Data Centre - June 2023

The Future of

The fresh talent shaping the future of the data centre industry and cloud technology

CLOUD

REPATRIATION

The trend for private cloud solutions and in-house solutions

TECHNOLOGY

How AR technologies are improving data centre efficiency

SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTRES

Smart energy ideas cutting energy use

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The far-reaching impact of digital skills investments

Beyond a business-level understanding, investing in the advancement of digital skills has the scope to significantly benefit entire economies

From the perspective of an organisation, the benefits of investing in the digital skills of the workforce are largely apparent – especially given the current talent shortage threatening the data centre industry.

But recent research has shown that the impact of these investments is much more far-reaching than may be initially expected. According to Gallup and AWS research, investing in advanced digital skills could raise annual global GDP by US$6.3tn each year.

Findings revealed that digital skills generate income and revenue premiums for both individuals and industries, with advanced digital skills alone – such as cloud architecture and software development – potentially raising annual global gross domestic product (GDP) by an estimated $6.3tn each year.

What’s more, the results consistently show that digital skills provide immense economic value to businesses and workers worldwide, boosting revenue growth, innovation, wages, job security, and job satisfaction.

So, although the talent shortage and digital skills crisis both pose very real threats, there are clear signs that, with the right steps implemented, a positive cycle can be initiated.

editorial@bizclikmedia.com

“ALTHOUGH THE TALENT SHORTAGE AND DIGITAL SKILLS CRISIS BOTH POSE VERY REAL THREATS, THERE ARE CLEAR SIGNS THAT, WITH THE RIGHT STEPS IMPLEMENTED, A POSITIVE CYCLE CAN BE INITIATED”

CONTENTS

UP FRONT

14 BIG PICTURE How data centres are helping to keep public leisure centres open

16 FIVE MINS WITH Laura Ortman, CEO of Cologix

20 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Richard Brandon, VP of Strategy at RtBrick

BIG PICTURE

UK

The ongoing energy crisis has threatened countless sectors, businesses, and institutions, including the UK’s public swimming pools.

But, in a pioneering cost-management solution, the waste heat from small data centres is being used to heat the pools – for free.

The initiative has been trialled in Devon by Mark Bjornsgaard, CEO of Deep Green.

“It’s great for them – they get to reduce the cost of heating the pool and reduce the amount of carbon they use, and good for us as we can offer cheaper computer services because we don’t have the cooling costs,” commented Bjornsgaard, speaking on BBC Radio 4.

Thanks to the overwhelming success of the trial, as many as 20 UK pools may be upgraded to integrate the solution this year.

How data centres are helping to keep public leisure centres open

RICHARD BRANDON

RICHARD BRANDON

TITLE: VP OF STRATEGY

COMPANY: RTBRICK

LOCATION: UK

Richard Brandon is the VP of Strategy at RtBrick, a leading provider of cloud-native routing software, precisely designed for connectivity companies.

Within the software company, Brandon’s role includes overseeing strategy and partnerships, while also heading its marketing efforts – for which he’s been widely recognised as a leading industry influencer.

Q. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EDUCATION AND CAREER PATH.

» I studied Physics at Imperial College in London, specialising in astrophysics. So you should be warned – if you ever bring up the topic of space into a conversation, then it could turn into a long night.

Sadly, as interesting as the universe is, employment opportunities off-planet are limited. So, my first job took me into telecommunications, working on fibre optics for a large telco.

I had a pretty technical role for a few years, before moving into product management and, eventually, more of a marketing role.

I moved into the vendor industry, working at Cisco and Juniper, before heading back to a smaller operator, and, since then, I’ve run marketing for a few start-ups, helping to take one public.

I think every company I’ve worked for has been smaller than the last. I’m not sure what that says about me. Either I don’t like people very much

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

or I like environments where I can get things done quickly; the latter I hope!

Q. HOW ARE YOU DRIVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN YOUR ORGANISATION?

» We’re really bringing a cloud-native approach to telecoms and connectivity providers’ networks. That means running routing software on open bare-metal hardware, with a choice of platforms and vendors.

Our network operating system runs in a container on a Linux OS. And the whole system is controlled through open APIs. We’re seeing a lot of interest as carriers see advantages in terms of cost, automation and flexibility. For example, Deutsche Telekom has deployed our software in its production network, acting as a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) to deliver a next-generation network edge. It’s giving operators access to a similar operating model that the huge cloud-natives have been enjoying.

Q. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO IMPROVE YOUR OPERATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY?

“I think we’ll see more Tier-1 carriers adopting disaggregation, not just in the network edge, where we play, but also in the IP core and the RAN. And we’ll see more maturity in the solutions”

can’t swap out the hardware; you have to replace it, which then adds

network edge, where we play, but also in the IP core and the RAN. And we’ll see more maturity in the solutions.

Up until now, they’ve done the things that traditional systems could do, but at lower cost and with more flexibility. But now, we should expect them to surpass the performance of traditional systems in some aspects, too. For example, our software can now beat any traditional integrated system in aspects of resiliency, like relearning the internet routing table faster than anything else.

LAURA ORTMAN LAURA ORTMAN

For this month’s award, we feature Laura Ortman, the newly-appointed CEO of the digital edge leader, Cologix

Laura Ortman was appointed as Cologix’s new CEO in 2022, by the company’s Board of Directors.

Her career represents over 25 years of experience in technology, with her fields of expertise spanning enterprise software, SaaS, IaaS, the cloud, data centre colocation, software development, and testing, alongside the training, development, coaching, and mentoring of her teams.

Ortman has held executive leadership positions with some of the industry’s largest names, including Equinix and VMware, where she worked for over eight years, rising the ranks from a Senior Support Manager for Global Support Services for the Americas to the VP and General Manager for Cloud Services & Executive Global Services.

In 2022, Cologix achieved a $3bn recap, extensively expanding its partnerships across the data centre marketplace. Alongside this, with Ortman at the helm, the company is also investing heavily in the growth of its Scalelogix hyperscale edge and digital edge data centre portfolios, while also working towards the ambitious target of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Driving pioneering DE&I standards

As a mother of two girls and the company’s first female CEO, it is immediately clear why Ortman holds DE&I as one of her top leadership priorities.

Cologix’s first ever female CEO

Prior to her appointment to the CEO position, Ortman held the roles of Co-President and Chief Revenue Officer within Cologix.

FIRST NAME SURNAME

Now, she leads the company’s strategy and establishes the roadmap for its product, technology, and IT strategies.

“Currently, Cologix has more than 50% female representation on its leadership team. I also spearheaded the company’s first employee resource group, Cologix Women’s Connection Network, where we have over 90% participation. Last year, we formalised our DEI initiative programming to help drive our diversity programmes forward,” Ortman explained, in an interview with Jaymie Scotto Cutaia of JSA TV.

Throughout her career, Ortman has been an invaluable advocate for women working in technology.

“I believe it is important to mentor and encourage more women to have careers in technology as well as the data centre industry,” Ortman adds.

To this aim, she personally mentors a number of female college students and volunteers on numerous higher education boards, including both the

Advisory Board for the University of Colorado Boulder – Leeds School of Business, and the Alumni Board and College of Business Dean’s Advisory Board for the University of Alabama.

She is also a member of the Extraordinary Women on Boards (EWOB) group – which consists of female corporate board directors working to achieve improved board excellence, modern governance, and board diversity – based in New York.

“I also want to set an example for my two daughters and girls who aspir to get into the technology field or business and leadership positions. They essentially can accomplish anything they aspire to in the future.”

“Currently, Cologix has more than 50% female representation on its leadership team”

The future is modular. Modular is the future.

Leader in the development and manufacture of Modular Data Centers in Latin America, Modular enables and drives the technology market by developing intelligent, flexible, and high-quality solutions.

The future becomes increasingly feasible, safe, and near.

Modular is a platform for developing and producing Modular Data Centers and modular components for Data Centers that was born a leader in Latin America, combining a strategic vision of the technology market with a proven entrepreneurial and innovation capacity.

Modular designs and manufactures intelligent structures. It is rigid in complying with the standards’ requirements but flexible to its customers’ needs, aligning its solutions to the challenges of the market. The modules leave the factory tested, commissioned, and TIA-942 Ready certified, reducing the risk of field installation, optimizing deployment time, and ensuring the quality that certification brings.

Our products enable a future of possibilities with Modular support by a quality digital infrastructure fully prepared to support mission-critical environments.

Modular is innovative.

We think, build, and apply state-of -the-art processes and technology in everything we develop.

Modular is solid.

With factories that serve all of Latin America and a complete portfolio for the most varied needs of our customers, we supply indoor or outdoor demands, offering smart prefabricated modular structures, which leave our factories ready and commissioned.

Modular is experienced.

Formed by a group of investors, partners, and executives with decades of experience in the technology, engineering, aerospace, financial, and manufacturing industries, we were founded by the acquisition and incorporation of the engineering, manufacturing, and intellectual property assets of a former market leader in the Brazilian market.

Modular is modern.

We have developed our families of “Fast Forward” and “Good To Go” supporting demands from 2 to 60 racks and 10kW to 600kW per module to meet market needs using innovative and cuttingedge infrastructure technology.

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Cooling Room

Power Room

Data Hall

DATABANK FUELLING TECH GROWTH TAKING DATA TO THE EDGE

WRITTEN BY:

SEAN

ASHCROFT

PRODUCED BY:

LEWIS

VAUGHAN

GROWTH BY EDGE

It might seem odd that, in a world in which technology companies are laying off workers in their thousands, a company such as DataBank – which helps fuel tech consumption – is continuing to expand at a steady pace.

DataBank's managed data-centre services are anchored in world-class facilities, and the company currently boasts such centres in locations including Dallas, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta –managing or operating major network facilities in each of these regions.

These facilities provide uninterrupted access to customer data, applications and IT equipment. DataBank’s services provide business solutions for corporate enterprises, including hybrid cloud services, customised IT deployments, and industry compliance, to meet the outsourcing needs for IT management, maintenance and operations.

The company serves a wide range of customer verticals, including media and content distribution, cloud infrastructure providers and telecom networks.

DataBank has been expanding its size and reach for years. In September 2017, it acquired cloud hosting company, Edge Hosting, which specialises in designing, operating and simplifying secure and compliant IaaS and PaaS Managed Cloud Hosting. The acquisition provided both market expansion and extra expertise in the delivery of cloud solutions and

Tony Qorri is VP of Construction with DataBank, and explains how the business continues to expand strategically in testing economic times

managed services, especially for clientele requiring comprehensive operational controls for a number of commercial and government compliance standards.

zColo acquisition brought Qorri on board

Then in September 2020 it acquired zColo’s data centre assets from Zayo Group Holdings, with these located in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Denver. The deal means DataBank now offers secure colocation, connectivity, cloud, and managed services in 60 data centres in 28 key markets in the US and UK.

Such structured, strategic growth has put DataBank at the forefront of the edge

“I stick with the same principles in my work as I did in my sports career: keep learning, keep improving”

TONY QORRI VP CONSTRUCTION, DATABANK

infrastructure wave, enabling enterprises, hyperscalers, cloud, content, and software customers to move their mission-critical workloads and platforms closer to end-user populations in second-, third-, and fourthtier markets.

Crucially, these deals have seen DataBank acquire expertise along with infrastructure. One such addition is VP of Construction, Tony Qorri, who joined the company as part of the zColo deal.

So how does Qorri explain DataBank’s growth in the face of a shrinking tech market?

“Tech companies might be cutting their staff, but it's not because people aren’t using technology,” he says. “In fact, people’s

TONY QORRI

TITLE: VP OF CONSTRUCTION

COMPANY: DATABANK

EXECUTIVE BIO

Tony Qorri joined DataBank as Vice President of Construction in December of 2021 with the responsibility of overall construction efforts on large construction projects as well as customer fit-out projects. Qorri came to Databank as part of the DataBank acquisition of Zayo's colocation division, zColo, where he served as Director of Construction for 7 years. Prior to Qorri's tenure at Zayo, he worked for a General Contracting / Construction Management firm in New York City where he served as Senior Vice President of Operations for 7 Years. Qorri has been in the mission critical industry for 15 years where he has built multiple Enterprise data centers for many of the financial institutions as well as the top 5 colocation companies on a global perspective. His time spent on both the contractor side as well as the end user side makes him a very well-rounded individual that understands all aspects of engineering, building, and operating a data center.

Technolog ies for Better Data Center Ef ficienc y

Today, there’s more than 18 million servers running in more than 2,500 data centers all across the globe to support everything from our global economy to our increasingly remote workforce. As we continue seeing more demand for ecommerce, artificial intelligence, streaming video, virtual reality/augmented reality applications, smart systems, and Big Data analytics, we expect these numbers to climb drastically. This unprecedented demand for digital services has made the case that data centers have become as essential as public utilities such as electricity, gas, and water. Below is an overview of some of those technologies, according to the guide:

Intelligent Power Management

Intelligent equipment and new controls enable data center operators to improve the utilization and efficiency of the critical power systems required to achieve high levels of data center availability. One strategy we’re seeing used by organizations is utilizing the overload capacity designed into some UPS systems to handle short and infrequent demand peaks rather than oversizing equipment based on these peaks.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy can be a great tool for reducing carbon emissions. Numerous ways to leverage renewable sources include purchase plan agreements, renewable energy certificates, and migrating loads to cloud or colocation facilities committed to carbon-free operation. Some operators are looking at opportunities to power data centers through locally generated renewable power, which can be accomplished by matching renewable energy sources with fuel cells, systems that can produce clean hydrogen from renewable energy, and UPS systems with dynamic grid support capabilities.

First Steps for Data Center Sustainability Strategy

For organizations in the initial stages of planning long-term efficiency and sustainability goals, beginning such a journey can be daunting. Fortunately, Vertiv’s guide offers valuable first steps for reducing environmental impact, including:

y Establishing Goals: Data center operators are embracing goals based on the vision of the net zero data center or adopting several of the pillars that make up that vision. According to Vertiv’s guide, a net zero data center typically encompasses:

• Zero losses: Eliminating inefficiencies and maximizing utilization in data center systems.

• Zero carbon: Eliminating carbon emissions from the power consumed by data centers.

• Zero water waste: Eliminating the waste of water for data center operation.

• Zero waste: Eliminating the e-waste created by data center operations.

y Defining Frameworks and Metrics: Emissions will often be the primary target when establishing measurable goals for reducing environmental impact.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides standardized global frameworks that industry organizations and their value chain partners can use to understand, aggregate, quantify, and reduce emissions. Find more metrics and frameworks

y Prioritizing Opportunities: Organizations looking to build out their sustainability approach can begin by evaluating existing data center systems and prioritizing opportunities based on goals and available technologies. As plans move forward, operators should continue to prioritize solutions that can achieve desired levels of continuity. Some priorities include increasing asset utilization, decreasing data center water usage, reusing data center heat, and reducing e-waste.

The path toward a more sustainable data center is not paved by a single strategy or piece of technology and implementing these changes will be no easy feat for most organizations. The reduced costs, progress toward corporate goals, limited dependence on utilities, and lessened environmental impact from these initiatives can help create significant long-term value for an organization.

Delivering a better world.

AECOM Tishman is one of the world’s leading builders. With more than 120 years in business, we’ve been responsible for the construction of more than 600 million square feet of space. A part of AECOM, our construction management business line is supported throughout the entire project lifecycle – from planning, design and engineering to program and construction management.

hunger for technology is growing, and data centres are the infrastructure that fuels that.

“So whenever you pick up your phone or click on an app you are firing three pieces of infrastructure. The cell tower that's capturing your signal, the fibre through which the signal travels and the data centre, where everything ends up.

“You have to remember our business is about serving customers of tech companies. We go where the customers are.”

And where DataBank always goes is to the ‘edge’, says Qorri.

“You always want to place your data as close as possible to those who use the data. So you are at the edge of the network.

TONY QORRI VP CONSTRUCTION, DATABANK

“We have built scalability into the business by creating a forecast that shows, quarter over quarter, what the market looks like”

The Ecosystem of Data

And also where land is more affordable, which is why Salt Lake City and Atlanta have become focal points for the company.

“Those locations have been two we've chased pretty aggressively,” says Qorri. “We've got a lot of additional builds throughout the nation, but we've got quite a bit of capital being spent in those markets.”

DataBank projects include greenfield and brownfield sites

Qorri’s role is to run and manage DataBank’s expansion and development builds,” including greenfield and brownfield retrofits, and expansions in any of the existing sites”.

He explains: “We've got three models of construction. One is brand-new developments – so a greenfield ground-up building. Second is a brownfield site, where we buy a shell – some type of building, could

have been a distribution centre or an office building – and we retrofit that.

“The third is an existing facility that has maybe one to five data halls. We'll go in and expand that building over the course of time.”

From front-end to back-end, Qorri and his team hires and manages design consultants, contractors and the commissioning firms that ensure the data centres are functional. For good measure, he also runs the procurement arm of the organisation, an area that in recent years has been pivotal to the continued growth of the company.

Just over a year ago, DataBank hired a strategic sourcing manager who works for and closely with Qorri.

“As the construction project management team continued to grow we wanted to take some of the sourcing workload off those guys, because they had challenges of their own,” he says. “Together, we’ve been doing all of the sourcing. We try to forecast at least two years ahead, and we’ve got to continue evolving that because we're still seeing supply issues and challenges.”

Being able to source strategically has allowed DataBank to avoid costly supply chain delays.

“It’s enabled us to quickly deploy and to not lose six months to a year on deliverable timelines, which would've lost us customers,” he says. “We're actually growing quite rapidly. We've scaled over the past few years and I think we're going to continue to

scale over the next few years. Continuing to develop the teams we need has been quite a challenge and will continue to be so, but it’s proved very important.”

DataBank’s growth has been consistent and strategic. It’s been facilitated by smart procurement but also many other factors, says Qorri.

“We have built scalability into the business by creating a forecast that shows, quarter over quarter, what the market looks like, and from this we created a stocking programme.

“We bought everything from transformers to generators, and also downstream. But we didn't want to over-buy, so we were strategic about it, and it’s the best thing we ever did because it has allowed us to grow at a sustainable rate.”

As well as growing its infrastructure, DataBank has been adding to its knowledge base with strategic new hires, including experienced project managers (PMs).

“As we’ve scaled, we’ve taken on more PM,” says Qorri. “This has allowed me to get out of the trenches, because I have been project managing as I was leading a group. As we continue to bring more people on board I can focus more on managing downstream, and helping the organisation grow from a future planning perspective.”

Strategic advantage, not price, key to winning contracts

Planning for growth has different drivers in the post-pandemic world, it seems –particularly when it comes to winning new contracts.

TONY QORRI VP CONSTRUCTION, DATABANK

“Taking a project from the front-end to the back-end is a challenge but a hugely rewarding one”

Qorri says: “Back in the day, the most competitive bid was nearly always the winner. Those days have changed a bit. Now it's not always the most competitive bidder, it's the most strategic bidder in specific markets that wins.”

“Strategic often comes down to 'how well you know a given market, and how strong your relationships are with the downstream folks in that market'.

He adds: “This is why I tell my guys to come in not with their client hat on but their partner hat. I ask them to make our partners their friends. People always want to work with their friends, right? Friends are going to have your back and will help you execute.”

Taking a project from the front-end to the back-end – “where we're meeting specific customer needs” – is a challenge, says Qorri, “but a hugely rewarding one”.

TONY QORRI VP CONSTRUCTION, DATABANK

“You always want to place your data as close as possible to those who use the data – at the edge”

Highland Associates is an Architectural and Engineering firm focusing on the design of mission critical facilities for Enterprise, Co-Location and Hyperscale clients throughout the United States.

LGA3 Orangeburg, NY

Proud to be a Strategic Design Partner for DataBank

IAD3 Ashburn, VA

He adds: “It involves supply chain, contractor availability in certain markets and taking a task from A to Z in a very tight timeframe and bringing it in on time and on budget.

“Myself, my team, the organisation, we get a rush out of that. There are competitors that are able to do it but there are also a lot of folks who are not able to accomplish this, and it day-in, day-out – especially over the past few years, with the pandemic and multiple supply chain constraints – is a major achievement.”

He reveals that, post-pandemic, “we’ve had to micromanage down to a level that was not needed before”, and that there is another big difference to the way his team operates.

“The customer is not always right any more,” he says. “Instead of demanding something and getting it, we now have to work more as partners – with our vendors, contractors and subcontractors.”

And, of course, there are other changes and challenges in expanding a business in a post-pandemic world, not least of which is labour problems, Qorri explains.

“There's not enough workers to cater to all the projects going on. Bringing in the right subcontractors to build-out a facility is a challenge. Unlike in warehouse environments, automation is not an option. You need physical labour. Technology is advanced – you need guys in the trenches to be able to execute.”

But whatever the challenges that DataBank faces, it does not face them alone; its ecosystem of partners is crucially important, says Qorri.

“DataBank has a slew of different partners,” he says. “We've got vendors that

we partner with from both thermal and power sides. Vertiv and Powersmiths are very strong partners of ours on the power side, and Toshiba and Cummins with regards to support on the generators and UPS side.”

Hitachi is another “huge partner of ours”, from a transformation perspective, says Qorri.

"Our most strategic partners are our general contracting partners. HITT in Northern Virginia, Tishman in New York, Layton in the Southwest, and Brassfield and Gorrie in the Atlanta market.”

HOW AR

TECHNOLOGIES ARE IMPROVING

Speaking with Danel Turk, Solution Portfolio Manager for Data Centres at ABB, we delve into the scope for AR deployment in the data centre industry

WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK

n 2019, there were around 0.44 billion augmented reality (AR) device users in the world. Just five short years later, by 2024, this same figure is set to rise to 1.73 billion.

The global AR device market has skyrocketed at a phenomenal pace. This uptake has been driven by a number of different factors and almost every global industry. In everything from the scope of AR shopping experiences in the retail sector to AR driving more efficient operations in hightech industries, the potential deployment of these solutions is exceptionally far-reaching.

In an exclusive interview with Danel Turk, Solution Portfolio Manager for Data Centres at ABB, we find out more about the future scope for AR technologies in the global data centre industry.

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Onnec is uniquely positioned to manage your IT infrastructure supply chain. With locations across the world and our longstanding global vendor relationships, we are ready to deliver your next Data Centre project, wherever you are.

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DANEL TURK

TITLE: CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

COMPANY: ABB

Danel studied electrical engineering in Tallinn Technical University, Estonia, specialising in electrical grids, medium and low-voltage and power generation.

Danel has worked at ABB for almost 20 years in various global roles focused on supporting new technologies and industries. He started out in product management, gaining 10 years experience in portfolio management and launching new products. For the last 5 years, Danel has been leading on new technologies and fastgrowing segments for ABB including solar, eMobility, energy storage and data centres.

The increasing adoption of AR in data centres

When it comes to ensuring high uptime and consistency of service, getting the right people to the right place whenever an issue arises is critical – but it’s not always as easy as it sounds.

This was made particularly apparent during COVID-19, when lockdowns and remote working made it apparent how much we depend on the required experts being able to travel quickly. Prior to the pandemic, this wasn't really a reliance that was particularly called into question.

Now, though, this situation – coupled with the post-pandemic shift to remote working – has pushed industries forward and helped IT teams question where remote technologies are best placed to ensure operations are faster and better.

To this end, AR can be extremely effective in keeping uptime high while resolving any issues that do slip through the net as quickly as possible.

“Data centres have to be up and running all the time. However, getting the right people to the right place can sometimes take much more time than predicted,” Turk explains.

“But, if you have AR, you can always have an expert on the other side of the line; they can tell you what to switch and where to do it.”

In that way, you can achieve the same speed as having someone there on-site completing the repair, but keep safety standards high by enlisting a skilled, professional repair technician.

“So, it’s safe from a cybersecurity point of view, but it also serves the wider sustainability goal, too. It means that we don't need to put the person in the car, and send them to the site, for example, to identify which spare part is needed,” Turk adds.

This advantage is particularly valuable in many emerging data centre markets, which are typically situated to much more remote locations many hours outside of major cities. As a result, AR technologies make remote or secondary markets a far more feasible expansion option for providers.

Using AR to secure uptime and improve customer satisfaction

According to the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2022, outages remain

ABB RobotStudio® Augmented Reality

all too frequent. In fact, in 2022, 60% of operators surveyed said that they had an outage in the past three years.

But, what’s more concerning is the current trend, which has seen outages becoming significantly more expensive for data centre operators.

Although a falling proportion of managers are reporting serious or severe outages, Uptime’s data revealed that a quarter of respondents said that their most recent outage had cost more than $1m, in both direct and indirect costs. A further 45% said that their most recent outage cost between $100,000 and $1m. As a result, it can be concluded that more than two-thirds of all outages cost over $100,000 each.

This means, according to Uptime, that “the business case for investing more in resiliency – and, as such, training – is becoming ever stronger”.

“If you lose a data centre for one hour, people are going to go crazy. Look back a year ago, for example, when Meta went down for six or seven hours – the impact that this had was very significant. One direct impact was the fact that they couldn’t sell advertisements. Another could be a loss in share prices, because it's not seen as ‘safe’ anymore or the sites are not up there, so people are immediately wondering what's going on,” Turk asserts.

“This means companies will do anything they can to maintain uptime.”

AR will play a critical role in helping to keep uptime as high as possible, thereby enabling data centres to build a strong brand reputation, maintain a high customer experience, and build trust.

Using AR to support the green energy shift With the data centre industry setting sustainability as one of its core focus areas,

the big question for AR technologies is: can they also be used to drive more effective green energy solutions?

Well, according to Turk, not only can AR technologies be used to implement existing green energy solutions more effectively, but they can also help to test newer, more experimental sustainable solutions to a much higher degree of accuracy.

“In the field of green energy, some of the energy sources are still a little bit less predictable. So, the coordination between the green energy generation – including

“ There is a pretty major impact when a data centre goes down, which means companies will do anything that they can to maintain uptime”

DANEL TURK CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, ABB

storing it, using it, and optimising it – will definitely be one thing that will grow,” Turk says.

“If we take the simple example of battery storage and apply AR or ML technologies to it, we can optimise it and increase the battery lifetime by around 10%. This is because we can share the load more equally, and we can also see the relative health of different battery cells (which ones have the higher cycles and which have the lower cycles). And, using ML, we can divide the energy in a better way, allowing us to increase efficiency.”

The power of AR and ML

Alongside the increasing adoption of AR, machine learning (ML) technologies are also proving a critical advantage for data centres.

“Today, it's picking up slowly, but machine learning is coming,” Turk says. “If the data centre operator has the same size of data centres, with the same design across its sites, in many locations, they can use ML very effectively.

“So, if something happens on one site, they can do the learning and then see – maybe if they have the same issue on another site – what they should do

differently. Plus, they can see the loads so it could be a critical point in a load that triggered it. ML, together with AR, will definitely help in these ways.”

Turk explains that ABB is leading the industry in this field, deploying AR and ML technologies across its operations to ensure its services continue to represent best-in-class.

“The data centre industry is developing so quickly. We are happy to be part of it, but it also puts the pressure on us to keep making things better. We need to make UPS more efficient, we need to make our digital switchgear more efficient, particularly from the cooling point of view.”

“For engineers, they need to challenge themselves. In the past, things didn't move so fast, the tenders were longer time periods, and it was all a little bit more steady. Today, it's all turned around – everything has changed. And maybe people are ready for it.”

“So, at ABB, we are using AR to add digital layers, digital systems, and optimisation programmes. Also, we’re not just doing automation or optimisation for one flaw. We can optimise between cooling and the motors, and make analyses for our electricity usage, then we can pull all of that information together.”

“The data centre industry is developing so quickly. We’re happy to be part of it, but it also puts the pressure on us to keep making things better”

DANEL TURK CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, ABB

BUILDING AFRICA’S LARGEST DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

WRITTEN BY: LUCY BUCHHOLZ

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

SITE: BILLINGS WAY, IKEJA, LAGOS 50MW DATA CENTRE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Wale Ajisebutu, CEO of 21st Century Technologies Limited, uses state-of-theart infrastructure to offer world-class services to the people of Africa

st Century Technologies Limited is a 25-yearold, mission-critical digital infrastructure and technology platform company with the singular aim of delivering robust infrastructure and skills to support a new Africa – one where technology, science and engineering are the drivers of transformation.

The business was built from the clear vision of creating state-of-the-art infrastructure in Nigeria while offering worldclass services to customers in support of critical industry problems through motivated talents and skilled workforces.

Now, as a leader in data centres, towers, power, technology platforms, and payment solutions, the business delivers reliable and secure services, with sustainability at the heart of everything it does. To do so, 21st Century Technologies strives to achieve five critical elements: infrastructure, customers, people, partnership and sustainability.

Moreover, the business is positioned to become the biggest provider of data centre capacity in West Africa with a total capacity of 75.5 megawatts across Nigeria’s capital, Lagos. This includes 1.5MW from five edge centres producing 300kW each. These data centre operations span three key sites: Apapa with 12MW, Lekki with 12MW, and Ikeja with 50MW — a site that is still under construction.

SITE: BILLINGS WAY, IKEJA, LAGOS 50MW DATA CENTER UNDER CONSTRUCTION

With Wale Ajisebutu, Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and CEO of 21st Century Technologies, we discover the amazing work being done to build Africa’s largest digital infrastructure.

Empowering Africa from Nigeria

Nigeria – where 21st Century Technologies is based – has opportunities totalling a trillion dollars just waiting to be tapped into. “With young people and an abundance of resources, Nigeria is home to huge opportunities,” Ajisebutu explains. “We sleep on gold in this part of the world. That’s the way I see it.

“In fact, one in every five people in Africa is from Nigeria, so the only enablement

“We will do anything humanly possible to make sure that we provide the necessary infrastructure, the right skilled people and global partnerships holding sustainability at the height of it all, to ensure we achieve these goals”

WALE AJISEBUTU CHAIRMAN/CEO, 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES

to tap these resources is building the right infrastructure. We decided to build a data infrastructure that digitally transforms the way we live, interact and do business. In Nigeria today, mobile technology is growing at a very high rate, with citizens now enjoying 5G.”

Technology has positively disrupted sectors such as education, financial services and healthcare, which has in turn enabled the convergence of various industry verticals. For example, telecommunication companies are offering banking services in Nigeria – providing evidence that the environment is evolving. Nigeria has proven to be very dynamic when it comes to technology. This is due, in part, to the

WALE AJISEBUTU

TITLE: CHAIRMAN/CEO

COMPANY: 21ST CENTURY

TECHNOLOGIES

INDUSTRY: IT SERVICES

LOCATION: NIGERIA

Wale Ajisebutu is the Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Technologies Limited, an Information Communication Technology Service Provider that was set up in 1997.

Previous to the arrival of the company he is presently leading, Ajisebutu was solely a business man who engaged in the business of importation and exportation of households, fashion and corporate items.

He launched into the ICT space in 1997 to fulfill his curiosity to explore greater challenges and become more relevant in the country.

Shortly after his venture into the sector, Ajisebutu became a big name that got many talking of his exploits which not only lifted the sector but also aided businesses for telecommunication operators.

EXECUTIVE BIO

Government of Nigeria, which actively supports the sector.

“We have the best regulatory body in this part of the world, to be honest,” Ajisebutu says. “And technology business contributes 19% of our GDP. To me personally, that shows there are no barriers. There are no obstacles. You have to determine within yourself to take advantage of the opportunity. And the opportunity is there to be grabbed.”

Five critical elements of 21st Century Technologies

To ensure the business is performing to the highest standards, 21st Century Technologies focuses primarily on five crucial elements: infrastructure, customers,

Honestly, we can’t do it alone

Transforming the entire energy system requires all of us to change how we do business, invest, govern, consume, and even live.

WALE AJISEBUTU CHAIRMAN/CEO, 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES

people, partnerships and sustainability – the business's core values.

To abide by the first element, infrastructure, 21st Century Technologies is currently building high-capacity, openaccess connectivity in Nigeria, which is resilient, reliable and protected. “What we’re building is very compelling,” Ajisebutu explains. “And that's what our customers want.”

The second element, customers, highlights that technology is not the customer's core business, but it is the core of their business. 21st Century Technologies is therefore well-positioned and fully mobilised to offer technology solutions as a service to their customers. “This ensures that our customers can focus on their core business,” Ajisebutu adds, “So, we become core to their business.

“That's our philosophy, and why we have been able to reach over 1,000 companies in Nigeria. We are doing incredibly well, providing services to all of them. Without creating value for the customers, we don't have businesses offering services today. We have to be able to create value. We have to be able to make it very agile and

“Poverty is now defined by lack of access to technology, rather than geography”

SITE: 5, JEREMIAH UGWU STREET, OFF BABATUNDE ANJOUS STREET, ADMIRALTY WAY, LEKKI, LAGOS. 12MW DATA CENTRE

very compelling for them to be able to use the infrastructure."

To accomplish the third element, people, 21st Century Technologies prioritises youth's development. For example, the business assembled and trained youths to rewrite the history of technology, while building the most compelling tech academy in West Africa, opened by the Consul General of the American Embassy in Nigeria. The aim is to train 10 million people in 10 years – to offer technology to the people of Africa.

Sustainability, the fourth element, lies at the heart of 21st Century Technologies. “Throughout our infrastructures, we have installed solar panels,” Ajisebutu says.

“Our 1MW solar panel powers some of the critical load we have today, and we plan to extend it to 10MW in the near future.

“We don't see challenges. We see opportunities. The greatest obstacle opens to man – as far as I'm concerned – is ourselves”

Building Africa’s largest digital infrastructure

WALE AJISEBUTU CHAIRMAN/CEO, 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES

Our mission is: ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (United Nations 1987).

“We have just acquired 20MW of power plants, and discussion is ongoing to acquire additional 80MW, hydrogen and gas power plants to power our facilities and participate in providing power to the grid, so we take sustainability very seriously. Our goal is to become the first company in Nigeria to reach net zero – we hope to achieve this as quickly as possible.”

The final element, partnership, is the key to everything the business does. “We cannot do everything ourselves, so we work with trusted partners to ensure we cover as much ground as possible,” Ajisebutu shares. “We select the best partners in the world – those

that are pioneering in their industries — to ensure we have experts in every area.”

“Oracle is one of our partners, and I don’t believe that there's another company in this part of the world that understands database software to the depth that they do. We’re also partnered with Schneider Electric – a one-stop-shop for data centre infrastructures and software – they provide excellent products by excellent people coupled with excellent service delivery, we cannot ask for more. In addition, Siemens is the most advanced power company in the world with local knowledge and a positive approach to the market, to supply the power plant with power that is run by hydrogen and gas at the same time.”

21st Century Technologies is also partnered with Amazon, Microsoft Azure, VMware,

SITE: BURMA ROAD, APAPA 12MW DATA CENTRE

Multichoice Group, Super Micro, MIT, Glo, Airtel, MTN, NIBSS, 9Mobile and Orange.

Values and diversity

Transparency, innovation and integrity are driving forces behind 21st Century Technologies. For example, the business is building a digital hospital to support operations in Nigeria. “We take our customers very seriously,” Ajisebutu says.

“We're entering into a good partnership and committing to our goal is key. We don't see challenges. We see opportunities. The greatest obstacle opens to man – as far as I'm concerned – is ourselves. We all face a couple of bumps in the road, but they are just to wake you up.

“We live in an era of exponential growth with technology and the internet at the heart of it all,” Ajisebutu shares. “The global data generated continues to grow rapidly without any sign of slowing down.

“More importantly, poverty is now defined by lack of access to technology, rather than geography. So we must do everything humanly possible to make sure that we build compelling infrastructure in this part of the world. And 21st Century Technologies is at the forefront of that.”

The business, therefore, feels compelled to participate in the fourth industrial revolution, having missed out on the first, second and third. 21st Century Technologies is committed to building infrastructure in Nigeria to build a reference point for technology in West Africa. To do so, the business invests in seven key areas: Connectivity, Data Centres, technology platforms, payments, people, security and power.

“We are building 75.5-megawatt Data Centres. When people question the need for it, I do not listen to their reservations,

because I know Nigeria will occupy it at the appropriate time,” says Ajisebutu.

The business is also powering data centres with hydrogen and gas-powered turbine engines. This facility is used to support the government when helping the population, ensuring life is made comfortable for the citizens of Nigeria.

“We're committed to this country,” Ajisebutu says. “We will do anything humanly possible to make sure that we provide the necessary infrastructure, the right skilled people and global partnership holding sustainability at the height of it all, to ensure we achieve these goals.”

The future of 21st Century Technologies Limited

21st Century Technologies is not slowing down. In fact, the company is racing to be a significant part of history, through the continuous implementation of board and infrastructure projects – they plan to stay ‘ahead of the curve’.

The business accelerates innovations that will provide support for intensive network

“We live in an era of exponential growth with technology and the internet at the heart of it all”

WALE AJISEBUTU CHAIRMAN/CEO, 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES

SITE: BURMA ROAD, APAPA 12MW DATA CENTRE

evolution and fast-track last-mile assets to digital connectivity, paving the way for a fully digitised future and supporting the digital economy. 21st Century Technologies is therefore investing aggressively to ensure this is achievable in the future.

By implementing bold infrastructure, the business continues to accelerate innovations in the area of technology solutions as well as provide support for intensive network evolution such as 3G, 4G, and 5G fast-track last-mile access to digital connectivity. Further, they will continue to deliver unique infrastructure services to our customers, vendors and partners, enabling a fully digital future.

Moreover, 21st Century Technologies will continue to build a compelling platform that will help to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, spanning AI and quantum computing to healthcare, aviation, logistics and construction.

The business will continue to grow at a rapid rate to become the largest provider of information security solutions, helping customers and partners define the risk in their environment and select the right technologies and solutions.

21st Century provides value that enables and drives socio-economic growth. “Technology has become part of us,” Ajisebutu explains. “We cannot remove technology – it’s become part of everything we do today, and it will continue to expand. Technology is fast becoming a resource-liberating mechanism. More importantly, with our help, technology will support Nigerians to do great things in terms of technology transformation and development.”

The next evolution of data centres’ smart energy systems

Steve Brown, the Global Director of the Cloud and Service Provider Segment at Schneider Electric, shares his insights into ’Electricity 4.0’

As the deadline of The Paris Agreement draws ever closer and consumer pressure for sustainable solutions continues to mount, the world’s governments are being forced to take a harder look at their data centres.

The widely-cited prediction is that, as it stands, data centres are estimated to be responsible for up to 3% of global electricity consumption today, projected to touch 4% by 2030; green energy solutions have never been more critical to preserving the data centre industry.

According to Schneider Electric – one of the world’s leading voices in sustainable data centres – the most viable solution to the current crisis lies in the latest evolution of industrial energy solutions: Electricity 4.0.

So, what exactly is Electricity 4.0?

“This is Schneider Electric’s vision for digital and electric: digital for efficiencies and electric for decarbonisation, leading towards a green, smart energy system for a sustainable future,” explains Steve Brown, the Global Director of the Cloud and Service Provider Segment at Schneider Electric.

“We call it Electricity 4.0 because it’s really a sea change in technological evolution, occurring over the couple of centuries that have passed since we first industrialised.”

STEVE BROWN GLOBAL SEGMENT DIRECTOR, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Brown defines 1.0 as the very earliest days of electrification, 2.0 as mass electrification for the first time, and 3.0 as the establishment of distributed energy resources.

“We’re now at 4.0, for the first time. We can establish electric and digital solutions at scale, for smart, green energy. And that’s going to take us from a linear supply of fossil fuel towards demand without limited control and optimisation, to a flexible grid.”

What factors are spurring this new electrical revolution?

So, how is the combination of digitalisation and electrification advancements bringing about this new wave?

“Quietly in the background, electrical solutions have evolved tremendously. So, it begins with the idea of connectable products – products that are smart, that are efficient, and that involve an edge control layer to extract and manage that information. But, importantly, it involves this concept of an app analytics and service library, which allows you to get visibility into your comprehensive energy use,” Brown explains.

“This is because, if we look at the energy system today, if we want to decarbonise as a society – and then, of course, data centres

“This is Schneider Electric’s vision for digital and electric: digital for efficiencies and electric for decarbonisation, leading towards a green, smart energy system for a sustainable future”

are a big part of that – half of the equation lies on the supply side. But, the other half is made up of reducing our energy consumption through energy management solutions, and through the digital technologies that help us be more efficient, and electrifying processes that weren’t electrified today. The best example of that is e-mobility on a wide scale with electric vehicles.”

Through the advancement of products and solutions, coupled with the access to far greater insights into critical performance data, industries, businesses and individual users are able to attain far higher sustainability standards.

“Together, those pieces are really essential to connect and digitise for the electric future,” Brown stresses.

Why is electrical energy so pivotal in the world’s path to decarbonisation?

According to Brown, not only is electricity the best way to take us toward our global decarbonisation targets, but it is the only way to get us there at the speed required.

“Electricity, time and time again, is shown to be the most efficient type of energy; in fact, it’s three to five times more efficient than any other energy source,” Brown explains.

“And right now we’ve made progress over the last 10 years on our net-zero targets. But, looking towards 2050, it’s becoming clear that we’re not going fast enough.

“On our current trajectory, we’ll be saving approximately 4Gt of carbon dioxide per year annually, as a society, in 2030. We need to get that number to 10 to 15 gigatons of carbon dioxide savings per year, every year, starting in 2030. So we need to go three times faster.”

Although there are certainly concerns about the current pace of decarbonisation, Brown remains optimistic.

“Electricity 4.0 – that combination of digital and electric – is by far the fastest way to get that three times acceleration and make sure we stay on that 1.5° warming trajectory”

STEVE BROWN GLOBAL SEGMENT DIRECTOR, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“Electricity 4.0 – that combination of digital and electric – is by far the fastest way to get that three-times acceleration and make sure we stay on that 1.5° warming trajectory. It’s applicable across all of the segments in society today, but especially the data centres of the future.”

The technologies required to realise this sustainability vision

“The key is that the technologies required by the systems are here today. There’s not one silver bullet that’s going to get us on the net-zero pathway – I think we can all be realistic about that. But the technology

just needs to be pursued today. And that’s where the Electricity 4.0 story gets evolved,” Brown asserts.

“So, over the next five-to-ten years, I think we’re going to see a rapid adoption of the types of digital and electric technologies that enable this vision.”

To this aim, Brown predicts that we will see the evolution of self-consumption. This is the concept of providers (and indeed, individuals) both producing and consuming the energy that they require.

“On the residential side, that’s going to mean a more widespread adoption of solar and the technology that allows you to feed that back to

the grid. On the commercial/industrial side, it’s going to be around microgrid technology and grid-interactive technology, altogether working on flexible, bi-directional grids. That’s going to move us on a three-times-faster path towards decarbonisation.”

The critical question being asked by data centre providers across the world is whether these green energy solutions can be aligned with the pace of growth required of the data centre industry? Well, Brown certainly thinks so.

“One of the major challenges in data centre history is that we are really facing unprecedented demand. We’ve seen an explosion of data – coming out of COVID-19, we’ve seen almost 70% of boards accelerate digitisation plans – and then we have these secular trends of IoT and the metaverse, which are only going to add further demand,” Brown outlines.

“So, we’re going to need to deploy a significant amount of capacity, while continuing our pathways towards decarbonisation. But where I’m encouraged is, when I look at this integrative trend, strategise, decarbonise, digitise. And then, we see that happening in real time today.”

“The technology is there, the time is now. And, especially in the data centre industry, I think that we’ll be able to maintain our capacity demands, while at the same time moving on a path towards net zero.”

“We’re now at 4.0 for the first time. We can establish electric and digital solutions at scale for smart, green energy ”

STEVE BROWN GLOBAL SEGMENT DIRECTOR, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

How data engineering is powering Pinterest’s global platform

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

With more than 460 million ‘Pinners’ using its platform each month, Pinterest is powered by its data architecture, ML and experimentation platforms

Pinterest is the visual inspiration platform people around the world use to shop for products personalised to their taste, find ideas and crafts to do offline, and discover the most inspiring creators.

Beginning as a tool to help people collect the things they were passionate about online, today more than 460 million people flock to Pinterest’s platform every month to explore and experience billions of ideas.

Central to powering this platform is data engineering on a vast scale – as Dr. Dave Burgess, VP of Data Engineering at Pinterest, explains.

“In Data Engineering we create and run reliable and efficient planet-scale data platforms and services to accelerate innovation at Pinterest and sustain our business,” he says. “We do everything from online data systems to logging data, big data and stream processing platforms, analytics and experimentation platforms, machine learning (ML) platforms, and the Pinterest Developer Platform for external developers to build applications using Pinterest APIs.”

As Burgess explains, one of the biggest challenges in data engineering is improving Pinterest’s developer productivity, which is measured through surveys and the time taken to complete tasks: “For example, the time it takes to train and deploy a new machine learning model or run an experiment.”

From the survey results, a developer productivity NPS (Net Promoter Score) is calculated, from +100 to -100. “When I first started at Pinterest four years ago, our developer productivity NPS was -5 and now it’s +65.”

Since joining the business four years ago, Burgess has overseen the replacement of many of Pinterest’s data engineering systems with the latest in open-source software. “We’ve also built machine learning and experimentation platforms on top of our data platform, increased ML Engineering velocity by 10x and run hundreds of new experiments every week,” he adds. “We’ve also democratised our data so that everyone in the company can use data to make decisions, build applications and experiment. All of this has significantly improved our agility, developer productivity, and the products for our customers.”

2010 Year founded

$2.8bn Revenue in 2022

4K+ Employees around the globe

460m+ Monthly users

Pinterest’s machine learning and experimentation platforms

‘Under the covers’, according to Burgess, Pinterest is a ‘massive ML machine’: “We use ML to generate recommendations for our home feed, search results, related products, advertising, and also have augmented reality for our Pinners (the affectionate name we call our users) to see makeup on their face.”

Central to Pinterest’s success is its ML platform. Used to power everything from product recommendations and image categorisation to online advertising and spam filtering, Burgess explains that it enables Pinterest’s engineers to be significantly more productive.

“Our ML engineers can iterate much more quickly, building and deploying new ML models in a day, performing offline training

“In data engineering, we create and run reliable and efficient planet-scale data platforms and services to accelerate innovation at Pinterest, sustaining our business”

DR. DAVE BURGESS VP DATA ENGINEERING, PINTEREST

How

data engineering is powering Pinterest’s global platform

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to iterate and improve their models offline before testing them with real production traffic, and have production ML systems be automatically monitored and self-healed,” he comments.

One such tool is Pinterest Lens, a visual search tool allowing users to search for ideas and products using images. The tech trick behind this feature is computer vision, which identifies objects in photos to suggest related content, allowing users to find similar items on Pinterest. These innovations, Burgess explains, are powered by open-source and internal advancements in ML technology.

“Our ML platform is built with a combination of open source ML technologies, like PyTorch, Tensorflow and MLFlow, and tech that integrates with our own big data and online systems,” he explains. “That enables us

to train ML models and automatically deploy them into serving systems for ML inference.”

Pinterest is an organisation defined by a culture of experimentation. As Burgess describes, its Experimentation Platform encourages experimentation and datadriven decision-making throughout the whole organisation, while also enabling the organisation to test thousands of new ideas.

“Our Experimentation Platform is designed to support rapid iteration and the continuous improvement of our products, and allow us to quickly test and refine new features, user interfaces, and other elements of the user experience. By using data to guide our product development decisions, Pinterest is able to better meet the needs and preferences of our users, as well as increase inspiration.”

Pinterest had long recognised the need to optimise its data storage system. Using HBase, the image sharing platform was carrying a large footprint, with more than 50 clusters and data totalling one petabyte. Enter PingCAP, an enterprise company launched in 2015 by seasoned infrastructure engineers frustrated with the way databases were managed, scaled and maintained.

Seeing no capable solutions on the market, they built TiDB, an advanced, open-source, distributed SQL database for powering modern applications with elastic scaling, realtime analytics and continuous access to data.

What was Pinterest trying to achieve?

“Pinterest’s storage and caching team wanted to find their next-generation, unifying storage system,” explains Liquan Pei, Principal Technologist at PingCAP. “As a NoSQL database, HBase offers a very simple key value interface, but the business logistics are complex. To add new features, Pinterest had to build additional layers on top of HBase, which incurs a very high maintenance workload.” With those motivations in mind, Pinterest

evaluated more than 15 solutions and settled on TiDB in 2020. Pei says the reason for Pinterest choosing PingCAP came down to TiDB’s robust technical capabilities and PingCAP’s high-quality enterprise support.

PingCAP brings lasting benefits to Pinterest data operations

TiDB is set to bring a host of benefits to Pinterest’s day-to-day operations. When carrying out the project, PingCAP evaluated Pinterest’s secondary index services system and, using TiDB, achieved better performance and 80% cost reduction.

“Because of TiDB’s capabilities, we were able to reduce the system from six components to one, greatly reducing the maintenance burden,” adds Pei. In the long run, TiDB’s expressiveness and scalability should also help Pinterest’s IT teams from a practical perspective. Pei continues: “People from Pinterest will enjoy peace of mind because a lot of work is handled by TiDB, so they can focus instead on more impactful work.”

As Pinterest went in search of a next-generation, unifying data storage system, the company found the perfect solution in PingCAP’s TiDB

A next-generation data warehouse

One of the number of changes made in Pinterest’s data systems involves the building of a next-generation data warehouse and the transition to a Data Mesh: an emerging approach to data architecture that aims to address the challenges of managing large and complex data environments, which was first introduced by Zhamak Dehghani – a software architect at ThoughtWorks – in 2019.

“At a high level, Data Mesh is a decentralised data architecture that emphasises data ownership and autonomy,” Burgess explains. “Rather than having a central data team manage all the data for an organisation, Data Mesh encourages each business unit or team to take ownership of their own data domains, managing their data in a way that is best suited to their needs.”

This approach involves breaking down data into smaller, more manageable domains that can be owned and managed by individual teams. Each team is responsible for the data within their domain, including defining the schema, ensuring data quality, and providing access to other teams that need to use the data.

To enable collaboration and sharing across domains, Pinterest has a catalogue of schemas and metadata stored in Apache DataHub, has standardised its data vocabularies and metrics, has tiered the quality of its data, and has integrated its open-sourced Querybook platform to collaborate and share SQL queries.

“Querybook is an open-source data collaboration platform developed by Pinterest,” Burgess explains. “It has a userfriendly interface for data analysts and engineers to collaborate on data analysis

tasks, allowing them to share queries, datasets, and insights with one another. It’s the most popular and highly-rated internal tooling platform at Pinterest.”

As Burgess describes, Querybook also benefits from advanced data analysis capabilities for ad-hoc data analysis, generating visualisations, and even building machine learning models: “We’ve also built a ChatGPT-like interface to automatically generate and execute queries from a text business statement. For example, you could ask it how many daily active users there are on Pinterest over the past month and it will generate a SQL query with the right tables and fields.”

“Overall,” Burgess asserts, “Data Mesh represents a new way of thinking about data architecture that helps us to manage our large and complex data environment more effectively, while also fostering greater collaboration and innovation.”

DR. DAVE BURGESS VP DATA ENGINEERING, PINTEREST

“By using data to guide our product development decisions, Pinterest is able to better meet the needs and preferences of our users, while increasing inspiration”

Building a successful partner ecosystem Pinterest’s Data Engineering department works with a number of third party partners, including AWS for cloud infrastructure and Percona for MySQL support, along with a number of other companies on open source software such as Netflix, Lyft, AirBnB, AWS, Starburst (for Presto/Trino), StarRocks Technologies, and Preset (for Superset), as well as close collaborations with the open source community.

Another of Pinterest’s partners, PingCAP, has assisted with the deployment of its TiDB system: a distributed SQL database engine that provided users with better data consistency, reducing tail latencies by 30-90% while reducing hardware instance costs by more than 50%.

“We had been using an older version of HBase for many years, which is a scalable open-source, distributed, column-oriented NoSQL database,” Burgess explains. “We’ve made many fixes to HBase over the years to make it faulttolerant at our scale on AWS, used it for different kinds of use cases, and added a lot of functionality on top.”

“The biggest pain points with this older version of HBase were: the total cost of ownership to maintain and run this; limited functionality, which led to lower engineering productivity and increased application complexity; the lack of data consistency across tables, affecting our users’ experience; and the scalability requirements our internal users wanted to run at.”

This partnership with PingCAP to use TiDB is already reaping benefits, providing better data consistency, a lower total cost of ownership, and more powerful features than the previous solution, HBase.

“As a NewSQL database, TiDB provides a scalable solution in a huge problem space for use cases that need stronger consistency or richer functionalities”, Burgess explains. “It fills in the gap between our existing SQL and NoSQL systems, allowing developers to build

storage applications faster without making painful tradeoffs.”

“All these factors combined enable us to more easily build and scale businesscritical applications including shopping catalogues, advertising index systems, trust and safety systems and many more.”

“Data Mesh represents a new way of thinking about data architecture that helps us to manage our large and complex data environment more effectively, while also fostering greater collaboration and innovation”

DR. DAVE BURGESS VP DATA ENGINEERING, PINTEREST

“We will make it easier for Pinners to shop for the things they love. Pinners will be able to go from being inspired to making this a reality in their lives”

DR. DAVE BURGESS VP DATA ENGINEERING, PINTEREST

What are Pinterest’s main aims for the next five years?

As Burgess describes, central to Pinterest’s plans for the future is innovating and creating new technologies and products that put Pinners first. “This means enhancing the user experience and driving growth internationally.”

The organisation will also look to improve its advertising products and expand its advertising partnerships with businesses of all sizes, while becoming a more sustainable and socially responsible company. Reducing its environmental impact is part of the latter, as is promoting diversity and inclusion, in addition to supporting causes related to social and environmental issues.

“We will make it easier for Pinners to shop for the things they love. They’ll be able to go from being inspired to making this a reality in their lives,” Burgess adds. “We will also be a more sustainable company, with almost 100% renewable energy for our operations. This includes renewable energy for our offices and data centres.”

With the space moving quickly, making the most of the opportunities presented by developments in ML and AI will also be central to Pinterest’s success going forward.

“This space is changing quickly with the recent advances in Large Language Models, Stable Diffusion, and Transformer models,” Burgess concludes. “We have the ability to generate images and text answers, augment ML models with more data, recognise objects in images, and create an augmented reality. We can also significantly improve our productivity with AI-assisted bots that generate code and answers.”

“There are many applications of this and it’s going to be a game changer.”

SITE SECURITY CONVERGING CYBER WITH SITE SECURITY – CONVERGING THE CYBER WITH THE PHYSICAL

WITH SECURITY CONVERGING WITH

Without a doubt, cybersecurity is one of the most widely discussed, pressing topics in the data centre industry right now. Understanding and mitigating these risks is one of the biggest areas of focus for providers – and with good reason.

But, all too often, providers make the mistake of neglecting the physical aspects of security in favour of the cyber angle.

We spoke to Nick Smith, Business Development Manager and physical security specialist at Genetec, to find out more about the current vulnerabilities in physical security protocols, and why cyber and physical security need to be perceived as a single entity.

The greatest vulnerabilities in physical security

“Your greatest vulnerability and your biggest threat is always going to be the people. Ultimately, we’re the biggest threat to any system,” Smith explains.

Generally speaking, this threat takes two main forms – people attempting to gain access to areas where they are not allowed and the insider threat (where someone is allowed access, but they are there with malicious intentions). To address these key threats, a more sophisticated approach to physical security is required.

“I suppose it’s easy to spend a lot of money putting lots and lots of cameras around a fence line, installing fence line detection systems, razor wire, and really securing your perimeter, but it’s far more effective if we take what we call a layered approach,” Smith adds.

“So, we look at the perimeter – and that’s going to be typically what you see on most secure sites, with cameras, fence line detection, a gate in the middle, a guard hut,

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NICK SMITH

TITLE: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

COMPANY: GENETEC

Experienced and technical Sales Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in Software Solutions, Databases, SaaS, Video Surveillance, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Intrusion Detection, and Counter-terrorism. Strong sales professional graduated from Bournemouth University.

and somebody checking you in and out. But, then, once you’re within the facility, you’ve also got other layers to then get access into individual buildings and from buildings into the halls.”

At the same time, these procedures need to be implemented while still considering the experience of people who are trying to get access.

“Ultimately, most data centres have got customers and tenants. So you need to be secure, but they need to be able to get to where they need to go, without it taking up too much time. So there’s a bit of a trade-off.”

Smith explains that providers have to assess each one of those layers – and the threats present within them – independently. From a perimeter perspective, it’s about minimising unauthorised intruders, while

from an inside perspective, it’s about evaluating the building layers and the hall layers, and managing the insider threat through authorisation. Through technology, providers can build sophisticated tools to provide this high security.

For instance, Genetec provides a ClearID identity management system. Typically, if you needed access to a cage within a data hall, you would need to email somebody so they could perform the required checks. This could take days. Or, if emergency access is required, the likelihood of human error increases due to the added pressure. Through the ClearID product, Genetec essentially puts that request back on the owner.

“Because it uses the cloud to leverage that whole permission process, the person who owns that area gets my request. They can then do their due diligence, they can authorise it, and then the access can be granted immediately. So what we’re doing is taking that process away from a security control room, which doesn’t know you as a requester and doesn’t know the area as an owner, and bringing it back to the owner. In this way, we’re making it a seamless, immediate access request and authorisation by utilising the cloud and getting away from emails that sit in an inbox for days,” Smith explains.

NICK SMITH BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, GENETEC

“I think the key thing is trying to get people to understand that cyber and physical security are not two different things; they should be talked about together in tandem”

A systematically overlooked element of data centre security

Although it’s the cyber risks and cybersecurity initiatives that are making the big headlines at the moment, Smith urges that physical security is equally as important.

“When you consider the current climate, we’ve seen geopolitical instability, we’ve got rogue states, we’ve got nation states with malicious actors, and we know that data centres sit under critical national infrastructure. They’re a genuine threat or a genuine target for nation states.”

Data is being increasingly targeted. But despite this, Smith explains that physical security is systematically overlooked in favour of its cyber cousin. “I think that physical security is overlooked 9 times out of 10,” Smith asserts.

“For example, what’s not so clear is what we should be putting into a site (in terms of the software platform, or from a device perspective, such as the cameras). And I think that’s where you have to do the due diligence on the suppliers and understand, have they got the required ISO certifications? How do they deal with known vulnerabilities? Do they publish them? Do they take cyber vulnerability seriously? Do they go through independent cyber testing?”

“They’re the things that give you the confidence that you’re then working with a manufacturer or supplier who essentially is working from the same hymn sheet as you are, both from a compliance perspective and from a cybersecurity perspective.”

The next wave of physical security technologies

Improvements in data collection and analytics capabilities, and the technology required to gather this information, are set to drive major advancements in physical security technologies.

“There’s a significant evolution with hardware. I think cameras are going to keep increasing in quality, but it’s the intelligence that you now get with these devices where we’ll see the biggest impact,” Smith asserts.

“So now they aren’t just giving you an image. Now, you’re seeing analytics get a lot better within cameras. This means we’re getting more information about what’s going on, we can detect things, we can tell a video management system to look for specific things and set alerts for specific things.”

When it comes to perimeter detection, traditionally, video systems have been widely used to detect if somebody is going over a fence. But, the primary problem with that approach is false alarms.

“The more false alarms you get from animals or wind, the more the integrity of those alarms diminishes. So, with technology like radar – and, more importantly now, lidar – being more accurate, becoming more cost-effective, and something that can be deployed at scale, we’re seeing that these

traditional technologies (such as fence-side detection and optical) are being replaced by lidar technology.”

These new technologies, coupled with more advanced data analytics capabilities, are driving far more efficient and effective physical security solutions.

“So, we’re seeing those different types of technology now being used for security, we’re seeing analytics being used for security, and we’re seeing analytics becoming a lot more reliable. We’re also

seeing an aggregation of more data coming into physical security.”

“There’s a lot more information that we can take now, and we can give a far better view of situational awareness to operators, rather than just expecting them to look at 200 cameras on the screen and hope that they notice something’s happening.”

While the wave of new data-driven technologies significantly improves security performance, to ensure the maximum degree of security in a data centre site, physical equipment needs to be evaluated for its cyber risks, too.

As part of your software platform, you are essentially connecting all of these devices onto an open platform. What’s more, you will inevitably need to work together with third parties to install and connect these different pieces of hardware. When this happens, it multiplies the cybersecurity threat.

“So, we have to build tools within our software to ensure that we are, firstly, ensuring that those products are up to date and don’t have any vulnerabilities that we know of. Then, secondly, if they do, we can notify the data centre security department. So, we dynamically monitor these devices, to ensure that they are immediately patched, so that we don’t introduce any major risks within the security system.”

“Again, it’s about ensuring that the systems that are in place are trusted. This means that the manufacturers are trusted, and the integrators (the people who are delivering that) are trusted. So, you have that full chain of custody, that full chain of trust.”

“There is no one silver bullet, but what I think we need to do is more due diligence on suppliers that aren’t typically IT related. Sometimes, I think physical security is not seen as an IT platform, whereas in reality it’s a fully IT system. It is part of the IT system.”

GLOBAL SWITCH LONDON, A BLUEPRINT FOR A GREENER FUTURE

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

Global Switch’s London Campus located in the Docklands, the capital’s premier connectivity hub, is home to the world’s leading networks and cloud on-ramps

Global Switch is an owner, operator and developer of large-scale, carrier and cloudneutral, multi-customer data centres across Europe and Asia-Pacific. Founded in 1998, today Global Switch is one of the highest credit-rated data centre companies in the world with investment-grade credit ratings from Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings.

Global Switch’s portfolio compromises 13 world-class data centres that house a myriad of organisations seeking high-specification technical data centre space for their mission-critical equipment.

“We have around 430,000 square metres of floor space and are occupied by a broad range of customers, global and national, large and small including government organisations,” says Matthew Winter, Global Switch’s Chief Design Officer.

“The company's focus is on highly resilient, central, low latency, network-dense locations in prime city centre locations and internet hubs close to customers on the edge of financial and business districts,” he adds. “Our data centres operate exclusively in the Tier I markets of Europe and AsiaPacific and provide an ‘Always On’ service, serving our growing customer base across the two regions.”

GLOBAL SWITCH

Global Switch’s stateof-the-art London campus

Global Switch’s London campus is a stateof-the-art data centre environment located in the heart of the city’s connectivityrich London Docklands, with access to an abundance of carriers and cloud providers.

The original home of London’s internet, and in close proximity to Canary Wharf and the City of London, the Docklands area continues to attract global businesses seeking resilient, highly connected data centres, with Global Switch central to this hub.

The Global Switch London campus was established in 1999 with the redevelopment of the historic Nick Grimshaw-designed former Financial Times newspaper printworks, creating the London North data centre, explains Adam Eaton, Global Switch’s Executive Group Director for London.

“The campus grew in 2002 with the launch of the 12-floor, purpose-built London East data centre with over 65,000 square metres of space,” he says. “The campus is fantastically positioned, only a stone's throw from the financial district of Canary Wharf and located on the site of London’s earliest network and connectivity hub.”

While other data centre hubs have sprung up in other London locations, the Docklands area is still the capital’s premier connectivity hub with the largest availability of networks and cloud on-ramps, Eaton comments. “The Docklands hub continues to see significant data centre development and has available power, unlike Slough and other areas west of London where new power coming to market is already reserved,” he says.

“In terms of performance, Global Switch has operated data centres on the London campus for nearly 25 years,” Eaton assets, “developing a wealth of knowledge and experience that has permeated through

an operations team that has a pinpoint focus on health and safety and operational performance.”

Extending and expanding the London campus

Global Switch’s London campus, which enjoys allocated power in excess of 125MVA and has, for a number of years, purchased 100% renewable electricity to cover Scope 2 emissions, is currently in the midst of a redevelopment programme.

Both London North and London East are in the process of redevelopment that will deliver additional highly energy efficient, low

MATTHEW WINTER

TITLE: CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER

Matthew joined Global Switch in 2014 and has held several roles, including Engineering Director and Group Projects Director before being promoted to Chief Design Officer in 2020. He started out as a design engineer in 1990 working in leading engineering consultancy practices, and holds a Master’s degree in Intelligent Buildings as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Building Services Engineering Design & Management. He is also a Chartered Member of CIBSE and an accredited Uptime Tier Designer. Since joining Global Switch Matthew has extensively been involved in the design and engineering of Global Switch data centres. As Chief

“In terms of sustainability, it is better to redevelop, reducing unnecessary emissions of alreadybuilt forms than replace them with new”

MATTHEW WINTER CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, GLOBAL SWITCH

power usage effectiveness (PUE) suites. The campus has been built to support a variety of different customers, from hyperscale multi-megawatt deployments through to enterprise and single rack colocation.

Furthermore, the campus will be further extended and enhanced with the planned development of a third data centre on the campus, London South, which is expected to come online in the next few years.

“We started the redevelopment programme with London North and upgraded space within the data centre to provide high-density technical suites with increased IT power,” Winter comments. “These spaces reflect our reference design principles with no raised floor and flooded room cooling, delivered by a fan wall product. These initial spaces are already contracted to a global Enterprise customer. The completion of the Phase 1 redevelopment will see the delivery of additional high-density suites.”

Similarly, in London East, Global Switch has a power densification programme which will see existing suites refurbished to provide higher power density. “This commenced with a singlefloor feasibility study which was immediately let to a hyperscale customer,” Winter comments. “Through this first phase, we have extended the study to look across the whole data centre to offer further improvement in terms of PUE and high-density space.

“While London North and London East are focused on continuous improvement, we also have our planned new development London South which will sit alongside our other data centres as a part of a single campus but with diverse utility and connectivity services,” adds Winter. “This state-of-the-art data centre will complement the other data centres on our campus and expand upon the IT power and services that we can offer.”

“The campus is fantastically positioned, only a stone's throw from the financial district of Canary Wharf as well as the City of London, and is located on the site of London’s earliest network and connectivity hub”

ADAM EATON EXECUTIVE GROUP DIRECTOR, GLOBAL SWITCH

Redeveloping a working Grade II* listed data centre

Originally designed by Sir Nicolas Grimshaw for the Financial Times as a printing press facility, and opened by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1988, Global Switch’s London North site was converted into a data centre in 1999, transforming the building from communication in the printed form to one of digital communication.

With the building named a listed building in 2016 by Heritage England on account of the standing of the architect, there were a number of challenges faced by Global Switch when it came to redeveloping a live data centre in a historic building.

ADAM EATON

TITLE: EXECUTIVE GROUP DIRECTOR, LONDON

Adam joined Global Switch in 2022 having previously owned and lead his own cloud and managed hosting provider. As Executive Group Director, Adam is responsible for maintaining a best-in-class operational environment for the London Campus while continuing to drive business development, new initiatives and new developments, including the redevelopment of London North and London East and the development of a third data centre on the campus, London South which will increase the campus by

FanWall: modular efficiency, maximum power

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HiRef’s HBCV series is the answer to the growing request for fanwalls for Datacenter cooling.

FanWall HBCV units are chilled water air conditioners designed for technological environments where a compact footprint is requiredwithout impacting on the cooling output capacity.

Our in-depth CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis has allowed every last constructive detail to be designed so as to minimize internal airflow pressure drops and, therefore, fan power consumption.

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Global Switch London, a blueprint for a greener future

2030

Target to purchase 100% renewable electricity across all of Global Switch’s data centres

“Redeveloping existing data centres means that they are generally operational and so the works need to be meticulously planned to avoid any consequential downtime,” Winter explains. “This means that projects can sometimes take more time to complete when compared to new builds.”

“With London North, it meant that we could not modify the façade nor a spine wall inside the building, which gave us some challenges adding to the complexity of the project. Nonetheless, the data centre has been upgraded to a high standard including the entrance.”

One of the most significant challenges when redeveloping the site was strengthening the floors which required additional structural foundations to be installed in an operational environment, all while restricting vibration.

“Great care has been taken to look at the plant loadings on the roof while replacing the two historic cooling systems with a new system of free-cooling chillers,” Winter describes. “In all, we have received very positive reviews of the already-let new space that has been created that will ensure the building continues to be suitable to meet current and future demands.”

Energy efficiency programmes at the London campus

Sustainability is a fundamental part of Global Switch’s business, which is continuing to reduce its carbon footprint across its global portfolio. All new European developments target a minimum of BREEAM ‘Very Good’ with a PUE of less than 1.2 and all Asia-Pacific developments target a minimum LEED ‘Gold’ with a PUE of less than 1.4, as well as other local sustainability certifications.

Global Switch’s London campus, in particular, has been subject to a number of

energy efficiency initiatives, which are also being rolled out to Global Switch’s other sites, starting with its other European data centres.

“In London North, we replaced the two legacy cooling systems with one common system comprising free-cooling chillers,” Winter explains. “We also replaced all the CRAH units within technical suites and elevated the temperature of the water that is used as the medium to circulate cooling to the suites while also raising the leaving air temperature from the computer room air handlers to the servers under a supply air control strategy to reduce energy consumption; the data centre had historically been developed with return air control.

“In the redeveloped spaces where we have fan walls installed, the design has been validated by CBRE meaning they calibrated

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their virtual twin of the infrastructure using the Romonet software against the installed plant which will at full load achieve an annualised PUE below 1.3.

“As part of this European-wide programme we aim to power intensify vacant suites as the power requirements of customers today are often much higher than they were 5-10 years ago: 10kW racks are not uncommon and equate, depending on their layout of up to 3,000 watts per square metre.

As Winter explains, Global Switch is embracing redevelopment rather than solely focusing on new builds that are also underway, reducing unnecessary emissions and helping the company meet its sustainability goals.

“In terms of sustainability, it is better to redevelop, reducing unnecessary emissions of already-built forms than replace them with new, which is why redevelopment should be showcased instead of just the new

builds,” he says. “In this respect, we have been piloting a new BREEAM scheme for the fit-out of our data centres, which has in the past only been applied to new builds.”

A number of steps have been taken to meet Global Switch’s targets of reducing carbon emissions and environmental impact.

“We have set a target to purchase 100% renewable electricity across all our data centres by 2030 for both our infrastructure and the customer IT load and in 2022, we purchased 78% of renewable energy against our total electricity consumption,” says Winter. “We are presently reviewing a science-based target with the aim of limiting temperature to 1.5° based on an ICT sector methodology for Scope 1 and 2 to achieve a near-term target for 2030 and so we are well on our way to achieving this. Our next challenge is to further understand our Scope 3 emission reduction and we need to work closely with our partners to achieve this.”

Key partners helping enable sustainability goals

When it comes to enabling these sustainability ambitions, Hi-Ref and Jaeggi have been key partners for Global Switch, supplying critical cooling equipment in its new data centre in Frankfurt and beyond.

“Both Hi-Ref and Jaeggi have been key partners who have supplied critical cooling equipment in our new Frankfurt North data centre and their partnership will continue with the expansion of new developments and our ongoing redevelopment programme,” Winter describes. “The Jaeggi hybrid coolers are a key workhorse in our cooling reference design and help us to achieve potential free-cooling for over half the year. Hi-Ref, while supplying CRAH units in Frankfurt North, has also been assisting us in the analysis of raising the chilled water temperature in our existing data centres through the redevelopment programme.”

To achieve its Scope 3 goals, Global Switch’s partners are key to achieving its goals. “The supply chain represents the majority of our Scope 3 with Fuel and Energy Related Activities (FERA) also being a key proportion,” Winter adds. “We are aiming to work closely with our partners to identify where the embodied carbon savings can be made while still achieving the objective output. I have been encouraging partners

“We have set a target to purchase 100% renewable electricity across all our data centres by 2030 for both our infrastructure and the customer IT load and in 2022, over 75% of our data centres had achieved this”

MATTHEW WINTER CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, GLOBAL SWITCH

through our briefs that they provide Environmental Performance Declarations (EPDs) but accept there is a transition period for these to become common practice.”

Global Switch to help drive future connectivity needs

These are exciting times for Global Switch, with a sale process underway and significant developments planned and ongoing across the global footprint.

“In 2022, despite the macro volatility as a result of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and broader geo-political concerns, Global Switch demonstrated the resilience of its business model, which stands us in good stead for the next 12 to 18 months,” Eaton explains.

Significant growth in the sector of data and cloud computing and the growing adoption of applications from SaaS, PaaS and IaaS to mobile payments and gaming and video streaming will continue to drive significant data centre demand.

“Furthermore,” Eaton adds, “the growth of data-generating devices, such as smart meters and autonomous vehicles, as part of the Internet of Things, and 5G system deployments are new sub-sectors that will undoubtedly require vast volumes of data. ‘Always On’ data centres and high levels of connectivity, both of which Global Switch is well known in the market for, are critical components to deliver that demand.”

Global Switch is continuing with its proven strategy of redeveloping and densifying existing data centres and building new data centres in existing Tier 1 markets, in particular, adjacent to existing data centres. “This,” Eaton adds, “will deliver the required capacity to support growth in our existing customers as well as the forging of significant new relationships across the Hyperscale and Enterprise sectors.”

With increasing scale, Global Switch continues to evolve and the near future will see an even greater focus on ESG responsibilities. “We continue to evolve our operational processes to drive an everevolving ESG strategy and our comprehensive development and redevelopment programmes will ensure that, over the next period, the business focuses on many of the topics that are front of mind in the world.”

Significant developments driving data adoption

From new technologies to more integration

with local communities, there are significant developments in sectors new to the industry which are driving data adoption and enterprise architectural challenges.

“New technology often requires greater cooling capacity and we are seeing this with the growth of liquid cooling, however, any development will require a laser-sharp focus on environmental impact,” Eaton comments. “As our industry matures, I believe governance levels will increase and all that we do as an industry will become more public and under greater scrutiny. New developments will require more

“Global Switch has operated data centres on the London campus for nearly 25 years, developing a wealth of knowledge and experience that has permeated through an operations team that has a pinpoint focus on health and safety and operational performance”

ADAM EATON EXECUTIVE GROUP DIRECTOR, GLOBAL SWITCH

integration with local communities and an understanding of how the buildings integrate with the surrounding areas in which they exist will be paramount. We must explore how we can utilise our waste heat more effectively and to a greater good, for example utilising our waste energy to deliver local heating benefits.”

Innovative technologies such as AI and automation will also be used to drive changes in data centres globally, Eaton predicts.

“Operationally we will become smarter, utilising AI to drive changes to the maintenance regimes in the data centre campus and

delivering more proactive, condition-based maintenance programmes that will extend the life of equipment while reducing the environmental impact of maintaining for the sake of maintaining,” he concludes.

“Automation within the campus will increase and we will become smarter at managing the infrastructure, allowing for greater operating temperatures, improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact.”

The factors driving the cloud repatriation

Speaking with Jake Madders, the Co-Founder and Director at Hyve Managed Hosting, we explore what is fuelling the emerging trend of cloud repatriation

WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK

The global cloud computing market is set to surpass $1tn by 2028 – a shift that’s redefining the world of both businesses and employees at a phenomenal pace.

But, despite the extraordinary popularity of cloud technologies, the current global climate is putting increasing pressure on businesses to cut down their infrastructure costs. And, one of the most effective ways to do this is to repatriate workloads away from public clouds. In fact, a recent 451 Research survey found that a staggering 48% of respondents had repatriated at least some of their workloads.

Jake Madders is the Co-Founder and Director at Hyve Managed Hosting, a fully-managed global hosting provider.

Alongside fellow Co-Founder Jon Lucas, Madders has been instrumental in driving Hyve’s phenomenal pace of growth, from small-scale start up to award-winning cloud leader in just 16 years.

In an exclusive interview with Data Centre Magazine, Madders shares his insights into the rise of cloud repatriation and into what is driving this widespread trend.

repatriation trend

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EXECUTIVE BIO

The growth of Hyve Madders and Lucas initially worked together at Microsoft, with Madders helping to run the MSN infrastructure, while Lucas’ work was more code-based.

“But over time, we sort of got together, because we knew we could create something better,” Madders explains.

“The bills at Microsoft for running all their MSN infrastructure were just insane, and we could see how the same thing could be done at a way smaller price point. And that’s what gave us the idea for a hosting company.”

JAKE MADDERS

TITLE: CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

COMPANY: HYVE MANAGED HOSTING

Jake Madders, along with his business partner Jon Lucas, founded Hyve Managed Hosting, in 2001. Since then, in his role as Director, Jake has facilitated the growth of Hyve from a small start-up to a hugely successful managed cloud hosting company with a global customer base. With a long and established career in IT, Jake previously worked in infrastructure, internet services and architecture for an array of tech companies, including Microsoft, before founding Hyve.

From here, Hyve was founded with the focus of creating a much more attentive, bespoke, flexible and personable solution.

“We realised that all of our clients want private cloud infrastructure, which offers really secure, single tenant servers. And they want that bespoke management layer, where we are looking after them and working with them. They can just pick up the phone and speak to somebody who knows them and their platform,” Madders adds.

“That’s what you don’t get from the big hyperscalers – you’re on your own. And that’s a key repatriation point.”

The increasing pace of cloud repatriation Cloud repatriation is the term coined for when companies move away from the public cloud in favour of either private cloud or on-premise solutions. It’s a trend that is rapidly growing in momentum, and is proving key to fuelling the next phase of growth for Hyve.

“Private cloud is huge, and this repatriation trend is such a big factor in our sales currently,” Madders says.

“I think it’s because, when they’re building an app or a site, people start off with their online infrastructure, and their developers just automatically build it and deploy it to Amazon or Microsoft. In fact, in a lot of cases, the actual place where they’re writing the code has buttons that push straight out to Microsoft Azure – you just press a button and it goes and deploys immediately.”

Although this is ideal for a developer, it quickly proves problematic for businesses.

“But, when you roll that from development into production (and the developers leave them to it), at that point, that’s when it becomes very challenging to run. Then, they usually have to recruit a third party to actually run the infrastructure,” Madders explains.

“So, they’re paying Microsoft or Amazon to host it, and then they pay another company to run that infrastructure for them. Since there are so many variables and it’s all self-service, you’ve got to know exactly what you’re doing.”

Then, when it gets to the point where there is an issue – or even an outage – and the company realises that there is no one in the team who knows how to resolve the issue within the infrastructure, the appeal of repatriating to a managed host becomes clear.

JAKE MADDERS CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, HYVE MANAGED HOSTING

“When you’re load balancing and you’re directing traffic between sites, it’s not that simple. Say in the instance that something happens to your primary data centre, you want the second to take over. When you get under the hood of that stuff, you’ve got to know what you’re doing. And it’s very hard to run that stuff on the big platforms, unless you really know your thing or you’re paying a third party.”

“This is one of the key drivers to cloud repatriation. It often comes from the situation where your developers have put something live for you, that you don’t really know how to run or control, so you have to contract a third person. When you go to a managed host, obviously, we do all of that work for you.”

Support, compliance and budget management in a cloud-first world

One of the critical – and increasingly sought-after – advantages of a boutique host environment is that the customer support is both personally tailored and readily accessible.

“That’s where the repatriation bit comes in, because you’ve been burned, so you start looking to find a managed host.”

“That’s where the repatriation bit comes in – because you’ve been burned, and so you start looking to find a managed host”

One key example of the benefits of this bespoke approach and one-to-one support can be seen in the case of compliance.

“We can tick the boxes for every single type of compliance there is. We’ve got a department that does all of that for our clients,” Madders adds.

“A lot of our clients need a certain type of compliance requirement, and you can’t really do that with the public cloud.”

Another critical factor driving the rise in cloud repatriation is the increasing importance of cost management.

“There is huge growth and it keeps getting bigger. I mean, everybody’s going to the cloud

at the moment. There’s a big trend of cloudfirst strategies. So, most IT departments are automatically looking for cloud solutions.”

“But, a lot of companies are seeing that and they’re concerned, because right now, people are tightening up their purse strings. Power prices are going up, and actually, the hyperscalers are putting their prices up as well.”

With prices skyrocketing across the board, businesses are becoming increasingly concerned by the fact that, with the public cloud, they can’t predict their monthly cost. So, in a climate where budget concerns take top priority, this is leading more and more

businesses to look for someone with a fixed billing model.

“The industry has a trend of people trying to cut costs and choose solutions that predict their yearly hosting bills,” Madders explains.

“So, another big reason behind repatriation is because they want to know, ’What is my three-year contract going to look like?’. And we can tell them exactly, to the pound. It is a fixed billing model that we provide for them. And then, if they need to, they can add further resources later on down the line. But that occurs because they’re growing, so they’re happy to do so.”

JAKE MADDERS CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, HYVE MANAGED HOSTING

“Right now, people are tightening up their purse strings. Power prices are going up, and actually, the hyperscalers are putting their prices up as well”

WRITTEN BY: LUCY BUCHHOLZ

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTRES

Travis Wright, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability at QTS, discusses how data centres impact the planet while showcasing QTS’ pioneering programmes

QTS Data Centers – a leading provider of enterprise, hyperscale, and US government data centre solutions – is a pioneer in delivering sustainable IT infrastructure putting its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report and sustainability goals at the heart of everything it does.

Travis Wright, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability at QTS, has been leading the company’s sustainability initiatives since 2018, advocating for greater focus to be placed on carbon-free energy while leading QTS’ philanthropic ventures.

Wright reflects on how data centres can be used as a force for good while highlighting ESG initiatives and goals that set the company apart from others.

The future of sustainable energy

Data centres have become an integral part of our lives. These sophisticated buildings full of computers manage the information we all use virtually every minute of the day, (think navigation, voice and video streaming, social media, text, email, etc) and as such they have become massive consumers of energy on behalf of society as a whole.

As an industry, it is essential for data centres to maintain and expand their focus on decarbonising the grid. They have the potential to either positively or negatively impact this goal making it imperative to take responsibility in aiding this endeavour.

873

Number of Employees

“When QTS decided to take on the challenge of sustainability, we did it with an open mind and the need to provide total transparency and public disclosure for our employees, our customers, and our shareholders,” Wright said.

According to Wright, QTS’ board of directors, led by CEO Chad Williams, was adamant in the belief that it could create value for our investors and benefit society at the same time.

“After a comprehensive vetting process, we determined our core environmental pillars to be energy, water and waste. We formalised key goals including a commitment to procure 100% of our power from renewable sources and we would do it by reducing the amount of utility power and

offsetting it with renewable resources such as solar and wind.”

That commitment has since shifted from pure-play solar and wind renewable to carbon-free which includes nuclear and large-scale hydro. This shift is predicated upon the fact that data centres are becoming so big that they are impacting not only the environment but the stability and resiliency of the utility grid.

“Solar and wind generate electricity in a less predictable way, referred to as intermittent generation. When we go into a new market and introduce a large 200-400-megawatt data centre campus, we are taking flat, predictable baseload energy off the grid. If we then turn around and develop a solar or wind facility to offset

“WE DO A LOT OF PHILANTHROPIC WORK AND VOLUNTEERING, WHILE ALSO ENSURING WE’RE ACCURATE AND TRANSPARENT WITH OUR ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS PRACTICES”

TRAVIS WRIGHT VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY, QTS

the energy used with renewables, we are removing that flat, predictable baseload energy, and replacing it with unpredictable intermittent generation. This causes instability in the grid.

“We need to keep our eye on the ball,” Wright adds, “if the goal is to decarbonise the grid, then we need to do it in a thoughtful way that allows us to serve society without destabilising the grid. Until we solve the storage problem, we need to focus on carbon-free energy that provides baseload energy.

“Carbon-free is the focus, but we still intend to source the maximum amount of renewable power possible. As an industry, this challenge will be made possible once we start to solve storage challenges associated with energy from renewable sources.”

TRAVIS WRIGHT

TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Travis Wright is the Vice President of Energy and Sustainability. He pioneered QTS’ environmental and sustainability strategies and has been the driving force behind QTS’ expanding sustainability leadership position. He played a key role in the development of QTS’ Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) report – one of the first in the data centre industry – that documents QTS’ commitment to procure 100% of its power from renewable sources by 2025.

Under his leadership, QTS has become one of the largest users of green power among all data centre companies and the 13th largest among Top Tech & Telecom companies overall. Travis was instrumental in QTS being awarded the prestigious GRESB benchmark ranking QTS #1 among

QTS: The future of sustainable data centres

A holistic approach to sustainable data centres

QTS prides itself on approaching sustainability in a holistic way which is demonstrated through QTS’ Freedom standard design and building specification – the basis of all new greenfield builds. This standardised design accelerates rapid deployment of data centre space and aligns with the logistical and sustainability requirements of the world’s most sophisticated companies who benefit from Freedom’s modular approach and

“IT’S LESS TO DO WITH CORPORATE PROFITS AND MORE TO DO WITH GOING OUT INTO THE WORLD AND CREATING GOODS. IN A WAY, WE’RE LEADING THE INDUSTRY DOWN A PATH AND ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO FOLLOW”

TRAVIS WRIGHT VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY, QTS

ability to pinpoint and optimise power and cooling to specific spaces.

This includes Water Freedom as a key feature. Water Freedom is the industry’s first true zero-water cooling solution paired with 100% renewable energy making QTS’ data centres some of the most water-efficient data centres in the world.

“Previously, companies could do zerowater cooling systems, but they required a lot more energy,” Wright explained. “This meant there was a trade-off between being either energy-efficient or water-efficient. Water Freedom uses a low-pressure, pumped, refrigerant system that uses outside air economisation to deliver world-class energy efficiency metrics, as well as using minimal water. It’s a game-changer.”

Going above and beyond ESG goals

Technology companies are renowned for having aggressive decarbonisation goals and QTS is expected to match their standards in its data centre builds. “Whenever we go into new markets, we strive to achieve what others have never done before,” Wright explains. “It’s all about being good to society and our bottom line at the same time. We want to lead the industry and encourage others to follow.”

Although sustainability means something different to everyone, QTS places great importance on their program being “financially, culturally, and operationally” sustainable, to ensure the company achieves its ESG goals for years to come. As a result, QTS is passionate about creating new initiatives that create value for stakeholders, while also benefiting society at the same time. These initiatives consider QTS’ influence and impact on the environment through energy, water and waste while addressing the company’s relationship with its employees and communities.

QTS’ success-based giving programmes

The company has also introduced unique “success-based giving programs” based on the amount of energy contracted by each customer.

While attending a sustainability conference in San Francisco, Wright and his team met American Forests – a non-profit conservation organisation, dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy forest ecosystems.

“We loved their mission, but we couldn’t immediately come up with a way a data centre company could work with a tree planting organisation,” Wright explains. “As the team was brainstorming, we came up with the idea of linking the success of QTS to planting trees.”

“We measure our business in energy and we sell based on kilowatts (kW). So, we developed a program that for every 100 kW that a customer signs with us, we would plant one tree per month for the entire life of their contract.

“After doing the calculations, we realised it was a good place to start – but we wanted to do more. So, we decided to go back in time and plant trees for everybody who’s ever signed contracts with us in the past.”

Five minutes into pitching the idea to Chad Williams, QTS’ CEO, the idea was approved, and Williams insisted that Wright and his team launch a similar project with clean water resources in impoverished nations.

“THERE ARE VERY WATERSTRESSED AREAS IN THE WORLD, SO WE DECIDED TO WORK WITH SOME OF OUR BEST SUPPLIERS TO JOINTLY DEVELOP A SUPER-EFFICIENT METHOD OF USING ZEROWATER COOLING SYSTEMS”

TRAVIS WRIGHT VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY, QTS

As part of QTS success-based giving initiatives, pictured here is a waterpoint established in Burundi, East Africa

After some research, QTS partnered with World Vision to create a programme that would supply three people with clean water for every 100kW sold. In addition, when a large company signed a 12 MW deal or larger, QTS would build a water well in a community in a developing country, providing thousands of people with access to clean water for decades.

QTS’ third success-based giving programme with the U.S. Dream Academy involves sponsoring children of incarcerated parents in Dream Academy Learning Center programs. Since its inception, QTS has sponsored more than 40 children with great success.

“Not only do these projects have fantastic repercussions globally, but our customers

also appreciate them. These initiatives are so different from what our competitors are doing and our customers are telling us they choose QTS because they’ll be doing good in the world, while also benefiting from highly sustainable data centre and IT infrastructure services.”

QTS’ passion for success-based giving did not go unrecognised. Last year, QTS won the award for Best Initiative for Philanthropy and Corporate Giving based on the programs. Wright says: “Winning this award meant so much to all of us, simply because it shows the positive impact we’re having on the world and demonstrates the importance of being good corporate citizens.”

Creative sustainability initiatives

Other unique QTS sustainability initiatives are taking place in the Netherlands where QTS has data centres in Groningen and Eemshaven. In partnership with WarmteStad, the sustainable utility company for the municipality of Groningen, QTS is the first to supply residual heat for a large-scale sustainable district heating project.

“WarmteStad developed a way to capture the heat generated by data centres and use it to heat homes and buildings in the communities including a university campus situated nearby in the city of Groningen,” Wright said. “The district heating system takes heat directly from the data centre to heat water that is pumped through the existing hot water heating system in the buildings in the community.”

It is estimated that the district heating project will produce sustainable and affordable heat for more than 10,000 households, buildings and knowledge institutions in the northern districts of Groningen by 2026. By heating with water, buildings can operate without a natural

WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF DATA CENTRES?

“They’re just going to get bigger,” Wright says. “Now, the world is moving into a new era of technology, with AI and autonomous vehicles at the forefront. There are a lot of things that are now cropping up as being the big drivers of data, and that curve of data usage is just exponentially growing.”

“So we’re getting more efficient in how we build data centres, but ultimately, we’re going to be growing at a rapid rate. We’re going to start seeing gigawatt-sized campuses for data centres in the distant future.”

“Our electricity grid may not be able to support that, so we will probably end up doing on-site preservation. We also may have small-scale nuclear reactors on-site, in the next seven or eight years away in the US – less than that in Europe.”

“I do think the carbon-free resource of generating electricity onsite is the future, which I think it’s pretty exciting.”

gas connection which significantly reduces CO2 emissions and supports Groningen’s environmental goal to be completely CO2 neutral by 2035.

This revolutionary system is much more common in Europe than in the US, mainly because the infrastructure is typically closer together. The Dutch government advocates these systems and therefore incentivises companies, so there is a third party taking the heat from QTS and delivering cold in return. This cold return water allows increased efficiency of the data centre cooling system.

Another creative QTS sustainability initiative addressing energy and water conservation is the North Water initiative. “Until recently, data centres in certain parts of the Netherlands were cooled using valuable clean public drinking water. QTS’ Eemshaven data centre and Google are now using North Water’s sustainable ‘industry water’ to provide energyefficient cooling for data centre servers while freeing up millions of gallons of clean drinking water for the surrounding community,” Wright explained.

In addition, QTS recently launched the data centre industry’s first sustainability dashboard as part of its API-powered Service Delivery Platform. It enables customers to get a real-time view of the environmental impact of their IT infrastructure hosted in the data centre. The dashboard allows customers to see their building-level power usage effectiveness (PUE) and water usage effectiveness (WUE) data, typically difficult to obtain but often required for ESG reporting. Customers gain added insight into their environmental impact with access to data illustrating renewable energy, power and water consumption, carbon footprint and carbon savings.

“All of this gives our customers real-time energy and water use that other companies aren’t providing,” Wright explains. “This allows us to open up the books and to show that we’re being completely transparent. More companies are required to report on their sustainability footprints, so they need our data to ensure they are being completely transparent.”

“SIMILAR TO THE OTHER PROJECTS, EVERY TIME A DEAL IS MADE BETWEEN ONE AND 12KW, WE WILL SPONSOR A CHILD FOR A YEAR. SO FAR, WE’VE SPONSORED OVER 40 CHILDREN”

TRAVIS WRIGHT VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY, QTS

ONES TO WATCH

Spanning a wide variety of companies, roles, and specialisms, we showcase our pick of 10 ‘ones to watch’ in the data centre industry

WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK

WATCH

obstacles, and energy prices.

But, undoubtedly, one of the single biggest threats to the sector is simply the challenge of attracting new talent. The combination of the talent shortage and the widening digital skills gap are, at surface level, simple obstacles. But, recent years have proven that, without immediate action, the situation could prove critical.

Thankfully, we are beginning to see the first signs of resolution: DEI initiatives and greater STEM training programmes are attracting the next generation of data centre talent.

So, we wanted to use this issue’s Top 10 to feature some of the exceptional young talent in our industry, set to be amongst our next wave of data centre leaders.

Sebastian

Storyblok

Sebastian Gierlinger is an experienced developer, team builder, and leader. He has more than 10 years of experience in CMS systems security, with performance and usability his primary focus within his current role.

Kurtis Looby

Director of Mission

Critical, EMEA Gleeds

Kurtis Looby is the Director of Mission Critical for the EMEA at Gleeds, a global real-estate and construction consultancy. Looby has extensive experience leading the commercial management of hyperscale data centre and corporate real-estate projects. Prior to joining Gleeds, Looby worked at Rider Levett Bucknall for four years, rising the ranks from Assistant Quantity Surveyor to Associate Project Cost Lead.

Gierlinger VP of Engineering

Iceotope

Thomas Parker has been working with the data centre cooling pioneer for almost seven years. During this time, he has held a number of roles, rising the ranks to his current position of Director of Operations. Within his current position, Parker plays a critical role in the development of Iceotope’s chassis-based precision immersion cooling technology – solutions that are being deployed across the global data centre industry.

Business Critical Solutions

James Carmillet has been working with BCS Data Centres Limited for over two years and took on the Head of Cost aManagement role at the end of 2022.

He currently oversees the group-wide cost management service for its global network of clients. Carmillet also has extensive experience in the fields of contracting, consultant, and client environments.

Thomas Parker Director of Operations

James Carmillet Director of Cost Management

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Rikke Dishington has been working with Green Mountain for the last four years, initially starting out as a Service Management Trainee, before being promoted to her current role in 2020.

“Our vision and our values are our DNA. As a company, it should run through our veins and should feel as natural as breathing. So as a client, you can expect to see that demonstrated in whoever you talk to at Green Mountain.”

Despite having only been in the industry for just over two years, Laura has nevertheless had an extensive impact, working with clients from hyperscalers to enterprise facilities to bring new talent into the industry. To this aim, within her role, she has both led internal training and conducted school outreach programmes.

She has shared her industry experience on a number of podcasts (including Inside Data Centre Podcast) and participated in several panels at this year’s Data Centre World, discussing data centre careers and pathways.

“She is a future leader within the data centre community and a fantastic ambassador not only or Arcadis but also for apprenticeships and data centres in general,” said James Rix, Project Director at Arcadis.

Rikke Dishington Service Management Coordinator, ITSM Green Mountain

Laura Allwood Trainee Project Manager Arcadis

Kimberly Marreros Chuco

Business Programme Manager

Microsoft

Now the Business Programme Manager for Data Centre Excellence and Innovation at Microsoft, Kimberly Marreros Chuco initially started working with Microsoft as an Intern in 2020. She then rejoined the company the following year, in the role of Business Programme Manager for Data Centre Learning and Mixed Reality.

Marreros Chuco is a firstgeneration college graduate, receiving her business major in Management Information Systems and Operations Technology from Boston University in 2021.

She also works to mentor undergraduate university students, supporting new entrants to the fields of programme management, landing an internship as an international student, and breaking into the industry with a nontechnical background.

Eloise Cotton

Head of Sustainable Development UK&I Schneider Electric

With a background in sustainability research – and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London – Cotton has extensive experience working in the energy sector and facilitating its sustainable transition.

And, as the Head of Sustainable Development UK&I at one of the world’s leaders in sustainable energy, Cotton is already having an extensive impact on the green energy standards of the industry.

Cameron Conn

AI Technical Manager

QiO Technologies

Conn is an AI Technical Manager at QiO Technologies, an AI sustainability start-up, which supports energy-intensive businesses in their work towards reducing their energy consumption.

He has worked at the company for four years, during which time he has risen from a Graduate Software Engineer to his current position.

Conn also held a critical role in the team that developed QiO’s newest product, Foresight Optima DC+, a solution that recently secured the title of Innovative Product of The Year at this year’s Data Centre World.

Rob Farrow Head of Engineering Profusion

Rob Farrow is Head of Engineering at the data science consultancy Profusion, which works with clients including HSBC, first direct, and B&Q to complete complex data-intensive applications and machine learning projects.

Farrow is responsible for the successful delivery of data projects spanning data lakes to bespoke machine learning products and a wide variety of web applications. His role includes not only ensuring that all processes are adhered to, but that they are fully understood by the businesses, too. This includes, but is not limited to, engineering process adoption and building, software development plans, pull requests, branching strategies, unit testing, and poker planning.

Prior to joining Profusion, Robert was a Full Stack Data Engineer at HTK, a Data Developer at Marsh, and a Business Intelligence Programmer at NHS Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation Trust.

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