremagazine.com

KDDI TELEHOUSE

Takagi says, “achieving carbon neutrality is a key business challenge and opportunity that KDDI Telehouse is striving to achieve. One of the main steps that we have taken is to create a ‘Sustainability Management Department’ in April this year, which will focus on sustainability measures for the entire group, including carbon neutrality”. Telehouse has already made significant strides towards achieving these targets with 70% of its energy resources being converted into renewable energy. “For the countries where renewable energy is not yet in place,” Takagi explains, “we will gradually promote carbon neutralisation by offsetting CO2.” “As a data centre operator that both owns and operates its facilities, we have been working to reduce our energy consumption related to carbon neutral conversion, and this energy saving is directly related to the design and construction stages right through to operations." “One of our key strengths consists of highly efficient data centres with low PuE (Power usage Effectiveness),” he says. “One of our flagship data centres, Telehouse North Two - located in London and launched 5 years’ ago - was designed and built to world-class standards to deliver low PuE by incorporating the world’s first multi-story adiabatic cooling system.” KDDI Telehouse’s reach is truly global, with 100 offices located in 60 major cities between them. Speaking of their European data centre operations, Takagi says: “We have presence in London, Paris and Frankfurt, operating our most connected data centre campuses out of London and Paris.” They opened their first data centre building, Telehouse North, at Telehouse, London Docklands in 1989. It was the first purpose-built carrier-neutral data centre in 100

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SUSTAINABILITY Telehouse has already made significant strides towards achieving these targets with 70% of its energy resources being converted into renewable energy.

“IMAGINE THAT YOU LIVE IN A CITY WHERE YOU COULD ENJOY ALL OF YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ONE PLACE WITHOUT GOING OUT OF TOWN, SUCH AS A SHOPPING MALL OR AMUSEMENT PARK. THE CONCEPT OF A CARRIER NEUTRAL DATA CENTRE (DC) IS THE SAME MANABU TAKAGI

GENERAL MANAGER OF GLOBAL DATA CENTER BUSINESS, KDDI

Europe at that time. Since then, their London Docklands campus has developed to become a leading connectivity hub in London. This was a result of relationships developed with partners such as The London Internet Exchange (LINX), one of the largest internet exchanges in the world, which made Telehouse London Docklands its primary home more than 25 years ago. The London Docklands campus provides access to more than 500 carriers/ISPs, as well as direct access to AWS and Microsoft Azure. In addition to the existing four data centre buildings in London, they are set to further expand the campus and open a new building, Telehouse South, in March this year in response to increasing demand in the London market. In Paris, KDDI Telehouse’s data centres host Paris’ foremost internet hub, with France IX’s internet traffic travelling through its Telehouse Voltaire data centre, making it the most connected data centre in France. Takagi says: “Just outside of Paris, we have another data centre, Telehouse MagnyLes-Hameaux, offering 66,000 sqm of floor space, which is a good fit for the customers expecting future space growth. The Magny campus is strategically positioned as a datacentremagazine.com

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site that can connect back to our Voltaire campus through a dark fibre network between the two campuses.” In 2020, they also expanded their data centre services in Frankfurt, with the addition of a fifth building at the Telehouse Frankfurt campus. The space was quickly filled thanks to customer demand. Preparing for entry into the Thailand Market KDDI Telehouse have also just announced their entry into the Thailand market. KDDI Telehouse has leased a plot in Rama IX, central Bangkok, to leverage the connectivity network of local carriers for its KDDI Telehouse Bangkok facility, with the location close to the financial district in Thailand. Planning has already begun on the threestory facility, with the initial phase targeted to be completed by Q2 2023. 102

April 2022

This facility will provide 4MW of IT power over 32,000 sqm of space when complete. KDDI Telehouse has taken full equity ownership of its enterprise in Thailand, where the business is 100% owned by KDDI group, including its subsidiary in Singapore and Thailand. “We firmly believe that the timing is right to enter Thailand,” Takagi says . “While many data centre operators have ambitious plans to build large, wholesale facilities around the Asia-Pacific region, KDDI Telehouse intends to offer a well-connected, carrier-neutral data centre on an international scale.” Thailand is historically a tourism and manufacturing hub, so Bangkok has not really featured in the data centre market until recently, when accelerated digitalization in the wake of the pandemic has brought cloud providers’ attention to the market and highlighted its potential.

KDDI TELEHOUSE

A key issue faced by international customers that own network nodes in APAC is the lack of pure carrier-neutral data centres in the market, including Bangkok. Although US hyperscalers have yet to clearly indicate plans to set up cloud regions in Southeast Asia, KDDI Telehouse’s interconnection services may well boost the market’s attractiveness to international cloud providers, as well as to other firms that are only just noticing the market’s potential. “One of my responsibilities,” Takagi explains,is business development, which is to expand our data centre footprint in regions such as Thailand. We have been exploring opportunities in several markets around the world. In Thailand, we entered the market with full-ownership of our data centre business and there are no restrictions on the form of entry. Our aim is to utilise the appropriate model for each market and to develop the right partnerships.”

“ WE FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT THE TIMING IS RIGHT TO ENTER THAILAND” MANABU TAKAGI

GENERAL MANAGER OF GLOBAL DATA CENTER BUSINESS, KDDI datacentremagazine.com

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In terms of KDDI Telehouse’s ethos, he says: “We will continue to put our customers first, expand steadily and provide data centres with the highest level of connectivity in the market, without being influenced by the external environment.” Commenting on future trends in the industry, Takagi says: “As for data centre operators, I believe that the corporate value of data centres, such as EBITDA, will continue to be around 20-25. Boosted by this situation and the perspective of a long-term capital investment business, there may be a new form of business that sells out after launch.”

KDDI TELEHOUSE

“However, I don’t think there will be any major movements, such as player changes, which happened in the last 3-5 years.” Additionally, Takagi plans to shift from traditional data center hubs into new regions. Looking at rapid market growth in Southeast Asia and considering the issue with Singapore's moratorium on establishing a new data center, it is presently impractical to secure enough capacity to support the explosive growth in Southeast Asia. He predicts that Thailand could hold the key to solving South East Asia’s digital traffic problem.

Thailand is geopolitically located at the center of Southeast Asia, and is the midpoint for traffic and Internet traffic, including submarine cables and land routes. Suppose a cloud region or an alternative function is installed in Thailand. In that case, the route will shift to away from Singapore, and consequently Telecom carriers and NW managers in Southeast Asia will consider further strategic changes to the architecture to provide a better service. Considering Tier 2 or 3 data centre markets, such as those in emerging countries where the entry of cloud players is expected, KDDI Telehouse’s prediction is that fierce competition between local operators and global players will occur with the aim of expanding scale, especially for hyperscale data centres. KDDI Telehouse has achieved considerable success with its network-dense data centers in developed markets such as London, and it hopes to replicate a similar business model in Bangkok. They have worked closely with telco carriers in other markets, and the liberalised Telco sector in Thailand offers a friendly environment for the firm to pursue this business model. ‘We believe that our interconnection services may well boost the market’s attractiveness to international cloud providers and other firms that are only just noticing the market’s potential’ says Takagii, ‘as it is in its early days and has yet to experience the scale of growth seen in Indonesia’. In view of this Takagi predicts that “interconnected data centre demand is likely to grow in emerging data centre cities.”

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Despite high levels of digitalisation, Europe remains resistant to public cloud adoption, prompting the industry to shift its footing WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR datacentremagazine.com

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urope is home to some of the most mature digital economies in the world, which nevertheless continue to see strong, continuous growth yearon-year throughout their data centre sectors. However, despite strong growth throughout the FLAP-D markets (the region’s five largest locations for data centre development; Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin) Europe remains a largely untapped market for the public cloud sector. “Enterprise adoption of the cloud in Europe is still relatively low. It’s about 19% on average, thanks to strong numbers in Western Europe and the Nordics, but in some countries it's as low as 7-9%,” says Matt Pullen, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for US data centre giant CyrusOne’s European operations (which amount to nearly 218 MW across the FLAP-D markets, with additional projects expanding farther afield as well). “We're seeing Europe continuing to play catchup - particularly with North America - in terms of the region's migration from an enterprise-dominated industry to the cloud.” For a region with a highly digitalised economy, broadly high GDP, and a data centre industry valued at more than $47.5 billion in 2021 (a few hundred million dollars more than the entire economy of Lithuania, just to put it into perspective), the relatively low penetration of public cloud especially in the South and East - in Europe is something of a puzzle. 108

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“ENTERPRISE ADOPTION OF THE CLOUD IN EUROPE IS STILL RELATIVELY LOW” MATT PULLEN

EVP, MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROPE, CYRUSONE

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“THERE'S STILL THE ISSUE THAT THE OUTSOURCING OPTIONS IN THE EUROPEAN DATA CENTRE AND CLOUD SPACE ARE STILL LARGELY TO NORTH AMERICAN COMPANIES” MATT PULLEN

EVP, MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROPE, CYRUSONE

Resisting the Cloud A large part of why public cloud adoption has lagged, both in Europe generally, but specifically in countries like Italy, Spain, and much of Eastern Europe, is cultural, explains Pullen. “If you think about attitudes towards outsourcing generally in Europe, culturally it isn't embraced - certainly in Southern European nations - the way it is in the US, for example,” he says. “That's just the culture.” The split - where a few Northern European countries and virtually all of North America embraced outsourced data centres, and much of Europe didn’t - started to form around the turn of the millennium during what Pullen describes as the “enterprise phase.”

“Post-9/11, when regulation came to bear that said data centres needed to be located away from headquarters buildings, have more resilient architecture, and so on, a lot of American and Northern European countries and companies embraced the colocation market,” he explains. “They saw the colocation data-centre-as-a-service providers as a useful tool to stay compliant and safe without breaking the bank.” Southern European countries, on the other hand, took a dimmer view of colocation - an attitude which has carried over into the public cloud era. “In Southern Europe, by contrast, you generally saw companies building their own data centres, particularly the big banks,” says Pullen. “Culturally, those countries just don't like to outsource; they like to touch and feel their own assets.” As the benefits of public cloud continue to be reinforced - especially as Europe’s datacentremagazine.com

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“ WE'RE NOT SEEING ANY FALL-OFF IN GROWTH” MATT PULLEN

EVP, MANAGING DIRECTOR EUROPE, CYRUSONE

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data privacy and sovereignty regulations continue to evolve - this cultural barrier, at the very least, appears to be falling across the continent. The benefits, Pullen explains, simply far outweigh the costs. “I think what we're seeing with the growth of the digital economy is that those traditional cultural barriers to outsourcing are being somewhat transcended,” he speculates. “It is so much easier to outsource to the cloud. It deals with a whole myriad of issues, particularly to do with legacy data centres that companies may still be operating. And it helps support the sustainability agenda of a lot of corporate organisations.” Public cloud companies are starting to make spirited pushes into new European markets. CyrusOne - which, along with other

data centre firms, goes where the hyperscale demand is - recently made its first push into Madrid, where Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are both in the process of preparing new cloud regions for launch. However, lurking behind the first barrier is another one that, for AWS and Microsoft, is a lot harder to surpass. “We Want European Cloud” “There's still the issue that the outsourcing options in the European data centre and cloud space are still largely to North American companies. In certain European countries, that doesn't sit all that well,” explains Pullen. In fact, Europe is having a very antiAmerican cloud moment. In February, the European Union’s privacy watchdog

launched joint investigations with 22 national regulators into the use of cloudbased services like AWS by public sector organisations throughout the EU. The French government put more than $2 billion dollars into beefing up its domestic cloud industry in November of last year, with French cloud provider OVH Cloud, along with its domestic contemporary Atos, pitching “100% European public cloud services” to its customers using Atos' digital sovereignty service, Onecloud Sovereign Shield. In September of the last year, Google (somewhat ironically) began working with Deutsche Telekom on the creation of a German Sovereign Cloud. The EU-sponsored pan-European public cloud initiative Gaia-X continues to gather funding and support for a way to de-couple public cloud from datacentremagazine.com

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“ [PUBLIC CLOUD] ADOPTION IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE WILL BECOME FASTER AS BEST PRACTICE CASES FROM WESTERN EUROPE ARE REPLICATED” DIVYA WAKANKAR

VP ENTERPRISE MARKET, BICS

North American hyperscalers, who have seen their reputations tarnished in the court of public affairs for largely non public cloudrelated issues. “Take Paris, for example. It's been one of the fastest growing markets in Europe for the last couple of years, but there is definitely a lot of negative public sentiment there towards North American hyperscalers,” says Pullen. “Look at Ireland. The whole economy has been driven by the tech era, yet there's a huge amount of negative public sentiment towards data centres. Now, I think the problem is that the industry is finally on the radar.” Whether a problem of misinformation, lack of effective education of the industry’s real sustainability impact (which Pullen stresses is misunderstood and blown out of proportion by the public), or genuine cause of concern, from some angles it looks like the North American public cloud sector may struggle to maintain - let alone grow - its beachhead in Europe. Despite the fact “It's definitely an optical issue,” Pullen doesn’t see North American hyperscalers losing out on the European market any time soon. Quite the reverse. “We're not seeing any fall-off in growth,” he says. “In Europe this year we're probably

going to see more of the same in the sense that demand, especially from the hyperscalers, is driving market growth, as it has for the last few years. We're not seeing any abatement of that growth any time soon.” Divya Wakankar, VP Enterprise Market at Belgian telecom firm BICS, agrees, citing increasing data privacy regulation as a key driver of public cloud adoption in Europe. “In the coming years, we expect to see additional legislation implemented. Companies that decide to combat this by holding only private cloud systems will feel the financial burden of trying to replicate systems that are readily available on public clouds,” she explains. “Hyperscalers have previously been limited by their marketing budgets in certain regions, creating barriers when it comes to education and promotion. We expect to see this change in the coming years and predict adoption in Eastern and Southern Europe will become faster as best practice cases from Western Europe are replicated.” It’s a matter of when, rather than “if”, Europe’s digital future will step farther into the public cloud. But whose cloud it will be still remains to be seen. Right now, North American hyperscalers remain ahead, but they certainly shouldn’t take that lead for granted. datacentremagazine.com

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SET TO TAKE OVER

WRITTEN BY: ILKHAN OZSEVIM PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

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ClusterPower has just become an alternative for the entire FLAP region using AI and high energy efficiency in its promising DC

“

e have just become an alternative to the entire FLAP area,” says Vladimir Ester, CTO of ClusterPower, as the company position themselves to become one of the most groundbreaking DC centres in Central and Eastern Europe. The FLAP areas are Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris — the four cities considered to be the primary markets for all new data centre deployments. Located in Romania, ClusterPower’s five hyperscale Data Centres (DCs) are of a magnitude and scalability that promises to see them become the leading provider for the entire region, while enabling them to tap into international markets. All five data centres are scheduled for completion by 2025, by which time they will be housed in a 273,000 SQM campus, sustainably producing a total capacity of 200MW. So this is hyperscale technology — but not as you know it. Ester comes from a strong technological background and has acted as an infrastructure engineer, as well as a solutions architect, for data centre and internet service provider deployments throughout most of his career. He has also been a CCIE — Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert — for almost 10 years, with this expertise laying the technical foundations for project ClusterPower.

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COSMIN GEORGESCU TITLE: CEO INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE AND CLOUD PROVIDER LOCATION: ROMANIA

EXECUTIVE BIO

Proficient professional with more than 20 years of experience in energy infrastructure and complex technological projects, as a direct lead. Select achievements include: Design and permitting of the first wind farms for Electrica (52 MW), EPC for Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant - Data centers for Microsoft, Bosch, Radet Constanta (partnership with Siemens), and Fan Courier - The first cogeneration plant in Bucharest (2MW), Brasov (1 MW), Vatra Dornei (3 MW) - The first photovoltaic park in Romania (1MW). And Energetic infrastructure projects for Romania’s main energy providers (Enel, Transelectrica) and prominent real estate developers Mr. Georgescu holds certifications in project management, software development, security systems, network design, is a Cisco Professional and and EMBA graduate.

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CLUSTERPOWER

“ We have just become an alternative for the entire FLAP area” VLADIMIR ESTER CTO, CLUSTERPOWER

“I think that this skill set has really prepared me to both design and implement largescale infrastructure projects,” he says. “So, in the last couple of years, I've moved away from engineering towards management and entrepreneurship, joining Cosmin and the rest

of the team, and I’m now managing all of the infrastructure aspects related to our campus.” “We are very experienced in our fields,” says Cosmin Georgescu, CEO of ClusterPower, “and I have been closely involved in both energy and technology projects for over 20 years now, so it was a natural move to have our own assets and to build our own Data Centre and technology campus.” ClusterPower is the first ever Hyperscale Data Centre in Central and Eastern Europe; both the technological and operational vision behind it is just as huge. Georgescu possesses a fundamental knowledge of Cisco training and certifications, as well as for Project Management, with these experiences leading to the development of the first data centre in Romania for Microsoft, Bosch, and Amazon. He’s also worked on several large national projects and datacentremagazine.com

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ClusterPower is a Green Hyperscale DC Set To Take Over

infrastructures, including a nuclear power plant, Romania's first wind farm, and its first photovoltaic plant. Speaking about Clusterpower’s capabilities he says: “We can host large scale infrastructure deployments in a custom, fit-out way. We are very flexible in customising services for our clients. We can host for clients and customers that either want to expand in the Central Eastern European region, or that want to optimise their current infrastructure.” A Green Energy Data Centre Powerhouse One of the main cross-industry concerns with hyperscale DCs is potential energy wastage. But, through strategic partnerships, ClusterPower has devised an innovative solution: build a powerful data park that is not only operationally effective, but also highly sustainable and extremely energy efficient. 122

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“We are focusing on green energy, power and efficiency,” says Georgescu, and that focus is already yielding major returns. ClusterPower has a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of just 1.1, which is considered very low across the industry. “We produce our own power and cooling at the same time and, to come up with such an innovative solution, we worked with our partners, Rolls-Royce MTU (hydrogen-engine solutions), which makes us not only extremely efficient but also allows us to function independently, while greatly reducing business interruption risks.” Continuity of service is absolutely critical to DC hosting, since entire data infrastructures depend on their uninterrupted operations. “We already have eight redundant fibre connections on site,” Georgescu says, “and that’s just in the first phase.” Redundant connections are essentially duplicate

VLADIMIR ESTER TITLE: CTO INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE AND CLOUD PROVIDER

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: ROMANIA Ester has worked in IT infrastructure and services for over 15 years, gaining a vast of amount of experience in this time. Select achievements include: design and deployment of Data Center for Defense, Design and deployment of Data Center for a US-based Fortune 100 insurance company, Migration to the cloud for 13 government institutions in Abu Dhabi, infrastructure design and maintenance for the worldwide premier owner and operator of shopping centers. Before Cluster Power, Mr. Ester was with Cisco and one of Romania’s largest telcos (as data center manager). Mr. Ester holds a Master in Cybersecurity and advanced industry certifications: Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE #36295), Cisco Certified Design Professional, Cisco Advance Routing and Switching, Cisco Daca Center Unified Fabric Specialist. As a key member of the Cluster Power team, Mr. Ester is taking the lead in the development and engineering design of the company’s services and assessment of new markets, all while maintaining a customer-centric mindset by keeping the cost and speed of the client go-to-market in balance.

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CLUSTERPOWER

“We are focusing on green energy, power and efficiency” COSMIN GEORGESCU CEO, CLUSTERPOWER

databases that are ready for access in the event of unforeseen circumstances. “We have also established the base of our digital highway connections to Frankfurt and Amsterdam. ClusterPower’s infrastructure already provides our clients with hundreds of racks, as well as off-PCs for 200 people that may be used to resolve business interruptions.” This means that, if their clients have a failover in a large European city, they can take a flight to nearby international airports — which are just 20 minutes away from ClusterPower’s base — and continue to work directly in their data centres with 20 or 40 people without any interruption, depending on their use-case.

ClusterPower is a real powerhouse of a Data Centre. Its sheer output of 200MW will allow it to produce its own sustainable electricity in-line with EU regulations, from its strategically positioned location. Georgescu says: “One important aspect of our project is being located in the EU, which means that we follow all European security and data privacy guidelines and, geographically speaking, we are at the gateway between East, West, North and South. This gateway is positioned to reach and supply a multitude of cities that can in turn reach us and our populations here.” ClusterPower’s geographic placement is a decisive point of client-attraction. He says that the company is “in an area with very low seismic activity for about an 800 km radius”, providing both security and critical dependability as a direct consequence of its site location. datacentremagazine.com

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“ We surpass even the Tier-Three requirements of an uptime of 99.985%” COSMIN GEORGESCU CEO, CLUSTERPOWER

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Core Principles of Security and Resilience Security and resilience are core principles of ClusterPower, as well as the design and digital architecture being built entirely around them. ClusterPower’s campus is protected according to military standards and continuously monitored by over 200 HD cameras. All access is controlled by specific security procedures, with individual security levels for each rack, row and room — including biometric access technology. ClusterPower’s security-first model can be divided into two areas: the first is

CLUSTERPOWER

increase data transfer speeds — the company has spared no expense. This means that, according to its own calculations, ClusterPower surpasses even the Tier-Three requirements of an uptime of 99.985%. And Georgescu believes the company can exceed even that. All of these cutting-edge components and systems render ClusterPower a truly formidable competitor in the Data Centre industry. “We see ourselves as the gold standard,”’ says Ester. “From physical infrastructure, connectivity, utilities, resiliency — all the way up to the most advanced IT and technological appliances in our DC — everything has been conceived as stateof-the-art, even down to the procurement process, where we have chosen to work only with industry leaders for their segments.” “All of the networking infrastructure is being deployed in a partnership with Cisco.

related to specialised cyber security equipment, such as next-generation firewalls and its own distributed denial of service protection (DDOS), scrubbing centre and web applications; the second area is related to systems’ resilience, which provides a powerful infrastructure that will remain operational even during an attack or disaster. All of ClusterPower’s implemented solutions are fully redundant and, in terms of N+N — database duplicates that effectively datacentremagazine.com

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We use Paolo Alto and F5, who are leaders in security and low-balancing; we're using NetApp and grid storage solutions; and, last but not least, we work with NVIDIA and the our co-created AI platform, which is indeed a gold standard all on its own in the AI industry.”

DID YOU KNOW...

Artificial Intelligence and Supercomputing Data ClusterPower firmly believes that machine learning and artificial intelligence applications are here to stay, as they present both a huge market opportunity and a decisive direction for the industry to move in, as a whole. Ester says: “This is very closely related to other technologies, such as twin digital ecosystems like metaverse. This all relates to AI. Clusterpower has decided to fill in the gap of being the first cloud provider to offer AI as a service in this region, and we have built this service alongside NVIDIA, which means that we have installed Romania’s first supercomputer based on the DGX platform from NVIDIA, alongside Mellanox Infiniband Switch and NetApp storage.”

Cluster Power is one of Central Europe’s most ambitious technology projects, that not only offers competitive and resilient infrastructure in Eastern Europe but also empowers society to be more connected. It is one of the largest, most scalable, and technologically advanced hyperscale centers in Europe, with a capacity that can reach 200 MW and over 4,500 racks, at maturity. Cluster Power aims at being a one-stop shop for technological solutions. The hyperscale campus shall address a multitude of enterprise needs, either directly or through its partners' ecosystem, starting with the fundamentals of colocation space for racks to higher valueadding Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service solutions.

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ClusterPower officially inaugurated its first DataCentre, on April 1st 2022. The DC is located in Mischii, Dolj County, and put ClusterPower on the map as the largest provider of cloud and compute in Eastern Europe

50+

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“ Together we all share a vision to promote a project that will change the world for the better” COSMIN GEORGESCU CEO, CLUSTERPOWER

April 2022

In a nutshell, this is a certified supercomputer that ClusterPower is offering as a service to its customers who want to either train their own AI models or run their AI-based applications in. “So we fit both models with the same infrastructure, research, training and inferencing,” says Ester. “This is a very scalable and flexible service model that we have designed, and I think that with this kind of service offering, we are pioneers in the field — not just the region.”

Georgescu reaffirms this perspective: “It provides us with a very powerful tool for management and cost optimisation, as well as for predictive maintenance. This has already been implemented on our campus, where we’re using artificial intelligence for energy optimisation as well as forecasting. “Most importantly, we have a great ecosystem of partners and a very seasoned team,” says Georgescu. “Together, we all share a vision to promote a project that will change the world for the better — which

means that, not only do we aim to support our customers to achieve their most ambitious goals, but we can help them become part of a transformational process, such as largescale use of trust policy AI, which will benefit regional developments in making them both competitive and unique, while allowing them to use state-of-the-art tools.”

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CENTRES

This month, Data Centre Magazine celebrates 10 of the women leading the data centre industry in terms of strategy, expertise, and experience WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

2022

is set to be a pivotal year for the data centre industry, as the sector attempts to thread the needle between insatiable demand and a rising tide of sustainability concerns; as next-generation technology trends like 5G and the Edge continue to

throw the future of digital transformation into flux; as the world continues to reel from supply chain shortages brought on by the pandemic; and as the data centre sector continues to grapple with its own skill shortage. More than ever, the industry needs leadership and talent. datacentremagazine.com

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Amber Caramella Chief Revenue Officer

Netrality

Amber Caramella has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and technology industries, holding both sales and leadership roles. Prior to joining Netrality, she held key positions at Zayo, CenturyLink, XO Communications and Allegiance Telecom. In her current position, Caramella is responsible for Netrality’s revenue generation strategy and execution, including overseeing sales, marketing, strategic alliances, and channel partnerships.

Brittany Miller

Vice President, Design Construction Supply Chain

NTT Global Data Centers North America A veteran of executive roles at both Microsoft and Intel, Brittany Miller as been working as NTT’s VP of Design Construction Supply Chain since October of 2020. She is responsible for leading new data centre construction projects for NTT GDC’s operations in the Americas, building out the firm’s footprint following NTT’s acquisition of Ragingwire in 2018. She has a bachelors of science and construction engineering, and an MBA from Arizona State University.

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Patricia Rodríguez Henríquez

Data Centre Operations Manager Austria

Microsoft

A relatively new hire for Microsoft, as the company works to establish its first cloud region in Austria following the announcement made roughly 14 months ago - Patricia Rodríguez Henríquez nevertheless brings the right combination of market, technical, and business experience to the initiative. Prior to joining Microsoft, she worked in a number of technical and executive roles in the Spanish data centre market, and has led the Spanish chapter of the Infrastructure Masons since 2018.

Shalini Lagrutta

Chief Executive Officer

DXN

Taking the reins of Australian data centre newcomer DXN earlier this year, Shalini Lagrutta initially joined the company in 2019 as its head of global sales. During this time she secured several key wins for the company focused on developing the Australia and APAC markets for deployment of DXN’s edge data centres. Now, she plans on continuing to grow the business as CEO. Earlier this year, Lagrutta was named by Infrastructure Masons as one of the top 100 people in 2021 who contributed to the digital infrastructure industry in meaningful and measurable ways. datacentremagazine.com

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Sustainability Performance

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TOP 10

Missy Young

Chief Information Officer

Kim Anstett

Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer

Switch

Iron Mountain

As the CIO of one of the industry’s most unique data centre operators, Missy Young is responsible for creating fundamental and sustainable change in the way clients ultimately design and implement intelligent data strategies. Young joined Switch in 2005, helping to take the company public in 2017 - the same year she took on the role of CIO. She is also a vocal advocate for the certification path of education for young students who desire to enter the technology field.

Kim Anstett joined Iron Mountain in May of 2019 as the company’s CIO, bringing more than 25 years of experience from throughout the corporate technology sector to the role. She was promoted to Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer 12 months later. Now, Anstett leverages her extensive experience in development and deployment of global products, enterprise platforms, data analytics, digital transformation, and cyber security to support Iron Mountain’s ongoing growth and sustainability efforts. Throughout her career, she has also been a constant champion of early career development and diversity and inclusion programs.

TOP 10

Funke Opeke CEO

MainOne For more than a decade, Funke Opeke has been one of the driving forces behind the development of Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and economy. Her company, MainOne has grown to become West Africa’s leading communications services and network solutions provider. Opeke has overseen the construction of the region’s first privately-owned, open access, 7,000 kilometre undersea high capacity submarine cable, as well as the country’s largest Tier III data centre. MainOne was acquired by Equinix for $320 million in December, 2021.

Sara Baack

Chief Product Officer

Equinix

Sara Baack is an industry veteran with more than 25 years in the sector. She first joined data centre giant Equinix in 2012 as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. She moved into the role of Chief Product Officer in 2019, bringing her formidable industry expertise to bear, using datadriven strategy development and execution across multiple functional domains. She has been named Silicon Valley Business Journal’s CMO of the Year, and as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Tech by the National Diversity Council.

02 Carolyn Harrington Chief Operating Officer

SpaceDC

A self-professed “startup adrenaline junkie”, SpaceDC’s COO, Carolyn Harrington loves the thrill of taking a company from underdog to big dog. She joined Singaporebased sustainable data centre startup SpaceDC back in early 2019, and has spent the past three years being responsible for the implementation of SpaceDC’s overall business strategy and go-tomarket operations, including site operations, marketing, sales and customer service delivery. She has a well-earned reputation for having a diverse skill set, ranging from operations to marketing. Earlier this year, Harrington was recognised by Data Economy as one of the world’s top 50 most influential marketers - responsible as she’s been for launching and creating a strong brand awareness across the globe for SpaceDC.

01 TOP 10

Nancy Novak

Chief Innovation Officer

Compass Datacenters

A veteran of the construction industry - in which she has almost three decades worth of experience overseeing more than $3.5bn worth of renovations and construction projects for airports, hospitals, and even the Pentagon - Nancy Novak retired in 2014 at the age of 47. Just three years later, she came out of retirement, joining Compass Datacenters in 2017 as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer. She has since driven the adoption of cutting edge technology, lean practices,

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and fostered an innovative culture through diversity of thought at the company. Novak is heavily involved in several organisations advocating for technological advancement in the construction and digital infrastructure sectors, and is a vocal ally of women in leadership roles. She currently serves as the Board of Director Vice Chair on the National Institute of Building Sciences BIM Council, as well as Executive Sponsor for the Digital Divide on the iMasons Advisory Board.

“There used to just be computer rooms, then there were small colocation-types on an enterprise level, then hyper-scale and now the edge is right on our trail”

2020 Diversity & Inclusion Champion Winner Nancy Novak

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NETERRA

EU DA T A C EN T RES AN D GLOBAL T E L E COM S ER VIC E S WRITTEN BY: SAM STEERS PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

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Chief Commercial Officer of Neterra, Chris Harper discusses telecommunications, data centres and the company’s NetIX Internet Exchange platform

B STATS Neterra’s overall customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratio is a record for the telecommunications sector -

88% of respondents recorded themselves as “very satisfied” with the products, services, network, quality, service, maintenance, and financial relations with us.

ulgarian by birth, Chief Executive Officer Neven Dilkov founded Neterra in 1996 as a global connectivity and telecom solutions provider. The company has offered global connectivity, IT, data centre, and telecommunications services for the past 26 years and has a core network of over 150 points of presence in 35 countries. Neterra now has four data centres in Bulgaria (EU) located in Sofia, Stolnik, Ruse, and a fibre optic network running throughout Bulgaria. Chris Harper, Chief Commercial Officer at Neterra, describes the company as a “safe pair of hands” for people needing telecoms and data centre services in both Europe and Central Asia, specifically Kazakhstan, and the Balkans. Neterra’s NetIX Internet Exchange platform Neterra also has its NetIX business, a global internet exchange platform for customers to link with other internet exchanges. Harper says it has been very successful in Europe. Two notable features of NetIX are connectivity and latency. Neterra recently announced that it had been selected by US CDN Limelight to house its equipment in Neterra’s SDC data centres, connected to the NetIX platform. This gives you more connectivity around the world, Harper points out. In terms of latency, NetIX allows internet exchange data to be transported from datacentremagazine.com

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“ We also have an amount of land at our SDC data centre in Stolnik. This enables us to build a green solution on that site, and if you ever land at Sofia and look out the window you’ll be able to see it - it’s massive” CHRIS HARPER CCO, NETERRA

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country to country in a very short period of time. “Our NetIX platform is completely transparent. You can see on our website, NetIX.net, that we're able to move data from Frankfurt to Sofia in 23 milliseconds. Frankfurt to Instanbul takes 36 milliseconds, whilst Miami to Sao Palo happens in 55 milliseconds and data from Moscow to Paris can be transferred in 70 milliseconds.” Harper stresses that the equipment in those points of presence, enabling this to be achieved, belongs to Neterra. Domestically, the company provides NetFleet for vehicles, which works much like a black box on a car in that it tells you information such as a vehicle’s location and driver behaviour.

Neterra’s Sofia data centres: Supporting digital transformation for companies The COVID-19 pandemic caused everyone to consider the idea of moving things to the cloud and having everything on-premises in offices suddenly became a problem. “For example, you and I are sitting in our home offices, but we need access to everything as if we were in the physical office,” Harper says, adding that this trend is increasing. “There is, however, no such thing as the cloud - it’s just data centres around the world with services, and we offer those services to our customers on a rental basis. So you can have cloud solutions with DDoS protection, you can have full IT services, and you can have feet on the ground working on your equipment.

CHRIS HARPER TITLE: C HIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER OF NETERRA LOCATION: CCO

EXECUTIVE BIO

Chris Harper is responsible for the overall management of Neterra's sales team. He helps salespeople to become more efficient in attracting customers and closing deals. He motivates them to achieve both their targets and the company's business goals. As a world-renowned telecommunication professional, a sociable and charismatic person, Chris often presents Neterra at major international events, to potential and current partners of the company around the world. Before Neterra Chris has been a Senior Executive in a number of large multinational companies, namely Sprint, IAXIS and NEC specialising in taking their established business into new markets.

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NETERRA

“ The average time to deploy a new 15MW power supply line for Neterra is up to two years, whereas other Tier 1 markets may require five to seven years”

NIKOLAY CHAKINSKI TITLE: P RODUCT MANAGER COLOCATION OF NETERRA LOCATION: DATA CENTRE PRODUCT MANAGER Nikolay has been working in the company for the last 18 years. During this period, he participated in many local and international projects having different roles. As Product manager Colocation in Neterra his experience includes the management of Neterra data center services. He has strong background in Procurement. He worked on planning and building of data center facilities for colocation, telecommunication networks, satellite TV platforms, and many others.

NIKOLAY CHAKINSKI

DATA CENTRE PRODUCT MANAGER, NETERRA

Developing SDC 2, a fully Tier 3 compliant data centre facility SDC 1 is the company's first data centre, and SDC 2 is currently in development and will be located next to it. “We are in the process of finishing off the build,” Harper says. “It’s a 2x1MW installed power facility with about 280 to 300 racks. It’s fully Tier 3 compliant and we’ve already had significant sales success with some big Tier 1 carriers who will start going live in early April.” Adding to Harper’s comments, Nikolay Chakinski, Neterra’s Data Centre Product Manager, said SDC 2 is going to be a multitenant facility, which means Neterra will be able to provide wholesale services as well as colocation services for different organisations. “The good thing is that it’s located within the same campus as SDC 1, allowing our customers to benefit from the enhanced connectivity that we have there on site,” Chakinski explains.

EXECUTIVE BIO

“All our engineers wear head cams so they can actually be guided by a customer,” Harper says, who went on to explain that one of the most common scenarios is when a customer needs something rebooted, and the headcams allow them to see what Neterra’s engineers are doing.”

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Year Founded

Telecommunications, Data Centre Industry

Harper points out that Neterra’s data centres are “very well connected to the outside world,” describing it as “the gateway” into several locations. The reason for this is that all the cables coming from places such as Athens, Istanbul, and Romania pass through Neterra’s facilities. Alternative offerings to Tier 1 markets With such a diverse range of services, Neterra can provide technical solutions of up to 150MW in one of its data centres in Stonik, which, according to Chakinski, is located at the largest substation in Southeastern Europe with a power capacity of 1.2 Terawatts. “There we can meet the power and space needs of any business that chooses us as a partner,” Chakinski says. “In addition to that, we are a telecom operator meaning that we can provide a full portfolio of telecom and wholesale data centre services, as well as different solutions to our customers.” Chakinski also points out that Neterra has a better time to market compared to some other Tier 1 markets focused on colocation. The average time to deploy a new 15MW power supply line for Neterra is up to two years, whereas other Tier 1 markets may require five to seven years, explains Chakinski. Harper adds that the company has a great geographical location, low tax and highly trained engineers, as well as competitive electricity pricing - something which is a top priority for Neterra. 152

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NETERRA

A company strategy dedicated to sustainability Like every company, Neterra has a carbon-neutral goal. However, what makes Neterra’s particularly impressive is that it achieved it two years sooner than anticipated. “We wanted to be completely carbon-neutral by 2023,” Harper said. “But we actually did that by the end of 2021. 100% of our electricity is clean, and by that, I mean it’s nuclear-powered rather than coal powered. “We also have an amount of land at our SDC data centre in Stolnik. This enables us to build a green solution on that site, and if you ever land at Sofia and look out the window you’ll be able to see it - it’s massive,” Harper says. Although it has achieved its carbonneutral goals, Neterra is continuing to be as sustainable as possible. For example, Harper says that all the cars in the car park are hybrids, and the company is deploying several efficiency measures throughout its products. These include investments in low power AC Technologies for its data centres and STATS operating in what Harper calls a “predominantly paperless environment”, where documents such as of our customers would customer contracts aren’t recommend Neterra to their colleagues or printed, and everything is done electronically. business partners, which In addition, the lights in ranks us among the top Neterra’s offices are low power bulbs that are turned of the best Internet off whenever they’re not needed, and the company service providers has also been participating globally on the Net in several sustainability Promoter Score (NPS) initiatives such as indicator. reforestation activities.

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Neterra: EU data centres and global telecom services

Working with Schneider Electric One of Neterra’s longest-standing partnerships is with Schneider Electric, having collaborated with the company since the very beginning of its data centre business. Founded in 1836 in Le Creusot, France, Schneider Electric is a French multinational company providing energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. It addresses homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure, and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services. Chakinski says that the latest project between the two companies involves an SDC tool where “Neterra relies on Schneider Electric to provide working technical solutions for the electrical systems.” This includes everything from power distribution boards to supplies. Neterra also works with partners in a variety of different ways. “We work with 154

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all the industry leaders providing best in class systems for different data centre systems like transformers and power supply systems, precise climate control, fire alarm and fire suppression, leakage detection, access control and so on. It's our policy to always organise open tender procedures with transparent rules, an ambition to choose the best solution,” Chakinski said. Discussing the requirements of a good partner relationship, Chakinski said it “requires trust, respect, and open communication. Good working relationships also gives you freedom because instead of spending time and energy for you, you can focus on opportunities from winning the new businesses or focusing on person development.” Looking ahead to the future, Neterra is planning SDC 3, its fifth data centre as well as expanding its existing Stonik facility.

“ There is, however, no such thing as the cloud - it’s just data centres around the world with services, and we offer those services to our customers on a rental basis”

Harper says he also has the ambition to make Neterra the “go-to partner” for data centre services in Bulgaria. In addition, he is planning to provide more telecom services in Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America. The company is also going to increase its focus on Africa, APAC, and the USA. NetIX is also going to be developed in the APAC region where Neterra has a “significant number of Tier 1 carriers purchasing its services. Also seeing growth will be Neterra’s workforce, as it looks to hire new staff. As well as Sofia, it has an office in Spain and has staff in Mumbai and Brazil. Harper confirms that people will hear more about Neterra in the future as it continues to grow its services within both the data centre and telecommunications industries.

CHRIS HARPER CCO, NETERRA

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YOUR ONE-STOP INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE PARTNER FOR LATAM AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: SAM STEERS

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EDGEUNO

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Mehmet Akcin, CEO of EdgeUno, tells us how the company is providing solutions to problems in the data centre industry and its focus on edge and cloud computing

espite only being three years old, the foundations of EdgeUno go back to 1993 when it was incorporated by Colombian firm Red One. Described by CEO Mehmet Akcin as a unique startup, the company has a US base in Miami, Florida, and LATAM Headquarters in Bogota, Colombia and Uberlandia, Brazil. EdgeUno also has a large presence in the region, which, in addition to the countries listed above consists of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico. Akcin says that what makes EdgeUno special is that it does not provide services but rather solves problems with them. “We provide solutions to issues with connectivity and colocation fast. We provide remote hands support where needed. If somebody’s equipment is broken, we help them to fix it in a timely manner, and we will provide them with equipment and the full solution to their needs,” explains Akcin. EdgeUno also offers Cloud services to both existing customers in the LATAM region or customers looking to enter it. The customers use EdgeUno’s Cloud services to lower the latency of connectivity with their users. “Any company looking to establish a quick presence in Latin America can come to us and enable our Cloud solution in a matter of seconds,” Akcin said.

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EdgeUno is a LATAM-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) rapidly growing company that focuses on connectivity and edge computing. It operates in the LATAM region, providing its services for companies in countries such as Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Cairo.

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The role of digital transformation is becoming ever more important in the data centre industry. In a recent study on the benefits of digital transformation by FinancesOnline, 40% of executives surveyed believed the most important of these was improvement of operational efficiency, whilst 36% said it allowed a faster time to market. To support digital transformation in the LATAM region, EdgeUno has a professional services division that acquires companies with this as their focus - with two out of every three acquisitions focused on providing digital transformation services to internet service providers in the LATAM region. Currently, EdgeUno has around 50 large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the region - including 5G providers and subsea cable operators - and, according to Akcin, helps them to build, monitor, run, and revolutionise their networks. EdgeUno also supports them in becoming more costeffective and makes suggestions as to how they can grow and enter different markets.

“There are a lot of data centres in Colombia, but what is missing is a connection hub where the centres and ISPs can come together and meet” MEHMET AKCIN

CEO AND FOUNDER, EDGEUNO

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Focusing on edge computing rather than building massive-scale data centres EdgeUno operates its own data centre facility in Colombia, but its focus is on edge computing. The reason for this, Akcin explains, is that EdgeUno is not looking to compete with multi-billiondollar companies to build massive-scale data centres: “This is not the problem. There are a lot of data centres in 162

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Colombia, but what is missing is a connection hub where the centres and ISPs can come together and meet.” EdgeUno currently provides the connection hub solution in Bogota. It is also looking at creating an exchange point in Cairo, Egypt. As the market there opens up, Akcin says the company’s plan for the city is to form small partnerships with telecom agents. “I wouldn’t really say we

MEHMET AKCIN TITLE: FOUNDER AND CEO INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRES,

have our own data centre there, but we will go to Cairo with our modular data centre solutions and just focus on connectivity.” The plan also involves taking these modular data centre solutions and targeting the connectivity points where networks interconnect. This is because in countries like Colombia, Peru, and Chile, the interconnection points are occasionally historical buildings around 80 to 90 years old.

EXECUTIVE BIO

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS) A former Microsoft and Yahoo employee, Mehmet Akcin is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of EdgeUno, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) rapidly growing company providing turnkey solutions for the LATAM region. The company also provides a wide range of services focused on Emerging Markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, Russia and more. He is an engineer and owns several patents focusing on content delivery and internet acceleration and performance. With over 20 years of experience, Mehmet is highly regarded as a bona fide veteran in the telecommunications industry, and his impressive professional pedigree speaks for itself.

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“ If a company comes to us and says it would like one terabyte of capacity in the LATAM region, EdgeUno is probably the only company that can deliver this in less than a week” MEHMET AKCIN

CEO AND FOUNDER, EDGEUNO

“In the case of Mexico, the ISPs are not all interconnected with each other. There are not enough networks, so we are working out a solution to these issues.” To rectify this issue, Akcin says that the company is going to buy space in a data centre and build its own rack solutions with a focus just on edge computing. EdgeUno is a “people-first” company that takes care of its customers and staff. Talking about the workplace culture, Akcin said: “We have people who have had to go the extra mile during COVID - working late nights and on the weekends. We’ve even had some people who couldn’t work due to the pandemic, and they had to cover each other. “Building that culture is tough and you need to really care about your people to do so.” When looking to attract talent, EdgeUno looks to its engineering background for inspiration. “We are an engineering-focused company with a 70 to 80% focus on the industry. We are hiring people every day, and whilst that percentage changes regularly around three-quarters of our company will be predominantly centred around engineers. Another way in which the company hires staff is through having dedicated programmes within the education sector. 164

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$1.82bn

In April 2017, American hosting company GoDaddy acquired 123 Reg from the parent company, HEG.

123 Reg is is the UK's top domain registrar.

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$1.82bn

American hosting company GoDaddy acquired 123 Reg from the parent company, HEG.

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$30mn Company revenue (ARR)

120+

Number of employees

2019 Year founded

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“We provide solutions to issues with connectivity and colocation fast. We provide remote hands support where needed. If somebody’s equipment is broken, we help them to fix it in a timely manner, and we will provide them with equipment and the full solution to their needs” MEHMET AKCIN

CEO AND FOUNDER, EDGEUNO

“We have great programmes which we are establishing with schools in Brazil and Colombia and we attract talent at a young age and give opportunities to move internally within our company.” “So, for example, we hire somebody and after working for us for a year and a half they are opening their first data centre. Even though they may not be the most experienced person, we bring them in and offer them training and the opportunity to work on big projects, and then we help them develop their career. I think this is what helps us retain good talent,” Akcin said. Akcin says competing with companies like Google and Microsoft on hiring staff is difficult. “It’s a challenging thing because people come into these companies, and they want to hire you. They have a great brand that’s hard to compete with but also, they offer three or four times the salary. Of course, it’s hard to match their salary offers, but in general, I think that hiring really talented people and building a group of young and hungry people is the way to grow your business.”

The ‘sweet spot’ in EdgeUno’s company strategy In addition to growing its operations, Akcin says that the ‘sweet spot’ of its company strategy is its ability to deliver its services to smaller companies quickly. “If a company comes to us and says it would like one terabyte of capacity in the LATAM region, EdgeUno is probably the only company that can deliver it in less than a week, because we have this kind of capacity ready to build,” Akcin says. As part of its strategy, EdgeUno also focuses on completing several company acquisitions as a way of expanding its customer base. In 2022, Akcin says that it is looking to acquire around six or seven additional companies with a focus on different areas such as cloud professional services and security. Furthering its mission to solve problems, the company is looking to create a machine that can design networks based on its customers’ needs, something which relies heavily on partnerships and acquisitions. Akcin says that this is a good way to attract datacentremagazine.com

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engineers, because when EdgeUno acquires companies, it hires very senior people. “These senior people know other veterans in the industry, and they are attracted to the idea of working with us,” Akcin said. One such partnership is with Seaborn Networks with whom EdgeUno works very closely. Seaborn is a submarine networks company that addresses global communications needs across the Americas delivering transport, Ethernet private line and IP services. “We use their internet backbone infrastructure very heavily - we rely on it,” says Akcin. EdgeUno’s other partners include Equinix, Juniper, and Dell working on both the equipment side and server side of their operations. Discussing the partnerships in more detail, Akcin said: “EdgeUno is a very transparent company. We tell our partners our intentions clearly. We work with longterm partnership opportunities - we don’t just look for the one day or twelvemonth contract and we want to focus on win-win situations. Sometimes we might be buying something from a customer, but it might turn out to be that we can be their customer too. So, we like to be dynamic.” Additional company acquisitions and new edge data centres are on the cards of the future Akcin outlined what we can expect to see from EdgeUno in the near future. Although he didn’t want to name them specifically, he said that EdgeUno is going to be working with “some really big names” in the industry as their LATAM representative. Akcin also mentioned the company may be venturing into the Fintech industry with investments as well as providing support for startups. “These startups don’t datacentremagazine.com

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“EdgeUno is a very transparent company. We will go and tell our partners our intentions clearly. We work with longterm partnership opportunities - we don’t just look for the one day or twelvemonth contract and we want to focus on win-win situations” MEHMET AKCIN

CEO AND FOUNDER, EDGEUNO

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have to be technical. They can be health or education. We love education specifically, and anything to do with it is going to be a priority for us,” commented Akcin, who added that investing in Fintech will allow them to diversify and grow their portfolio. Talking of investments, EdgeUno is also in the process of trying to finalise a funding round of its own, which Akcin says should be closed in less than twelve to eighteen months’ time. In addition, there will be three or four new edge data centres focused on connectivity. According to Ackcin, these will be started and finished in a relatively short

period of time due to the fact they will be prefabricated. “It’s just a matter of putting them on a ship and bringing them to Colombia or Chile or Peru.” Additional company purchases are also on the cards for the future. Commenting on these, Akcin said: “You can definitely expect to see EdgeUno acquire more companies. We are looking at three or four different types of businesses, and I believe that you will also see EdgeUno establishing new partnerships, too.”

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DATAQUBE’S MISSION: SCALABLE, FLEXIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE PODS

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DataQube creates scalable, flexible and sustainable 5G data centre pod architecture that is fully customisable while solving the DC storage problem

avid Keegan is a Co-Founder and CEO of DataQube, an innovative, scalable and firstof-its-kind 5G-active data centre technology that has already secured a US$29.4mn investment from French investment management company RGREEN INVEST. “I've been involved in the data centre market for more than 30 years,” says DataQube’s David Keegan. “The data centre market was actually around thirty years ago, they just had different titles, ‘comms rooms’ etc.,” he says, underlining both the integral nature of data centres as a technology, and the speed at which they are increasingly demanding attention in the hyper-modern business world. Originally training as an electrician through an apprenticeship, David Keegan went on to study a degree in engineering, until eventually stepping into the data centre market where he now is having an unmistakable impact. “I’ve now been involved in some great projects across the globe, have worked in most countries where there are data centres, and have been involved in the design and construction of about forty million square feet globally, in projects worth US$20bn.” Small beginnings. Great changes. “What I've seen is certainly the rapid change in technology,” he says. “About four years

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David Keegan, DataQubes Visionary DC Architect datacentremagazine.com

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“ T HE UNIQUENESS OF DATAQUBE IS THAT IT'S NOT MODULAR, IT'S NOT CONTAINERISED. IT'S A SCALABLE, PODULAR UNIT, WHICH ALLOWS US TO BUILD IN ALMOST ANY SHAPE YOU CAN THINK OF” DAVID KEEGAN

DATAQUBES VISIONARY DC ARCHITECT, DATAQUBE

ago, I decided to look at whether there was something else that's going to support technology growth outside the traditional data centre models. So DataQube then became a vision.” This is the problem-solution approach to business and the world at large, which 176

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as a model, bears the seeds of some of the greatest and most innovative ideas ever devised. Could it be so for David Keegan’s DataQube? Setting Standards in Data Centre Technologies “The uniqueness of DataQube is that it's not modular, it's not containerised. It's a scalable, podular unit, which allows us to build on a pod-by-pod basis that can be uniquely built in almost any shape you can think of.”

DAVID KEEGAN TITLE: D ATAQUBES VISIONARY DC ARCHITECT INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE LOCATION: UK

One of the problems in the data centre industry (one for which solutions are constantly being developed) is the basic issue of physical storage. Data centres can potentially be very large, rapidly growing in-line with demand and generating major spatial and practical problems of their own. To deal with these problems, companies tend to focus on moving the physical data centres themselves, sometimes to very remote and impractical environments. Uniquely, DataQube offers a solution to

EXECUTIVE BIO

David is a dynamic and highly skilled senior C-Suite executive with a demonstrable record of delivering data centres and technology solutions, having designed, built, and managed more than 40m sq. ft. ($20bn) of data centre white technical space globally. These projects range from brownfield traditional builds, existing building retrofits, modular build, and edge facilities with supporting technology solutions. Well rounded, operationally strong, financially aware, commercially astute, with excellent influencing and communication skills. David has the gravitas and reputation to act as a figurehead for the business, whilst providing clients, stakeholders, investors and business partners with the appropriate reference points and confidence.

“ D ATAQUBE CONSUMES UP TO 40% LESS POWER AND EMITS UP TO 60% LESS CO2 THAN REGULAR AND MORE TRADITIONAL DATA CENTRES” DAVID KEEGAN

DATAQUBES VISIONARY DC ARCHITECT, DATAQUBE

this problem by adapting the data centres themselves to the environments in which they are housed. A sort of evolution by technological selection. Keegan says ‘our model can sit at the side of a road, in petrol stations, in forecourts etc. We can also build it flatpack, we can miniaturise it, we can monoblock it, which means that we can even deploy it inside high-rise buildings by using pedestrian lifts to get access’. To demonstrate just how customisable DataQube’s solutions are, Keegan has the perfect analogy: “So, if you imagine every letter of the alphabet in a capital format, we can build DataQube to fit all those configurations.” Responsive and Responsible Data Centres The first 5G (ready and active) edge technology of its kind, DataQube centres operate with a lead time of <6 months. No other edge data centre solution on the market offers the same levels of energy efficiency, IT density or scalability, making DataQube unrivalled in terms of both cost and speed to market. Not stopping there, DataQube also crafts its data centres in light of the United Nation CSRs (Corporate Social Responsibilities) and has developed a green technology– helping it to stand out from its rivals. “We can also 178

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take it apart from manufacturing in various materials, stainless steel, mild steel, timber, adding yet another level of attractiveness for its stakeholders.” Data centres are known to be increasingly green, especially considering the steady industry-wide transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Yet DataQube has gone a step further than even this standard precedent, developing a technology that consumes up to 50% less power and emits up to 50% less CO2 than regular, more traditional data centres. Another stride beyond the competition, and one which sets DataQube apart as a leader in the field. Life On The Edge and The Last Mile: Defining and Redefining Information Technologies Edge technologies seek to solve problems related to bandwidth (data flow) by bringing those storing relevant data closer to users. Facial recognition technology would be one such example of Edge Tech. If, for example, you use facial recognition tech to unlock

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your phone, each and every time you do this, the information has to be relayed to a cloud server. The delay caused by this would render the technology both inefficient and impractical to use, and so it makes sense to house the data centre on the phone itself. Unsurprisingly, data centres such as DataQube are primarily concerned with data, its storage and its transfer. To illuminate the not-so-obvious, though, data transfer is not as simple as going from A to B in a linear progression, like a vehicle traversing the highways. Instead, the situation is better visualised as a superhighway - with millions of vehicles moving in different directions, at different speeds - which then narrows into streets, lanes and avenues near the beginnings and ends of their journeys, culminating in a sort of informational congestion. This deceleration of data as it nears its destination has come to be known as the ‘Last Mile’ problem. But is it really a problem? Not according to David Keegan. “My view is that the edge is not yet defined,” he says. “We don’t know how it's going to be used. It's really in its infancy.” In the same way that Keegan recognises that Data Centres have been around for at least 30 years, albeit in a different form, he also sees edge technology as still evolving, being constantly revised and redefined. He says: “I think we're going to have a different interconnected world. I think we're going to have the optical world (the optical fibre networks), which will continue to grow. And, inside that global ring of interconnect, we're going to then have satellite technology - 5G, 6G, 8G and Microwave - and you're going to be getting clusters of connectivity.” Keegan’s position on so-called ‘edgetechnology’ reflects his approach to data centres as a model, which is that not only datacentremagazine.com

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is technology constantly being redefined through development, but also that this development then solves seemingly indissoluble problems in turn. His position is one of a creative openness, a sort of growth-mindset geared towards technology and marked by a reflexivity that envisions that such a stringent definition may in fact lead to a type of stasis in development and

“ A BOUT FOUR YEARS AGO, I DECIDED TO LOOK AT WHETHER THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE THAT'S GOING TO SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY GROWTH OUTSIDE THE TRADITIONAL DATA CENTRE MODELS. SO DATAQUBE THEN BECAME A VISION” DAVID KEEGAN

DATAQUBES VISIONARY DC ARCHITECT, DATAQUBE

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growth. This can be seen in his approach to not just edge technology and the so-called last mile problem, but towards connectivity technology in general. While many companies and leaders tend to see technological growth as a singular and homogenous transformative process, David Keegan recognises that it shifts on a global scale in intermittent stages, and at varying degrees, around the world. “We see the systems that will come online will create varying levels of interconnection. And that's going to be down to thousands of dumb - as well as intelligent - solution

devices that actually talk to each other, and they can be 100W or 500W, but they holds data both on and off premises, all locally interconnected. And certainly looking at 5G and the satellite deployments that are now happening, all these things are really not as yet properly defined.” Orienting himself to the future, David Keegan says: “The next 12 to 18 months look really exciting. As you know we received our investment from RGREEN INVEST in the last year and are very pleased to be partnering with them – the relationship is really strong. “We are already deploying two edge data centres in Ireland to create one of the city’s first smart solutions using DataQube, and we're partnering in a mode that allows us scale and growth. We've sold into Australia, and we are working with partners in the US to build an edge data centre platform using DataQube. We're also heavily going into the Asia market, where we've got a lot of inbound traction, and certainly also in the Middle East.” Considering the potential growth of DataQube in the near future, David Keegan says: “We anticipate having somewhere between 50 and 80 edge data centres contracted and in production ready to be deployed in the next year or two.” As big data ramps up on a global scale, data centres are becoming evermore integral to almost every industry in one form or another, and client demand grows with it, meaning that only the most innovative data centre providers will thrive in such an environment. David Keegan says: “Part of our evolution is we're now extensively designing further product ranges to support client requirements.”

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