datacenterHawk

We recently got the chance to sit down once again with Peter Jones, Chief Development Officer and founder at Yondr, and get his thoughts on the European data center industry. A Little Bit About Yondr and Pete For those unfamiliar, Yondr is a privately owned network provisioning company that offers modular data center designs: MicroBloc, MetroBloc, and HyperBloc. On one end of the spectrum is hyperscale, in the 10s to 100s of megawatts range. On the other end of the spectrum, tailored small scale deployments that help people enter new markets. Sometimes the small scale deployments are in places that have no colocation presence whatsoever. Yondr’s presence spans over three continents, employing over 300 people and still hiring as quickly as possible. Peter started off as an electrical engineer on the design side, before transitioning into delivery management for Digital Realty during their big EU expansion from 2009 to 2011. From 2011 to 2018 he was part of Google’s global infrastructure team, taking a year off in the middle to skipper a sailing yacht from the UK to New Zealand. In 4Q of 2018, he started Yondr with Dave Newitt and Miles Redding. They predicted an unprecedented level of network growth by the turn of the decade… but had no idea how much the pandemic would accelerate that need at a global level. 2021 has been a transformational year, with Yondr’s headcount constantly on the rise, and client demands ramping up in both frequency and scope. The EU Data Center Services Scene We asked about some of the real time trends in the EU, having seen the vacancy rates in Europe’s major data centers drop from 11.4% down to 7.5% over the last eight quarters. Peter noted that the drawdown in capacity was fated even before news of the pandemic started to spread. Additional capacity slowed down during the pandemic of course, and now there are either active or planned moratoriums on new builds in some of the five major markets. So, it’s not surprising that those numbers are coming down. In the broader market, there’s been an influx of new money, and thus new startups. But with no real pedigree amongst the new companies and a limited number of good locations to invest the available money, caution is at an all time high. Everyone knows that the need for bandwidth is there, but the trend in the late 2010s of failing projects and under deliveries is a specter that hangs over the industry. This is a temporary phenomenon in the EU. Eventually, the market will churn out winners and losers in the new industry startups, and those who execute successfully will be trusted with bigger investments and larger scale projects. There’s an amazing level of persistence right now; an obsession that causes companies to stick with the big five regions and absorb every possible watt of power and cubic centimeter of space rather than expand into nearby suburbs. The level of tolerance for long lead times and high prices in these areas is at an absurd high. Sure, there are massive day one costs to break ground in a new place. But with prices skyrocketing in these major networking metros, something has to give eventually. Clients in the EU are looking for big tranches (of both power and bandwidth) right now, either to consolidate their fragmented network hosting portfolio or to avoid fragmentation in the future. This is where some clients are tempted to push outward, away from the overpopulated metro areas… as long as they’re presented with a growth story they can really believe in.

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/overview?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– The top four hyperscale data center users have expanded their own footprint by an average of 26% per year. But will that growth continue? We think the answer is yes. Read back through our series on hyperscale data centers and you’ll notice the consistent reappearance of one word in particular: growth. With the creation of over 200 new hyperscale data centers between 2017-2020, the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific regions are experiencing a boom in hyperscale services. But what about the future? Will the location strategy change over time, or can all parties and places expect continued expansion? And lastly, will the sustainability topic ever be fully answered? We sat down to look at the stats and see just what the future of hyperscale data centers may have in store. How will hyperscale users continue to grow into the future? Over the last five years, the top four hyperscale data center users have grown by an average of 26% per year. For this type of expansion to continue, a few things need to happen. First, growth appears tied to the continual adoption of public cloud. Surveying the industry as a whole, it doesn’t seem like that growth has any plans to slow down. Hyperscale data centers continue to master the public cloud and cloud services industries as they also expand their business into other related verticals. Second, there will continue to be tradeoffs in the hyperscalers who own vs. those who lease. Companies are leasing more as a percentage of their total, but it’s unclear if that balance will continue. The demand across hyperscale data centers is too great for only one of these options to grow. Hyperscale users are consistently growing at a speed that requires flexibility across centers, whether they own them or lease them. Combine that with the fact that those doing the leasing from the data center operator perspective have gotten a lot better. Their facilities, their design, and their PUE, are capable of fitting the user footprint much better than they could five or ten years ago. So, while the percentage of owned vs. leased hyperscale data centers may change, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see groups commit to one type of growth pattern ever again. How will hyperscale location strategy change over time? Looking at how the top four companies are utilizing hyperscale data centers across different cities, a few locations quickly rise to the top. • Northern Virginia: 3,700 MW • Des Moines: 591 MW • Omaha: 400 MW • Columbus: 392 MW • Phoenix, Atlanta, and Dallas: 310-360 MW • Prineville, Kennewick: 275-285 MW While several places on this list are in what could be considered ​​non-traditional colocation markets, they’ve long had a large footprint compared to other cities that are closer to end users. Places like Northern Virginia and Des Moines were cities who knew the impact that building hyperscale data centers would have on their overall economic growth. Now, others are starting to catch wind of what those places have long known. For the future of hyperscale data centers, demand will be pushed more towards major colocation markets for several reasons. One, the cost of delivering to end users located far away is high. We will continue to see a trend of hyperscale data centers moving toward the people they serve. Combine that with the economic incentives being provided for new sites and it’s likely that the trend of additional growth in more traditional (at least from a multi-tenant perspective) data center markets will continue.

Kirk's background is in the U.S. military, serving as an electronics technician aboard the USS Memphis until the turn of the century. After getting out of the Navy, he started looking for career paths to plug himself into. He worked as a field service engineer while simultaneously getting his Bachelor of Business Management degree. Because the role involved traveling from site to site, he got to witness the building of multiple data centers and tech businesses in the early 2000s. After graduation, he became the Southwest Regional Project Manager at EATON. Towards the end of his tenure there, he was diagnosed with cancer. As he was battling against the disease, he vowed to strive for something much bigger than his management role. With whatever time he had left, he wanted to master the skills that would put him on top of the industry. He skipped around for the next few years, learning what he could from each company or contract as he went: EDSA Micro, HP, Modular Power Solutions, CyrusOne, NOVA Mission Critical, and Aligned Energy. He had opportunities to work with some of the best companies in the industry. He was also fortunate enough to remain healthy in the process of gaining this experience. When Kirk had learned everything he could, all the while making some excellent industry contacts and lifelong friends, he was ready for the next step. In 2015, he became the Co-Founder of Data Center Austin Conference (DCAC). From there he didn't look back. Later he expanded his grasp, becoming the CEO of OVERWATCH Mission Critical, which recently celebrated its second anniversary. Around half the staff is ex-military, driven and mission oriented. Sometimes their skill sets didn't apply directly to the industry, but their tenacity allowed these recruits to adapt to their new, fast paced industry even though it has such a high learning curve. One of their first clients, Compass Datacenters, helped them to set up the diversity and apprenticeship programs that shaped OVERWATCH's culture. Why Does Ex-Military Apprenticeship Matter? The common thread that runs through the soul of every ex-military person is drive. They spent years with concrete routines and long work hours, sometimes upwards of 100 hours a week even outside of combat environments. Transitioning to civilian life can leave these veterans without direction. There’s a mental health crisis for a lot of veterans, with military suicides being four times more common than combat fatalities worldwide. Civilian life is simply a different universe. Direction and purpose are the keys to bridging these two lifestyles successfully. Whether these veterans have experienced trauma during their service, or whether they’re just experiencing a massive culture shock that leaves them questioning their purpose and identity, a disciplined framework needs to go hand in hand with an understanding environment. This is why ex-military apprenticeship is so critical. It provides an all-important lifeline that will help them to achieve reintegration more successfully.

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/overview?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– The Hyperscale and Enterprise Booms The hyperscale sector was just starting to take on a life of its own when Data Center Frontier was founded. Rich says one of their first pieces was 'The Rise of the Cloud Data Center’. The two key components to that story were 'scale' and 'edge'. Hyperscale players have been transformative, particularly because they allowed investors to understand data centers in a brand new way. Traditional real estate investors used to have a hard time getting into the old business model. But these days, hyperscale often presents single owner facilities with well respected tenants, all of whom have great credit histories and lots of assets. It is a much easier-to-understand proposal. The big investors bring not only the ability to take advantage of economies of scale, but they provide a kind of industrialization to the industry. Rich says that what happened in 2020 paralleled the kind of events that happened in the 2009 financial crisis. Cash became king. Enterprises became more careful with their spending, and large organizations had to make touch investment choices. 2020 was a 'wait and see' time for them, and a lot of projects got put on hold. But in 2021, the faucet was turned back on. With more certainty into the future of tech, enterprise projects started to move forward again. The data centers that relied on enterprise business started to boom. How the Data Center Services Market Has Changed Rich says that one of the most interesting things about the industry is that when he’s talking to less technical people, he no longer needs to describe what a data center is. People have an understanding of how they're connected to the Internet, and how data centers can impact their lives. During the pandemic, the entire world relied on data centers in a new way: Zoom, online learning, remote healthcare, and immense E-commerce. Public officials in communities and smaller localities suddenly understood the importance and value of these places. Carrier hotels were the centers of the old data center world. They were located next to the old Ma Bell facilities. But they tended to be in major population centers. Power and space were expensive. Thus, the shift into the suburbs in later years. More recently, carrier hotels are back in vogue. In fact, some investment companies just buy up carrier hotels, upgrade them, and remarket them. A lot more capital has been flowing into that space recently. What’s the Next Big Thing? When asked about the tech that will most contribute to the growth of the data center services industry, Rich immediately went to artificial intelligence. Bottom line benefits and providing business value are the key drivers to AI adoption. Those desirable outcomes won’t change any time soon. Really, AI is an infrastructure story. Given the plans Rich has heard about in recent virtual industry get togethers, some of the stuff in the AI hardware pipeline takes place at an unprecedented scale. So that's the biggest growth point to watch. AR and VR are coming along more slowly. But they're resource intensive as well. So that's the next one to watch, along with autonomous tech like vehicles. Digital transformation and infrastructure will need to cope with the changes as demand ramps up.

Excited to provide our latest update on 3Q 2021 data center market trends. We’ll discuss our analysis in North America, Europe, and APAC markets. 🗓 Connect with our team: https://lnkd.in/epdNTezi 🔔 Get a reminder when our recap article is out: https://lnkd.in/e7x9A2kt 🎓 Go through our data center fundamentals email course: https://lnkd.in/eH2sz_CJ

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/request-a-demo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– Other videos referenced: Bruce Lehrman HawkTalk - https://youtu.be/fm4Tl4newI0 Colocation Done Right - https://youtu.be/ZQHZOh8orTU Bill Fathers HawkTalk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6sBIBZTj-w Why is Data Center Connectivity Important? - https://youtu.be/jl5zqFvH_zU ––––– 1:15 - How will new technology enable modularity when constructing new data centers? 4:05 - As technology improves and density continues to grow, will large data centers ultimately become obsolete? 6:49 - How should you plan to manage a migration to cloud project? 9:55 - When a data center tenant is paying $100 per kilowatt, what all is included in that $100? 12:31 - What’s going on in the African data center markets? 15:46 - Can you explain data center tiering levels? 18:22 - What’s the value for a data center being near a subsea cable? 20:48 - Questions around the importance of connectivity

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/request-a-demo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– Josh Bosquez CTO of Armor Cloud Security got to talk about the state of data center cybersecurity in a recent HawkTalk conducted by David Liggitt from datacenterHawk. This article is a general overview of the state of security in the industry, as well as the predictions that David and Josh talked about during the interview. Data Center Security in the Distant and Recent Past Josh is in a unique position to talk about cybersecurity for data centers. He cut his teeth in the Dallas telco industry in the late 1990s. Back then, the scene was all about the monitoring and empowering of data centers and creating new kinds of infrastructure automation. Later Josh and his team moved into the realm of compliance testing and automation. When the Cloud started to flourish, the focus became providing cybersecurity that could scale on demand. This is how he came to work with so many security oriented managed service providers (MSPs) in recent years. Josh noted that back in the old days, security planning and the protection of physical space like a data center was relatively easy. You could see the cables and the hardware, and you knew how everything stacked. But in the Cloud, things are abstracted. Everything is hands off. New techniques needed to be learned in this virtual terrain. As more and more companies moved to full or hybrid Cloud, the security strategy became far more complicated. Technician training and certification needed to be ramped up, and some companies needed to entirely rewrite their cybersecurity playbook. Data Center Security in 2021 Josh noted that as far as the most common things companies can do to protect themselves in 2021, there's no one silver bullet. But the most important thing is user education. If they don't know about ransomware, and phishing attempts, and what links are unsafe or unwise to click, about how IT support will actually contact them, and what questions they're allowed to ask... the user is a security liability. After education, the priorities are anti-virus, anti-spyware, and the like. But user education is number one in any case. With remote work becoming a top priority, trying to protect users at home is a big challenge in some companies. They had set up a safe environment in the office, and then suddenly everyone was a telecommuter. The protection they set up in the past has to rapidly shift in order to cover this new paradigm. He was asked to address what strategies companies providing data center services are using to protect themselves and their current customers. He said that these days, Armor standardizes around ways to gain full visibility into an environment. Every layer of the OSI model needs to be accounted for in some way, from physical data center access to network security, to access control, to hosts, and everything in between. To do this, a cybersecurity team needs to be able to see every asset out there, whether it's real or virtual. And the monitoring tools and reporting methods need to be understandable by experienced CISMs and relative laymen alike since you never know who you’re going to need to explain a security situation to get buy-in for critical systems. A lot of organizations are leaning on security MSPs, simply because the budget for internal security has not changed over the years, while the complexity of the cybersecurity landscape has ramped up tremendously. So, they leverage the expertise of MSPs in the security compliance space even as they continue to build their own internal capabilities. Then they can use the monitoring, reporting, and automation tools that are provided by firms like Armor.

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/request-a-demo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– Co-founder & Partner of Hyperco, Aleksi Taipale shares his insights on the future and growth in the data center services industry. We explore the past, present, and expectations of Hyperco as well as their strategy to expand in the Nordic region. Be sure to check out the video above for the full conversation, but if you’re short on time, scan through our quick takeaways below. Establishing Hyperco In the interview, Aleksi discussed how Hyperco was conceptualized, the current conditions, and the plans for the future on our latest Hawk Talk. The co-founders of Hyperco, Ville Vartiainen, Timo Pohjanpalo, and Aleksi started researching the data center market and found it to be an interesting niche. They found that there weren't many development-oriented investors in the Nordic region in the space, which opened the opportunity for a new entrant. They found that the area has a good amount of potential growth as the industry becomes more mature. Due to Aleksi’s background at Nordic institutional investor NREP, he was able to raise the capital they needed to start Hyperco. Sustainability and the plan on expanding Hyperco Sustainability is the core of the Hyperco mission. Aleksi discussed how they are looking to use the waste energies that cause global warming and turn it into something useful by using it to run data centers. Hyperco is working with the team that opened Google’s Finland data center and the 50-megawatt Yandex data center in Mäntsälä. This group was one of the first in the world to work in this kind of waste recovery program, which is currently warming around 80% of the 20,000 person municipality of Mäntsälä. Hyperco sees a large opportunity to bring similar arrangements to other areas and wants to mimic their success in helping their communities. When it comes to expansion, Aleksi stated that they want to focus on the Nordic region right now, but that they are in the process of hiring people from different parts of the world in hopes of becoming multinational. They are following the market closely and are interested in the East European Region and areas close to it, where there is a lot of data center activity. Be sure to check out the video above for the full conversation.

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/request-a-demo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– We recently sat down with JSA’s founder and CEO, Jaymie Scotto Cutaia. JSA had just joined the prestigious ranks of the 2021 Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies. In this overview, Jaymie shares her insights on marketing and brand promotion in the data center services industry, and we hear about the past, present, and future of not only JSA, but of the public relations within the sector. The Value of Good PR David asked who Jaymie and her team decided on what services and values that JSA would bring to the table in those early days? She said that the company had to redefine the word 'agency'. She never liked dealing with ad agencies in the past, and so she worked hard on JSA’s image within the industry. Public relations, event planning, and marketing were just tactics used to create a core message for a company. The real deliverable was setting up clear calls to action for each campaign, and then using the best tools available, rather than taking a scattershot approach and seeing what stuck. ROI, data-driven approaches were central to their method. And it worked. In 2008, JSA started their blog ‘Telecom News Now’, recently rebranded to The JSA Blog which now has 250,000 readers in the industry. Readers include data center operators, telecom carriers, and enterprise businesses across all sectors who were interested in the colocation (and more recently Cloud hosting) industry. Eventually, they moved into social media, videos, podcasts... pretty much adopting them as soon as those mediums emerged on the scene. Planning and Executing a Media Strategy David asked what advice Jaymie would give to people who are interested in starting blogs and podcasts? She said that now is the time, as they're hotter than ever. As an example, JSA started Datamovers the year of the pandemic, and they already have 7,000 regular listeners. Because people are working differently, some remotely, others with a commute if they're essential workers, others with odd or flexible hours... you simply don't know what the best way will be for any given individual to consume your content. So providing different methods to digest information is critical. Multiple channel marketing plans are the key to success in 2021. Step 1: Start with strategy. Ask yourself: Why do this? How will it incorporate your brand? Who are the listeners, what are their interests and pain points? Will you be solving their issues with fresh content? Step 2: Get together the list of aspirational speakers to include, both as hosts and as guests. What's the host structure, one or multiple? What is each host bringing to the podcast... a baked-in audience? Credibility? Will they promote the show on their end? Finally, which guests will drive value to the exercise? Step 3: Build a content calendar. Given the selected speakers, the goal is to build a consistent schedule. The time frame needs to be achievable, reliable, and realistic. Build in two to four weeks between recording and release dates, so you can be proactive in production, rather than reactive and frantic. Step 4: Book guests, promote, record, optimize, repeat. Any issues? Contact JSA!

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/hyperscale-business-development-fundamentals Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform: https://lp.datacenterhawk.com/request-a-demo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=demo ––––– Find out how Ascent and Lincoln Rackhouse will combine data center facilities management operations to create a full-service, best-in-class platform focused on meeting the complex requirements and escalating demands of enterprise and hyperscale users. If you’ve followed along with developing data center news, you’ve likely heard about the partnership between Ascent and Lincoln Rackhouse—two groups that have combined forces to change the way we look at data center facilities management operations. We sat down with Martin Peck, Executive Vice President of Lincoln Rackhouse, and Bob Painter, President of Ascent, to hear about their journey toward partnership and their hopes for the future. But first, some background. The History of Ascent and Lincoln Rackhouse Founded in 1998, Ascent is a data center colocation provider located in St. Louis, Missouri. Recently, the company has grown to the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Toronto markets where they provide full life cycle support for data center facilities. Ascent’s client list includes several Fortune 500 companies, and the company's Dynamic Data Center Suite offering gives customers purpose-built, dedicated data center infrastructure. Ascent is a one-stop-shop for all critical infrastructure needs, and works hand-in-hand with customers to provide flexible, scalable, secure, and highly available solutions to ensure their individual needs are met. Lincoln Rackhouse is the data center division of Lincoln Property Company, and it focuses on helping clients locate, analyze, and secure data center space to lease or own. Dallas-based Lincoln Property has earned its reputation as effective, professional managers of residential and commercial properties with more than 50 years of experience in building, owning, and managing one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the United States. Upon the acquisition of Rackhouse Group in 2010, the newly created Lincoln Rackhouse division allowed Lincoln Property to diversify its professional repertoire to include data center development. Today, Lincoln Rackhouse offers unparalleled market and industry knowledge with an unbiased approach in fulfilling technology requirements. A Mutual Commitment to Serving Clients Hearing Martin and Bob talk about their experience working together and planning this partnership, it’s easy to tell that their shared commitment to both their customers and their employees made this an easy match. Ascent's services, which include data center operations and maintenance management, design, construction management, consulting, and engineering, will help customers reduce risk as they gain more control over their data center environments. Combine their experience serving customers with Lincoln Rackhouse’s data center acquisition, development, and project management activities and the companies are poised for growth. Lincoln Rackhouse currently manages a large portfolio of data centers, with over 2 million square feet of mission critical space across the U.S. and in London. As Lincoln Rackhouse continues to acquire and develop enterprise data center facilities, each acquisition and development will benefit from the expertise that Ascent now brings—an advantage not lost on Martin Peck. Hearing Martin and Bob talk about the partnership makes it hard not to cheer for them and their teams. They have a shared confidence in the values and strengths that both groups bring to the table, and it’s clear that the future for what they can do together is bright.