Danish Data Center Industry Skills & Education 2022
SKILLSINDUSTRY&EDUCATION 2022
DANISH DATA CENTER
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About Danish Data Center Industry Association DDI is the national data center association, a not-for-profit organisation representing the Danish data center
DDI does not necessarily own every single part of this work.
Disclaimer This publication is produced by the Danish Data Center Industry (DDI) . All references, reuse or copy of the market analysis data should be approved by DDI in writing beforehand.
Foreword
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We have come a long way in a very short period, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us, for the domestic industry to truly thrive.
The Danish data center industry is a growing source of employment. The labour market is changing rapidly against the backdrop of the ever-growing digital economy, and the data center sector is the engine powering the digital world around us.
Arnth Chairman,Nielsen,Skills & Education Working Group, DDI Merima Dzanic, Chief Officer,OperatingDDI
Onindustry.theother side of the skill challenge is the need for upskilling and training of the existing workforce, which is also needed in order to keep up with the increasingly complex skillset required in order to work in a modern data center. We must therefore address the skills and education challenge on two fronts; on one hand create awareness of the sector, on the other hand create more opportunities for education and training. Building the data center workforce of tomorrow will require attention, effort, collaboration, and leadership from across the entire industry.
Whilst the industry is relatively “young” in Denmark, it has grown significantly in a very short amount of time. In over just 5-6 years, the educational sector has stepped up and offered courses and introduced sector-specific modules to cater to the demands of the
Working in a data center offers enormous opportunities for professionals who want to contribute to the development of the digital economy. However, the industry is still largely overlooked and unknown to many, especially younger people who are not aware that the cloud on their phones has a physical presence somewhere. Encouraging STEM education from early years has been proven to be beneficial across the entire spectrum of learning and can influence both a student’s future academic and career choices. With the widening skills gap and an aging workforce, we as an industry need to actively be involved in creating awareness of the data center sector and the various career opportunities it offers. With not enough people with the right skills and knowledge for the available jobs, the old and important saying of ‘actions speak louder than words’ needs to be emphasised here. We as an industry need to actively tackle the shortage in collaboration to promote our sector, and start initiatives that will strengthen the message to wider audiences. If more people know about data centers, what they do and how they operate, they may be interested in working in them as well.
PART 1: Bridging the skills gap
PART 1:
According to Uptime Institute, 50% of data center owners and operators are struggling to find qualified candidates. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated industry trends such as remote data center management, deepening the already severe data center skills gap.
As modern data centers grow increasingly complex and distributed, data center technology and infrastructure can become more difficult to manage, and it becomes harder for IT decision-makers to find qualified candidates.
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Data center operations have been significantly affected by the increased security and performance risks that have arisen from the shift to a virtual presence for most businesses and institutions. As the pandemic continues into 2022, data centers are looking to hire those who possess the necessary talent to help bridge the data center skills gap and improve uptime, efficiency, and security.
1. BRIDGING THE SKILLS GAP
The digital world underpins societies and economies and has over proliferated greatly over the last decade. The cloud, underpinned by data centers, has grown, and matured into a complex network of IT infrastructure, enabling the digital sphere around us. The next frontier is the metaverse, which will require much more complex IT systems. The simple fact is that future wide-scale adoption of the metaverse means the need for more data centers.
As data centers evolve, the skills needed to run them change as well, creating both a challenge and opportunity for current data-center workers.
Whilst AI and physical automation serve to increase efficiencies by taking over repetitive tasks, the human data center specialists focus is shifting towards more complex tasks. This means that the skills and competencies required by data center professionals will change as facility and IT is converging. Breaking the silos between IT and operations, and having employees who are qualified with an allaround skillset will be a great advantage to operators.
The challenge to the data center industry is pronounced as it will need to depend in part on external providers for solutions. The potential threat from other resource shortages has largely been solved from within the industry.
As demand for secured data grows exponentially in increasingly hybrid IT environments, it becomes more evident that the shortage of skilled talents to build and operate those data centers, represents one of the biggest stumbling blocks in bridging what is already a widening gap between supply and demand.
The role of a data center professional is constantly shifting and evolving and requires the talent to have the ability to operate and maintain the hardware, but also be able to understand and work with the software that is behind it.
Technological innovation, better practices, better monitoring, and more informed decision making have all contributed to the better use of resource. As a relatively modest employer wedged between the far larger IT and engineering industries, it will need to rely on education systems to generate people with the level of raw skill that can then be shaped by data center employers and by data center specific training to meet the industry needs.
Automation and artificial intelligence technologies are increasingly being introduced in data center environments. While it may have been possible to manage and secure networks without the benefit of intelligent, automated tools 15 years ago, managing a data center in this day and age has become impossible without those tools, especially when considering the sheer volume of data processing in the modern world.
AI and automation are helping in bridging this gap, as many data center operators increasingly rely on virtualisation to operate their data centers.
1.3 AUTOMATION AND AI IMPACT ON SKILLS
1.2 EDUCATION & TRAINING
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Despite the fact that data centers underpin the digital economy, many are not aware of the sector and its employment opportunities. Many within the industry have, in addition to adjusting their own recruitment, hiring, and training programmes, also taken on broader industry initiatives. The International Data Center Day was launched for the first time in 2019 by 7X24 Exchange International, an NGO that provides an educational forum mainly focused on the challenges faced by industry professionals. Each year, participants are encouraging the industry to share resources to educate future data center professionals at the elementary and college levels, host various events as well as promote internship and mentorship opportunities.
1.4
RAISING AWARENESS OF THE INDUSTRY
The Career Pathfinder is a valuable resource tool for students and employers, which is helping to expand the sector’s talent pipeline by educating people from all backgrounds and skill levels about the unseen world of data centers and the many career paths it has to offer. By focusing efforts on helping to create awareness of the industry, coupled with sector-specific data center programmes, will both ensure and strengthen the workforce of tomorrow in the industry.
Most recently, Uptime Institute together with Microsoft and Meta launched the Data Center Career Pathfinder, which is an online source that offers the industry’s first comprehensive taxonomy of digital infrastructure job roles, helping to bring awareness to more than 230 different types of data center jobs.
PART 2: DATA DENMARKOPPORTUNITIESSKILLSCENTER&EDUCATIONIN
PART 2:
DATA CENTER SKILLS & EDUCATION
OPPORTUNITIES
The Danish data center industry has grown significantly since 2015 with the establishment of several hyperscale data center facilities. As well-known companies such as Apple, Google and Meta, and most recently Microsoft, have chosen Denmark as their home for their hyperscale data center facilities.
the industry has partnered with various stakeholders, including Google, to develop a test center facility, allowing students to be taught in a live environment. The project is set to expand, and the college is looking to add a switch room which will be available for students. To meet the needs of upskilling, Teknologisk Institut, and most recently Fredericia Maskinmesterskole are offering various courses for existing data center staff for upskilling, such as the CDCP and CDFOM courses. Below is an overview of the existing programmes and what they have to offer for the sector.
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IN DENMARK
The industry has now a dedicated association which represents various parts of the entire ecosystems and focuses on the growth and development of the domestic sector. To meet the growing need for a skilled workforce, many municipalities and educational institutions have partnered up with industry stakeholders to develop data center specific courses as well as modules on existing Atprogrammes.FredericiaMaskinmesterskole,
On the other hand, some educational institutions have difficulties with conveying the structure of the Danish educational system to foreign data center
FIGURE
Below is an overview of the existing programmes and what they have to offer for the sector. 1: Overview of sector-specific education programmes and training courses
upper secondary education degree “elektriker”(electrician) is an education of high value and greatly aligned with the required skillset needed in an data center operations environment, but is not fully understood by nonDanish employers, given that the equivalent cannot easily be compared to educational levels in English speaking countries. This remains a challenge for the educational sector, which requires a more holistic approach from the industry to solve when in dialogue with especially foreign investors.
Theoperators.vocational
Despite these efforts from academia, some challenges remain with regards to raising awareness of the sector towards younger students. More work needs to be done to create awareness of the industry to attract younger talent. Here especially the hyperscale organisations, well-known names, have an important role to help facilitate the opportunities within this sector.
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PART 3: SKILLS SURVEY 2022
PART 3:
The following survey was conducted in the summer of 2022. Responses below reflect a mix of enterprise, cloud and colocation operators with active operations in Denmark.
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SKILLS SURVEY 2022
FIGURE 1: Which type of data center do you operate? 0% 25% 50% 75% Enterprise/On-premiseColocationHyperscalecloud 20% 35% 45%
60% of the respondents said that they are expecting to hire more data center staff within the design, build and operations fields in the near future. Furthermore, when asked about the expected growth rate in % over the next 2-3 years in terms of the expected volume of new hires, the average expected growth rate was around 35% amongst the respondents.
The majority of the respondents in this survey operate colocation data centers, followed by cloud data centers.
3. SURVEY RESULTS - DATA CENTER OPERATORS
In terms of the average number of employees the respondents employ, which are directly related to data center design and build operations, varied from 20-40 depending on the size of the data center.
FIGURE 2: Are you expecting to hire more staff for the design/build/operations functions within the next 2-3 years? 0% 25% 50% N/AYesNo 30% 60% 10% 75% 60%
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Investing in automationtechnology More employer brandingactivity Engaging in collaboration with educational institutions 20% 40% 80% 60% 20%
Incorporating more on-the-job education and training
The(35%).respondents
Mechanical and electrical engineers (67), closely followed by controls and monitoring (65%) roles were predicted to be the most sought-after technical roles in the regional data center industry, followed by networking engineers
Hiring staff with different profiles outside of the industry
FIGURE 4: What strategies will you incorporate to meet future demand?75% 100%
0% 25% 50% Mechanical andengineerselectrical Networking engineers Controls and monitoring Strategy and operational IT & Security Staff Other, please specify; 30% 65% 35% 20% 67%
overwhelmingly favored on-the-job education and training for current and future data center staff to meet future demand (80%), followed by close collaboration with educational institutions (60%). This is followed by investing in automation technology to complement their data center staff. Surprisingly employer branding activity and hiring different profiles outside of their industry was not indicated as a major focus area for the majority of the respondents.
FIGURE 3: Which type of technical roles do you expect will be most sought after in the regional data center industry? 75% 100% 0% 0% 25% 50%
Yes,
The majority of the respondents believe that automation and AI technology will eventually reduce the need for operational staffing, however the majority believe that this will not be achieved within a 3–5-year period with current trajectories.
0%
Prospective future employees with a technical trade school/vocational degree are overwhelmingly favoured by the majority of the respondents (80%), followed by sector-specific education in relevant fields (40%).
FIGURE 6: Do you believe automation and artificial intelligence will reduce the amount of operational staffing levels within the next 3-5 years?
FIGURE 5: Which type of degree do you expect from future employees within technical/ operations roles? 100% 20% 25% 50% within the next 3-5 years but not within the nextyears3-5 40% 60%
75%
No Yes,
0% 25% 50% University/college degree Technical TradeVocationalSchool/ Sector specific education Other, please specify; 20% 80% 40%
75% 100% 0%
RECOMMENDATIONSCONCLUSIONPARTdatacenterindustrien.dk4&
Recommendations:
As the domestic industry continues to grow and more data centers are being built in Denmark, the need for qualified data center operations staff continues to grow. Current levels of data center professionals available on the market are far and few in between and largely viewed as one of the main concerns for operators. The larger and more known operators are absorbing the current available talent, significantly reducing the talent pool. In order to meet the growing demand, data center operators are focused on close collaboration between the educational sector to create sector-specific courses on existing educations. Furthermore, data center operators are also very much focused on on-the-job education and training, which can be met by introducing more training courses and programmes in Denmark.
Education and training
DDI recommends a closer collaboration between the educational sector, training programmes and data center operators. Several curricula on various levels already in place across the country. Educational organizations including UCL, EASV, Dania, Fredericia Maskinmesterskole, Aalborg University, IT University of Copenhagen and Mercantec are focusing on fine-tuning existing programs by adding data center specific modules and research. However, more support from the industry is needed to ensure the interest in these programmes. Many of these programmes require internships, which has so far been a challenge on some of the programmes. The skills gap can be significantly reduced if the industry works more closely with the educational sector, whilst at the same time focusing on employer branding activities to encourage a more diverse workforce, especially amongst young people.
CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS& PART 7:
DDI recommends a stronger emphasis on collaboration between operations and IT programmes, which can help break down the silos between facility and IT. More on-the-training courses should also focus on this specific area, addressing the barriers and strengthening the collaboration between facility vs. IT/Networking staff.
Attracting a diverse workforce
As automation technologies and AI is taking center stage in data center operations, more and more operators are seeking employees who have a broader understanding, not just of the facility and operations environment, but also of the software behind the monitoring and controls solutions. Facility and IT are converging, requiring a more all-around skillset to manage and operate increasingly more complex data center environments.
There is a general consensus that the current data center talent pool is aging, and that there is a strong need to attract a more young and diverse talent pool. Whilst many understand the need to attract a more diverse workforce, the majority of the respondents do not see employer branding as a priority.
Facility vs. IT in the age of automation
Recommendations:
DDI recommends more employer branding activities to encourage a more diverse workforce coming into the sector, especially amongst young people. Collaboration must be promoted between the industry and educational organizations in order to train and equip the future workforce with the necessary skills. Data center operators and the industry as a whole, has a huge role to play when it comes to creating awareness of the sector. In other countries “Data Center Days” have been introduced to create awareness of the sector to elementary level. Similar information campaigns should be introduced in DDIDenmark.therefore recommends industry-led initiatives to engage with a younger audience to create wider awareness of the industry. The industry, together with the educational sector, can make progress by starting work-to-learn trajectories, offering internships, promoting technical professions within the data center industry and by developing specialist programmes. Given the complexity of the industry, stakeholders have a duty to actively contribute to raising awareness of the industry in various, and most digestible formats. , whilst at the same time focusing on employer branding activities to encourage a more diverse workforce, especially amongst young people.
Recommendations:
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Contact DDI Danish Data Center Industry (DDI) Erik Ejegods Vej 16 8800 Viborg T +45 8725 5151 – M +45 2015 5021 Merima Dzanic merima@datacenterindustrien.dk or +45 20155021
