DCD Zero Downtime: The Bi-Weekly Data Center Show

Venessa Moffatt, an expert in regulations and energy efficiency, discusses the impact of regional regulations on data centers, focusing on Amsterdam. They explore variations in legislation, the challenges of measuring PUE, waste heat reuse, and the need for collaboration between data centers and local authorities.

Yuval Bachar, an expert in building off-grid, hydrogen-powered data centers, discusses his latest project of building a 1MW capacity data center fed by hydrogen. He highlights the benefits of off-grid data centers including quick construction, no long waits for power distribution, and no struggles with diesel permits. The podcast covers topics such as sustainable construction using 3D printing, heat generation and reuse in microgrids and data centers, potential uses for clean water generated by the data center, converting existing buildings into data centers, and the transformation of a storage warehouse into a green data center.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a CEO at a telecom company in a country that is at war?That’s been the reality on a couple of occasions for Ineke Botter, who has headed telecom companies in Kosovo and Lebanon. Her career has taken across Europe and beyond, spanning more than 30 years. She’s even worked in the data center industry too. Listen to find out more about Ineke’s incredible journey into telecoms.

Neal Kalita discusses obstacles facing data center construction in Europe, including erratic power availability and the need for renewable energy. The conversation explores the power impact of AI, energy usage of crypto mining, and the mindset shift in the data center industry towards sustainability. Also discussed are the importance of smart grids and regulations for sustainable infrastructures.

Tony Grayson of Compass Datacenters discusses the future of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in data centers and their role in sustainable energy. The podcast covers the evolution of nuclear power, comparing deaths and radiation levels from nuclear energy vs. fossil fuels, benefits and concerns surrounding nuclear data centers, safety measures and advancements in nuclear reactors, the move towards data-centric communities, zoning for nuclear plants, and the potential of small reactors in data centers.

Alex de Vries, an expert in energy use and AI from Digiconomist, discusses the rapid growth of AI's power consumption, comparing it to the trajectory of Bitcoin. The podcast explores the estimation of AI consumption through tracking GPU production. It also touches on the challenges of measuring power requirements, the dominance of NVIDIA chips in the AI market, and the potential environmental impact of discarded GPUs. The podcast emphasizes the energy-intensive nature of AI, questions feasibility, and suggests the need for regulatory considerations.

We talk to Bill Kleyman, now at machine learning company Neu.ro, about his lengthy data center career. How did he get into the sector, what did he learn at Switch, and how does he balance life and travel? Tune in to find out.

Max Schulze, Co-founder of SDIA, discusses the challenges of quantifying the economic benefits of data centers. They explore the positive impacts data centers have on local businesses, taxation issues faced by owners, and the need for a global organization in digital economics. The conversation highlights the absence of definitive conclusions regarding the economic impact and proposes a specialized economic model for the industry. It emphasizes the importance of considering non-monetary values when attracting data centers to municipalities.

Ever wondered about the practical challenges of connecting our continents? In this podcast episode, we talk with Exa Infrastructure's Elena Badiola about the process of getting subsea cables underwater: from environmental surveys to climate change, to funding challenges. Elena also shares her experience of living on a cable ship for five weeks after an earthquake caused an outage - and how a military coup almost stopped her from getting back home.

In 2022, Mark Monroe's podcast about hydrogen was one of our most popular podcasts ever. At Microsoft, Mark had just made a prototype hydrogen fuel cell UPS system that could potentially replace diesel generators to provide low-carbon backup power at data centers. One year on, he's back for some more detail. A hydrogen economy will need a distribution system - but will that look like a power network, a gas grid, or a system of trucks?  Data centers won't be the first big users of hydrogen: Mark tells us where it will take off.  This year, we've heard stories of natural hydrogen mined from underground. Mark assesses that prospect, along with the other sources of hydrogen, and suggests that the new energy source could rewrite the world's map of energy providers. Listen to our talk with Mark to find out where and when you will start using hydrogen.