Data Centre Magazine August 2020

F L O O R I N G F O R D ATA C E N T R E E F F I C I E N C Y AUGUST 2020

datacentremagazine.com

Canada’s leading data centre provider eStruxture Data Centers’ strategy of staying local is resulting in more locations, more capacity and better connectivity

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FOREWORD

W

Welcome to the first edition of Data Centre magazine.

There are few things more important to any enterprise undergoing digital transformation than data. It is with that in mind that we bring you this first issue of the magazine, exploring the latest trends and technologies driving the data revolution and setting out the essential role that data centres and data centre organisations play.

Take, for example, eStruxture Data Centers. The business, which appears on our cover, is Canada’s leading cloud and network-neutral data centre provider and has seen significant growth in the three years it has been active. Founder Todd Coleman tells us how the company’s customer-centric approach has paid dividends, explaining that “we understand where our customers are going. I’d say it’s the biggest evolution in our thought process in the

last few years [...] we work to better understand our customer requirements at the application level and design our data centres to ensure maximum flexibility to meet our customers’ needs.”

Alongside eStruxture, we consider others at the forefront of the market, including Digital Realty, COLOTRAQ and Basefarm.

Each of these organisations has one thing in common: an absolute desire to implement pioneering technologies that advance the use of data. Some of these technologies, as well as the broader trends supporting them, are the focus of our feature content. This includes a look at data centre design and build, how cybersecurity is managed and the importance of the Internet of Things.

We hope you enjoy the magazine and welcome your thoughts.

Harry Menear da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

03

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PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Owen Martin DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Harry Menear

Kieran Waite Sam Kemp MARKETING DIRECTOR

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Steve Shipley

Leigh Manning DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Erin Hancox Sophia Forte Sophie-Ann Pinnell PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก

Shirin Sadr DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Jake Megeary Jordan Hubbard Craig Killingback Stuart Irving DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Stacy Norman PRESIDENT & CEO

Glen White

Evelyn Howat MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

James White PROJECT DIRECTORS

Andrew Stubbings da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CONTENTS

eStruxture: Canada’s leading data centre provider

10

10

24 Digital Realty: the global data centre ecosystem platform

40 A CHALLENGING TIME FOR DATA CENTRE CYBERSECURITY

REDEFINING THE DATA CENTRE

52

64 DIGITAL INNOVATION: BUILDING THE DATA CENTRE OF THE FUTURE

Data Centre CEOs

76

94 COLOTRAQ

108 Interstitial Systems

118 DPR

132 Basefarm

eStruxture: Canada’s leading data centre provider

10

WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

AUGUST 2020

11

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

E S T R U X T U R E D ATA C E N T E R S

Todd Coleman, eStruxture’s President and CEO, explains how a strategy of staying local is resulting in more locations, more capacity and better connectivity

“W

e believe in staying very local, providing local knowledge and a local customer touch,” says Todd Coleman, the founder

of eStruxture Data Centres. “We don’t believe in being headquartered in different parts of the world 12

and running the business from afar.” This is a key aspect of the operations of eStruxture, the data centre company he established in 2017 in Montreal.

It’s an approach that’s served them well, as in the three years since then it’s grown to encompass six facilities in total, each serving specific requirements.

MTL-1, the flagship site in downtown Montreal, is housed in the former Montreal Stock Exchange building. “That is a connectivity and cloud-neutral hub, with 30,000 square feet and 5 MW of power” Coleman explains. “We have a lot of customer ecosystems here that require access to a large and diverse meet-me-room from a telecom carrier fibre perspective, but also rely on us to deliver significant amounts of power density.”

AUGUST 2020

13

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

E S T R U X T U R E D ATA C E N T E R S

“ We’ve not only survived, we’ve thrived during COVID-19” — Todd Coleman, President and CEO, eStruxture

to be in the central business district and have extraordinarily low latency and access to a diverse group of carriers, we can offer that in our downtown facility. If they want the ability to significantly scale their space and power requirements at hyperscale economics, we have that opportunity in MTL-2, and then all our facilities are directly connected by our own dedicated,

MTL-2 is 7 km away, and is a brand new, state-of-the-art hyperscale facil14

diverse fibre ring.”

Additionally, there are two sites in

ity encompassing 190,000 square feet

Vancouver, and a facility in Calgary

and 30MW of power, while MTL-3 is

that the company recently acquired

on the south shore of Montreal, and

in August 2019, ensuring eStruxture

was the first Uptime certified Tier III

has a presence in three of the top

facility in Quebec. “Regardless of the

data centre markets in Canada. They

customers’ needs, we can meet their

remain focused solely on the Canadian

requirements,” Todd says. “If they want

market. “We believe there is significant benefit in being focused and knowing a market, and having your sales and operations staff based there,” Coleman says. “Our Calgary employees are from Calgary and understand the Calgary market well, same with Montreal and Vancouver. The people we hire are industry veterans, and that resonates with our customers, they know that they can turn to us as a trusted advisor.”

AUGUST 2020

eStruxture Data Centres Overview CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:24

15

2017

Year founded

360,000+

Square feet of own built and operated facilities

65

Number of employees

Montreal’s data centre market has grown significantly over the last five years due to the low cost of power and the abundance of hydroelectricity. “It took a large hyperscale cloud provider to come into the market and really put Montreal on the map. Our belief from early on was that the customer power densities were going to continue to grow, which they have. When we entered the Canadian market, it was still fairly nascent and we had a belief that data would continue to localise and customers that were largely present in the US would find their way north of the border.” da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

Scale Confidently With Waterless Free Cooling eStruxture Gains Efficiencies for Sustainable Growth With the Liebert® DSE economization system, eStruxture drives cost savings, allowing capital to be deployed in a phased approach — balancing capacity with demand.

Vertiv.com

© 2020 Vertiv Group Corp. All rights reserved. Vertiv™ and the Vertiv logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vertiv Group Corp.

While every precaution has been taken to ensure accuracy and completeness here, Vertiv Group Corp. assumes no responsibility, and disclaims all liability, for damages resulting from use of this information or for any errors or omissions. Specifications are subject to change at Vertiv’s sole discretion upon notice.

When Coleman founded eStruxture,

rack without stranding space requiring

he was still an investor in Cologix, a

re-engineering of the cooling system,

data centre company he co-founded

something Coleman says is practically

in 2010. While that business focused

unheard of in North America.

on telecoms and interconnection,

eStruxture aims to provide its cus-

with sites within or near large carrier

tomers with the best service at the

hotels, the aim with eStruxture was

best cost. “We work with our manu-

to develop Tier III, enterprise class

facturers to understand what they’re

data centres with massively scalable

rolling out and drive them towards bet-

space and power in major Canadian

ter and more enhanced technologies

markets. Today, its standard offering

at the best cost performance. We’re

allows customers to go to 30 kW per

about consistency, control and proven 17

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Todd Coleman Title: President and CEO

Location: Montreal, Quebec

Industry: Information Technology & Services Todd Coleman is the President and CEO of eStruxture. Todd brings more than 25 years experience in the IT, data centre and telecommunications industries. Most recently, Todd was the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Cologix. Todd has also held several senior positions at Level 3 Communications, a global telecommunications company, including Senior Vice President of Data Centres, Senior Vice President of Media Operations and President of Level 3 Communications Europe.

Todd holds a juris doctorate and a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

E S T R U X T U R E D ATA C E N T E R S

18

AUGUST 2020

19

“ I’d say that’s the biggest innovation in the thought process that we’ve adopted in the last few years – not viewing our customers as one-size fits all” — Todd Coleman, President and CEO, eStruxture da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

E S T R U X T U R E D ATA C E N T R E S

20

quality and stability. Most importantly,

centres to ensure maximum flexibility

we understand where our customers

to meet our customers’ requirements.”

are going. I’d say that’s the biggest

Having strong partnerships with

evolution in our thought process that

companies that understand their busi-

we’ve adopted in the last few years –

ness needs is critical for eStruxture to

not viewing our customers as one-size

be a trusted advisor to its customers.

fits all. We work to better understand

“We often receive zero financial benefit

our customer requirements at the

when we work with customers as a

application level and design our data

trusted advisor, but that’s part of our

AUGUST 2020

“ The people we hire are industry veterans, and that resonates with our customers” — Todd Coleman, President and CEO, eStruxture

and grow indirectly, bringing people, resources and technology to bear to an opportunity that we might not have had access to otherwise.”

Like so many organisations globally, eStruxture has been touched by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early days of the outbreak the company took a step back to reevaluate its position

value proposition, to steer and advise

in terms of investments, customers

them as to who our partners are and

and key metrics. “Along the way, we

provide details on their offerings,

proved to ourselves that the business

so our customers are able to be put

was very resilient in these types of

in direct contact as we hand them off

economic downturns. Frankly, we’ve

in a very warm and relationship-driven

not only survived, we’ve thrived during

way. That’s been hugely beneficial to

COVID-19. Our sales funnel has never

both our customers and partners alike.”

been more robust than over the past

The company has a number of key

few months.”

partner relationships, including with

Understanding that people’s needs

Belden, a provider of network and

may have changed during COVID-19,

connectivity solutions, JAVCO, a specialist in mission critical design and engineering, and Vertiv, a mission critical equipment manufacturer, many of whom have been key partners since the company was founded. “These types of relationships speak volumes to the partners that we bring in and in how we value them, because they enable us to stretch the rubber band da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

21

E S T R U X T U R E D ATA C E N T E R S

“ When we entered the Canadian market it was still fairly nascent” — Todd Coleman, President and CEO, eStruxture

Belden Is a Proud Partner of eStruxture Watch how Belden helps eStruxture manage high ber density while saving space with the new DCX Optical Distribution Frame (ODF) System.

Speak to Sales

23 they’ve offered incentives to cus-

data centre market is a bit of a ‘build

tomers who need to quickly migrate

it and they will come’ market, so you

their IT and network infrastructure

need confidence in how it’s evolving,

or require immediate expansion of

and where new markets could turn into

capacity, and to encourage customers

data centre-centric markets that oth-

to take advantage of eStruxture’s on-

erwise weren’t previously. You really

site technicians to enable customers

need your finger on the pulse of the

to deal with issues remotely, in a bid

marketplace and their localised nature

to protect both the facilities and the

to truly understand them.”

customers’ and eStruxture’s employees while the pandemic is ongoing.

Ultimately, to be successful, Coleman says you need investors that believe in you, as well as intimate knowledge of the marketplace. “The da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

24

Digital Realty: the global data centre ecosystem platform WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

AUGUST 2020

25

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

Chris Sharp, CTO at Digital Realty, on powering data centre digital transformation with a global ecosystem platform

“

F

orget data lakes, we’re now talking about some of the largest data oceans ever created,” says Digital Realty’s Chris Sharp,

discussing the seismic evolution of data – and how 26

enterprise and hyperscale customers use that data – towards a series of interconnected global, digital ecosystems capable of supporting even the most complex digital transformations.

Digital Realty, at which Sharp holds the role of Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Service Innovation, is a key enabler of those transformations. The company supports the global data centre, colocation, and interconnection strategies of leading organisations worldwide with a fit for purpose global data centre platform, PlatformDIGITAL. This comprehensive solution offers a model built around network, control, and data hubs, and has been created to enable the ever-changing data, security, and networking demands of these global enterprises as they grow.

AUGUST 2020

27

2001

Year founded

$3bn+ Revenue in US dollars

1,500 Number of employees

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

“ We are really focused on supporting our customers in their enterprise journey, and a crucial aspect of that is not only focusing on what they need today, but what they’ll absolutely need tomorrow” — Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Service Innovation 28

The pace at which the global digital economy has evolved has changed the way enterprises in every sector create and deliver value. Now more than ever data, technology and an effective IT strategy are essential to enterprises.

Equally so, is operating on demand, ubiquitously and in a manner that is augmented by real-time intelligence at every point of business globally.

Yet, with that growth comes challenges.

For example, as data creation and consumption rises, so too does the need for effective tools, networks and infrastructures to access and analyse it. This creates data gravity – a point that many enterprises reach as they scale in a digital environment.

THE GLOBAL DATA TRANSFORMATION Sharp is a seasoned technology leader, with more than 20 years’ experience and a proven track record of evolving businesses to meet the most complex and demanding technology trends.

From the countless enterprise organisations that he and Digital Realty work with, he identifies an overarching trend driving change: as enterprises scale, they deploy globally and need access AUGUST 2020

to their data and public cloud-based systems in a different way, yet they also all need help managing the complexity from this shift. “This is where, in my experience, Digital Realty is really able to differentiate itself from others in the market,” he says. “We are dedicated to supporting our customers in their enterprise IT journey and a crucial aspect of that is not only focusing on what they need today, but also what they’ll absolutely need tomorrow.

“It’s essential to recognise that all enterprises and businesses – not just the hyperscalers that we deal with – are often going through significant digital transformations,” he continues. “Part of that, in terms of their data, is about being able to deploy globally consistent infrastructure to manage efficient data exchanges, rethink data flows to a broader set of partners, and build these ecosystems of community interest.

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Chris Sharp Title: Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Service Innovation Location: Menlo Park, California Chris has more than 20 years’ experience and a proven track record of evolving businesses to meet the most complex and demanding technology trends. He has a strong understanding of technology and its business impact with a deep network of relationships in the internet, telecommunications and IT industry.

During his career, Chris has led acquisition and integration for seven successful companies since 2003, valued over $3bn in managed network services, colocation and security services.

Providing those organisations with an innovative and market-leading platform that’s exactly the same whether they’re in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London, Osaka, or any other location worldwide, allows access to revenue and ecosystems in a very repeatable fashion.” da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

29

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a very different ethos at Digital Realty, where we want to empower our customers and be a true open platform.”

That ethos, as Sharp explains, mirrors the broader evolution of the data centre sector, as well as how companies – indeed, all of us – use data. “We’ve seen a shift wherein customers don’t want to be siloed into different products or different services – so, the differences between collocation and scale, for example. Typically, particularly with how rapidly the landscape is changing, you’ll see customers may go into collocation and outgrow it very quickly because the economics and the sheer infrastructure they need just can’t be provided through a collocation

BUILDING A GLOBAL DATA CENTRE PLATFORM

model. From our perspective, it’s about

This approach, Sharp explains, is the

manage all of those different fields in

driver behind PlatformDIGITAL, which

a seamless fashion. It’s why you’ll see

he says is “about being entrenched

us stop talking about collocation and

in what each customer needs and

scale, and just talk about ‘the platform’.

truly supporting them on a global

building out a robust platform that can

“That shift is really dictating the direc-

basis. This is what directly drove our

tion of PlatformDIGITAL,” he adds. “You

recent announcement of expanding

don’t go to Hertz to rent a car for three

PlatformDIGITAL with Interxion, adding

years, you know? It’s economics. So, for

more value to our customers and deeper

us, it’s always about understanding a

reach into Europe and beyond. We have

customer’s requirements around sizing da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

31

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

Digital Realty: PlatformDIGITAL CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:59

32 so we can work on an environment

created in a centralised place, the

that lets them ‘land and expand’. The

proliferation of digital technologies,

other critical challenge enterprises

smartphones, cloud, mobile analyt-

face today beyond that blended set of

ics and more means it is now being

services, is really around what it means

created everywhere. That data must

to be open, so that they can get the full

still be aggregated in order to ana-

value from the broader landscape that

lyse, understand, and learn from it.

they need access to.”

When it collects, a growing number

The last major challenge in the shift

of services and applications use it —

to a global ecosystem is data gravity,

against this proliferation of devices,

which Sharp describes as fundamental

data gravity interacts. This can result

to successful enterprise infrastructure.

in data that is near impossible to

By 2025, it is estimated that 463 exabytes

move and, according to Digital Realty,

of data will be created daily worldwide.

“unfavourable complexity when factor-

And while that data was typically

ing business locations, proximity to

AUGUST 2020

users, regulatory constraints, compli-

a customer’s data – say they are look-

ance and data privacy.”

ing to carry out some data analytics

To grow globally, businesses must

and want to stand up an AI farm with

use the global open platform approach

several GPU processors, for example –

offered by Digital Realty to mitigate

which is a real game changer for many

the data gravity barriers created by

of those enterprises we’re working

digital transformation. “Some of the

with. They’re all trying to work with data

enterprises we work with aren’t fully

analytics, to use multi-hybrid cloud

aware of the issue, or that they should

architectures and our platform does

deploy in proximity to where all of this

that — when that data doesn’t have

data is burgeoning or being built, and

to travel far because the customer is

this is where PlatformDIGITAL brings

immersed right in it, that’s probably

huge value,” Sharp notes. “So, we can

the most optimal architecture that an

procure a cabinet in close proximity to

enterprise could hope to achieve.”

Solve data gravity challenges and scale digital business by implementing the PlatformDIGITAL solution model

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

33

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

CONTROL, CONNECT, OPTIMISE There is also a notable trend of enterprises looking to move away from running their own data centres and data locations, Sharp reveals. He explains that, in this context, solutions like PlatformDIGITAL enable those businesses to get ahead of the curve before their footprint is too difficult to move, adding that “we can expose the benefits of having that fit-for-purpose platform that’s heavily interconnected.

Believe me, I don’t run into any custom34

ers that tell me they want to continue building their own data centres.”

PlatformDIGITAL allows enterprises to leverage full interconnection capabilities across Digital Realty’s global ecosystem, including cloud service providers, partners, networks and customers, that will drive their business. According to the company, the core benefits of the platform revolve around three distinct opportunities: be in control, be connected, be optimised.

In the case of control, for example, standardising deployment and operations on a single platform simplifies infrastructure and reduces risk, while the greater connection of a global AUGUST 2020

platform improves business performance through participation in global digital ecosystems; it also shortens the time to connect with markets and other players in that ecosystem.

The platform tailors infrastructure deployments and controls matched to specific business requirements, irrespective of data centre size, scale, location configuration, or ecosystem configurations. In line with the scaling of modern, digital enterprises, it lets customers operate deployments as part of a seamless extension of any global infrastructure, says the company, thus enabling global, distributed workflows at centres of data exchange

“ Forget data lakes, we’re now talking about some of the largest data oceans ever created” — Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Service Innovation

to remove data gravity barriers.

CONNECTION AND SX FABRIC “To embark on a digital transformation, the first thing an enterprise needs is storage,” Sharp says. “They need their own data store, and that’s where the IP for a lot of our customers comes from, the ability to have that data store and run analytics against it. You’re no longer talking just about owning land, but the ability to deploy high power density infrastructure in close da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

35

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

proximity to that data store once you

global exchange of data centre cloud

factor in things like AI. There’s not an

and connectivity solutions that enables

industry out there today that isn’t look-

interconnected global workflows, the

ing to up its data analytics capabilities

integration of cloud and B2B ecosys-

and it’s the proximity element that

tems with virtual interconnections,

PlatformDIGITAL enables in a very

and the ability to virtually connect

efficient way.”

clouds and digital ecosystems both

After storage, says Sharp, connec-

36

locally and globally. “It essentially lets

tivity is crucial. It is here that Digital

enterprises click and procure,” says

Realty’s Service Exchange (SX)

Sharp. “They’re afforded a portal within

Fabric on PlatformDIGITAL proves

which they can pick any one of the

crucial. SX Fabric, which is powered

150-plus cloud on-ramps from all of the

by Megaport’s multi-cloud and eco-

top cloud providers globally through

system connectivity, is an automated

SX - all without ever having to use an

AUGUST 2020

engineer, or even understanding the

and giving them as open a platform

level of complexity behind it.

as possible. We really like to invest

“The work that we collaborated on

in our partners, not to compete with

with Megaport on SX is really at the

them, and have those best-of-breed

highest level,” he continues. “It’s very

relationships that let us deliver the best

technically challenging to achieve

capabilities to our customers.”

because it revolves around the hybrid multi-cloud approach that a lot of

GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

enterprises are taking, wherein they

SX Fabric is just one aspect of the vast

need to establish a location to stand

PlatformDIGITAL capability roadmap.

up their private infrastructure and then

For example, the platform offers cover-

access multiple public clouds. From our

age from more than 265 Digital Realty

perspective, it was really about aligning

data centres in 20 countries and 44

our enterprise customers in the market

metropolitan areas. Connections are offered through physical and virtual cross-connects and includes more than 2,000 ecosystem participants — the company plans to extend this to more than 10,000 in the future.

More recently, the business has completed projects in Frankfurt, Dublin, and Tokyo, locations that Sharp describes as “hotbeds for enterprise customers trying to access revenue opportunities”. Take the new Clonshaugh data centre in Dublin, which forms part of an existing portfolio in the Irish capital. Ireland’s data centre economy is growing rapidly having already contributed 7.13bn euros da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

37

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

38 to the nation’s overall economy in the

28MW; it offers solutions from Network

last decade. Digital Realty has invested

Hubs through to Data Hubs.

more than 200mn euros in Ireland

“With our size and our balance sheet,

to date, with the latest Clonshaugh

there’s rarely an opportunity in the

development designed to underpin the

market that we don’t see,” says Sharp.

importance of data-led technologies

“If there’s an asset that will trade or

to Dublin’s economy.

customer demand around an area

The company has also expanded

then we’ll spend a lot of time assess-

PlatformDIGITAL in Germany, purchas-

ing that prospect. We already have

ing 1.35 acres of land in Frankfurt to

one of the most robust platforms to

address increasing customer demand.

serve Europe with the recent expan-

The new campus, purpose built for

sion of the Interxion assets, we’re

those enterprises looking to exploit the

constantly watching for opportunities

opportunities that PlatformDIGITAL

in the Middle East and we also have an

provides, will add an additional 6MW

eye on some of the deeper elements

of power to the company’s existing

of the African market. It’s also worth

AUGUST 2020

39 noting that we’re always looking to go

trends we have discussed, as well as

deeper into existing markets. That’s

other emerging trends like the personi-

particularly the case in terms of new

fication of the data centre becoming

technologies, such as 5G or edge

a critical asset. Every industry and

computing, both of which will still

every customer out there, regardless

need efficient access back to the core

of size, will need to have a fundamental

infrastructure we have today.”

foundation like PlatformDIGITAL that

Those new technologies aside, Chris

allows them to increase in power den-

believes that the global ecosystem

sity, increase interconnection, increase

model enabled by PlatformDIGITAL

in square footage or footprint, and

will continue to dominate. “If you

increase in global presence.”

would’ve told me 15 years ago that I’d still be going to work in a data centre, I’d have found it hard to believe,” he states. “But what continues to draw me in is my passion for those secular da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

NETWORK AND CYBERSECURITY

40

A CHALLENGING TIME FOR DATA CENTRE CYBERSECURITY WRITTEN BY

AUGUST 2020

HARRY MENE AR

41

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

NETWORK AND CYBERSECURITY

Data Centre Magazine explores the challenges facing industry operators, and the strategies that will help them stay secure The global shift towards cloud network architecture and data centre colocation as a service has laid considerable challenges at the feet of data centre operators in the last few years. Traditional security systems that use firewalls to keep threats at bay are no longer sufficient. “Think of a castle in a medieval city. To protect it from the outside world, you’d have this wall that over time would get taller and thicker,” 42

explained Vladimir Gotsev, Director of Engineering at tech firm Netrix, in a recent interview with the Chicago Business Journal. “That was pretty effective as long as everyone lived inside the castle.”

Today, of course, the acceleration of cloud-based data centres, coupled with the accelerated growth of the internet of things (IoT), has changed all that.

Companies are increasingly choosing to store sensitive and proprietary information remotely, in data centres operated by third parties. These third parties are then responsible for safeguarding this valuable information, and today the number of ways for malicious actors to gain access to that information is increasing exponentially. 2019 was a record-breaking year for both mega breaches and smaller scale hacks.

In the first half of the year alone there were more than

AUGUST 2020

“Cloud-enabled organisations need cloud-delivered security” — Vladimir Gotsev, Director of Engineering, Netrix

43

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

The Department of Defense trusts the cloud with the most tools, technology, and accessibility at the tactical edge.

www.BuildOn.aws

“Permission auditing is crucial to make sure that access is only delegated to those that need it” — Ross Thomas , IT Administrator, SSL Store

This month, Data Centre Magazine explores the challenges facing industry operators today, and some of the strategies that will help them deliver a more secure experience to their user bases.

ONLY HUMAN

3,800 publicly disclosed breaches

In a 2019 report by IBM and the Pone-

which compromised 4.1bn records

mon Institute, 49% of data breaches

– a 54% increase year-on-year.

were found to have been the result

2020 promises to be an even

of either system glitches or human

tougher year for data centre operators,

error. As the technology powering

as the global COVID-19 pandemic

cybersecurity becomes increasingly

drives a global work-from-home

powerful, the human element is

experiment on an unprecedented

increasingly being exposed as the

scale. According to a recent Gallup

weak link in a network’s armour.

study, in three weeks, the percentage

Ross Thomas, an IT administrator

of employees working from home

at the SSL Store, suggests that regular

doubled, from 31% to 62%, and 52%

permission auditing to control who has

of managers said they would allow

virtual access to servers is an essential

their employees to work remotely

tool that data centre operators should

more often. According to Gotsev,

be employing. “Permission auditing

this means that companies are going

is crucial to make sure that access is

to have to completely rethink their

only delegated to those that need it.

approach to security, as sensitive data

Root users can be very dangerous as

becomes increasingly accessible

they are able to make any changes

through home and mobile devices.

or execute any code or processes.

“Cloud-enabled organisations need

But, root users are necessary. Assigning

cloud-delivered security,” he said.

processes, tasks, etc., to the correct da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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NETWORK AND CYBERSECURITY

user is the absolute safest way to delegate processes,” he explained in a recent interview. “When personnel leave an organisation, there should be proper evaluation of their status in all systems to determine if they have access even if it is not through the front door.”

Email has been found to be the most common entry point for malicious actors outside the organisation.

Phishing is by far the most commonly exploited attack vector. Introducing 46

security training both inside and outside data centre organisations can be an effective tool in the pursuit of lowering these risks.

DATA CENTRES ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THEIR WEAKEST POINTS While data centre cyber security budgets and plans often account for encryption, firewalls and physical security, these measures often don’t extend to all aspects of a data centre network. A recent piece by Cybersecurity Insiders found that, “Power systems, which happen to be the most critical infrastructure of a data center are sadly the most overlooked architecAUGUST 2020

47

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NETWORK AND CYBERSECURITY

“Power systems, which happen to be the most critical infrastructure of a data center are sadly the most overlooked architecture by Cybersecurity teams” — Cybersecurity Insiders

Pruett, Security Field Solutions Executive at SHI International. Data centres looking to resist external threats should take care to protect their physical systems from digital attacks if they wish to avoid these kinds of disruptions.

THE NEED FOR PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL CONVERGENCE According to Scott Borg, Director of

48

ture by Cybersecurity teams.”

the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit,

Commonly, power systems are

“As long as organisations treat their

“protected” from failure by redundant

physical and cyber domains as separate,

backup systems and physical

there is little hope of securing either

security. While this is an effective

one. The convergence of cyber and

way to prevent uptime disruption,

physical security has already occurred

these measures often aren’t enough

at the technical level. It is long overdue

to stave off targeted threats. The

at the organisational level.”

software controlling these systems

The separation between the cameras,

is often vulnerable to cyber attack,

motion sensors, locks and other

particularly through IoT, as these

physical elements of a data centre’s

systems are often heavily reliant

security architecture, and its firewall,

on smart sensor networks.

encryption protocols and other digital

So, a malicious cyber actor or a

defences creates a glaring vulnerability

military agency of a nation can easily

in a disturbing proportion of networks.

take control of the device and interrupt

“Right now, most US companies rely

the power to a data center or a specific

on patchwork systems, even to handle

server on a network- eventually leading

their most sensitive data and functions,”

to a business disruption”, said Bob

said Brivo CEO Steve Van Till in an

AUGUST 2020

T HE S I X MO ST C O M M O N T YP E S OF CY B ER AT TAC K O N DATA C E NT RE S

Hacking and Malware: This involves actors moving directly and indirectly against a data centre’s security network via malicious software including spyware, ransomware, viruses and worms.

Phishing: Involves the use of fraudulent communications that appear to come from a reputable source, typically via email.

Phishing is the most common form of attack and takes advantage of companies with weak security training programs.

Man-In-The-Middle (MitM) Attacks: These attacks involve bad actors inserting themselves into a two-party transaction in order to extract data or money.

These attacks usually happen through unsecure public Wi-Fi networks or malware, something that’s becoming increasingly likely as more and more people work from home during and after the pandemic.

Denial-of-Service Attacks: These assaults overload systems, servers or networks with traffic to exhaust resources or bandwidth, leading to a fulfillment disruption of legitimate requests. These sorts of attacks were used to great effect

by Anonymous earlier this year to take down the Minneapolis Police Department site.

Structured Query Language (SQL) Injection: A less common form of attack which occurs when an attacker inserts malicious code into a server that uses SQL and forces it to reveal proprietary information.

Zero-Day Exploit: Hits after a network vulnerability is announced but before a solution is implemented. These types of vulnerabilities are the least excusable on behalf of a data centre security team.

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NETWORK AND CYBERSECURITY

50

“A malicious cyber actor or a military agency of a nation can easily take control of the device and interrupt the power to a data center” — Bob Pruett, Security Field Solutions Executive, SHI International

of efficient, integrated, and secure systems has been highlighted.”

As with data centre power systems, the meeting point between the physical world and the digital one that is creating these vulnerabilities stems largely from the IoT. The number of new IoT devices grew by 7bn between 2018 and 2019, and that trend is only expected to accelerate. Many third party IoT sensors

interview back in April. “Now that we

and systems operate without adequate

are experiencing the formerly unthink-

cybersecurity built in. Finding ways

able, security threats, both cyber

to protect and isolate these devices

and physical, have been illuminated

from the core network is becoming an

or exacerbated and the importance

increasingly high priority for data centre

AUGUST 2020

51 operators, particularly as more and more

with the increase in cyber attacks, the

IT activity is moved closer to the edges

demand for the global data centre

of networks.

security market will grow — with annual

The global IoT explosion is predicted

spending rising as high as $15.5bn a year

to accelerate data centre cyber security

by 2024. In a post-pandemic world, data

spending significantly. Back in 2019,

centre operators will need to elevate

internet performance company Dyn

their efforts even further in order to deal

was the main target of an attack by the

with more distributed networks, more

Mirai botnet, “which basically goes into

unsecured smart devices, and increas-

folks’ homes and takes over Internet of

ing waves of cyber crime (which has

Things devices and literally turns them

grown into an estimated $600bn

into attack vectors,” said Kyle York,

industry worldwide); the once-impene-

Chief Strategy Officer at Dyn, in a news

trable castle has become a sprawling

report for NBC.

metropolis, and that sort of landscape

According to Grand View Research,

requires a very different approach. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

TECHNOLOGY

52

REDEFINING THE DATA CENTRE WRITTEN BY

AUGUST 2020

HARRY MENE AR

53

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TECHNOLOGY

Data Centre Magazine explores how IoT is driving data centre disruption, and takes a look at some of the companies at the forefront of these trends The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) is having a profound effect on companies in every market and vertical across the world. Gartner estimates that by the end of 2020, the global IoT market will grow to exceed 5.8 billion endpoints. That’s a 19% growth rate year-on-year. Back in 2015, Cisco’s Global Cloud Index predicted that Data centre IP 54

traffic will grow at a CAGR of 27% between 2015 and 2020 to 15.3 zettabytes per year. The report also suggests that the total connected IoT devices by the nd of this year could be generating as much as 50 zettabytes of data. As IoT devices both change the way that data is flowed, stored and processed, and significantly increase the quantities of information being generated, the disruptive implications for the data centre industry are staggering.

“IoT deployments will generate large quantities of data that need to be processed and analyzed in real time,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner in a recent press release. “Processing large quantities of IoT data in real time will increase as a proportion of workloads of data centres, leaving providers facing new security, capacity and analytics challenges.” The wealth of distributed data that the AUGUST 2020

“Processing large quantities of IoT data in real time will increase as a proportion of workloads of data centres” — Fabrizio Biscotti, Research Director, Gartner

55

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

“The enormous number of devices, coupled with the sheer volume, velocity and structure of IoT data, creates challenges” — Joe Skorupa, VP, Analyst, Gartner

Skorupa, vice president and analyst at Gartner, explains that, “Existing data centre WAN links are sized for the moderate-bandwidth requirements generated by human interactions with applications. IoT promises to dramatically change these patterns by transferring massive amounts of small message sensor data to the data centre for processing, dramatically increasing inbound data centre

IoT is producing spell a number of challenges for data centre operators.

A recent report by Bain & Co notes

bandwidth requirements.”

The incredible proliferation of endpoints driven by IoT adoption is elevat-

that “given the progress in sensor

ing security threat levels, as malicious

technology, 5G connectivity, edge

actors find themselves able to gain

computing and edge analytics, and an

access to networks through an array

estimated 20 billion devices connect-

of new smart devices. Lastly, the IoT

ed by 2020, there’s little doubt of the

revolution is starting to completely

potential for technology to vastly

restructure the global data centre

improve efficiency and no doubt that

architecture in a way that could poten-

the IoT will have to manage it.”

tially spell doom for hyperscale data

The flow of data – traditionally

centre infrastructure entirely, as

outwards from a centralised data

the market pivots towards a race to

centre to enterprises – is being

the edge.

reversed as IoT traffic will see huge

Data centre operators need to be

amounts of data, made up of vast

aware of these trends, as those who

numbers of smaller data packets

react quickly have the potential to

generated by individual devices,

drive their slower competitors out of

flowing into these data centres. Joe

the market. Here, we explore the key da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

57

TECHNOLOGY

factors in the data centre IoT-evolution, and take a look at some of the companies at the forefront of these trends.

MORE TRANSPARENCY While most people’s first hand experiences with IoT probably centre around wearables like the Apple Watch, or even Samsung’s Smart Fridge, the majority of industrial and commercial IoT devices are sensors. They collect data and share it instantaneously with their network, helping companies 58

better monitor job sites and offices.

While the IoT explosion is placing new kinds of pressures on data centre operators, these same operators are poised to benefit massively from their own IoT adoptions. Across the industry, the lifecycle of data centres averages between 10 and 15 years. During this timeframe, the centre will need to support scalable expansion and up to three new generations of IT infrastructure. Understanding the capabilities of these infrastructural components will be essential for data centre operators looking to stay agile. “Through understanding of performance and optimisation of infrastructure, IoT AUGUST 2020

deployment will touch on all elements of power distribution and protection, cooling systems and associated subsystems,” notes a recent report

by Irish Advantage. “It will also encompass data cables, racks and physical structures, facility management systems including those for the building, networks and infrastructure, and systems for security and fire protection.” Companies like AKCP – a US-based SNMP based monitoring system firm – are incorporating IoT sensors into their smart rack offerings, allowing operators to better measure temperature and humidity, and perform preventative maintenance.

HIGHER SECURITY RISKS “The enormous number of devices, coupled with the sheer volume, velocity and structure of IoT data, creates challenges, particularly in the areas of security, data, storage management, servers and the data centre network, as real-time business processes are at stake,” explained Skorupa. “The recent trend to centralise applications to reduce costs and increase security is incompatible with the IoT. “ da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

59

TECHNOLOGY

“Transporting data over large distances for processing incurs a delay that real-time applications can’t tolerate” — Jean S. Bozman, VP and principal analyst, Hurwitz & Associates

potentially be deactivated when only the garage door opener is compromised,” posits a recent report by Deloitte. “The broad range of connectable home devices – TVs, home thermostats, door locks, home alarms, smart home hubs, garage door openers, to name a few – creates a myriad of connection points for hackers to gain entry into IoT ecosystems, access

The colossal increase in data from a vastly increased number of end60

customer information, or even penetrate manufacturers’ back-end systems.”

points is a huge source of threat for

Traditional methods like firewalls

data centre operators. Despite total

are no longer effective on their own,

market spending of $13bn every year

as data centre networks expand closer

on data centre security, attacks (and

and closer to the edge. In 2019, there

breaches) persist. This is a tricky

were 1,473 data breaches in the US

situation, however, as data centre

alone, and IBM’s Ponemon Institute

operators themselves don’t control

estimates that the average cost of

the vast majority of IoT devices

a single breach is typically in the realm

feeding information into their systems.

of $3.5mn. Unfortunately, there’s a

Often, only one of those devices needs

common consensus that the IoT

to be compromised for the entire

manufacturing industry is moving

system to be rendered vulnerable.

faster than its cyber security solutions

“Imagine a garage door opener with

can keep up. “A lot of the manufactur-

the added functionality to deactivate

ing behind IoT devices today feels like

the home alarm upon entry. This is a

the Gold Rush… everyone wants to get

convenient feature for a homeowner

there in a hurry,” John Cook, senior

entering their home in a hurry. However,

director of product management at

now the entire alarm system could

Symantec, said at the 2018 RSA

AUGUST 2020

F O RESCO U T

Founded in 2000, San Jose-based cyber security firm Forescout is one of the leading players in the IoT security space, serving both private enterprises and government agencies. According to the company, billions of agentless IoT devices lack security. Forescout’s offering inspects network traffic and monitors networking activities – without disrupting operations, eliminates traditional blind spots within enterprise networks and provides an accurate, real-time inventory of devices without scanning or accessing connected them. It does this using the Forescout Knowledge Cloud,

a vast knowledge base of more than 11 million connected devices. “ Millions of devices are connecting to enterprise networks every day. Forescout can successfully secure the world’s largest and most complicated environments, from a few thousand devices to millions at a single organisation,” said Pedro Abreu, chief product and strategy officer at Forescout Technologies in a press release earlier this year.

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61

TECHNOLOGY

S M ART EDGE DC

62

One of the proposed solutions to delivering distributed data centre technology is micro data centres: networks of shippingcontainer-sized data centre nodes that together establish a hyperfast, low-latency network at the edge. While some edge deployment models advocate for attaching micro data centres to 5G and LTE cell network towers, other findings indicate that the majority of cell tower locations lack the necessary power to support even micro data centres.

One UK startup, SmartEdge, is reverse engineering that thought process to potentially change the country’s data centre landscape, and redefine the ongoing relationship

AUGUST 2020

between data centre networks and telecommunications providers. SmartEdge is deploying a “Mesh Network” of 100 of these micro data centres, with 6.3MW of power in the UK’s 100 most highly-populated towns and cities. The locations of these data centres have also been chosen because of their feasibility as 5G mast locations as well, and SmartEdge will be erecting powered and fibre connected, 5G-enabling mobile telephone masts at selected sites, allowing mobile operators to install equipment directly to the edge.

“The edge is a location – it’s the edge of a network, and the only way of delivering is you’ve got to have them replicate what happened with mobile phones,” said Peter Hewkin, founder of SmartEdge, in an interview with Computer Weekly.

conference. “You effectively have people staking out a claim in the area without further thought to security.”

According to Alan Grau, VP of IoT and embedded solutions, at Sectigo, the solutions to these problems lie where the problems themselves are occurring: at the edge. “Traditional security

“Through understanding of performance and optimisation of infrastructure, IoT deployment will touch on all elements of power distribution and protection” — Irish Advantage

applications like antivirus and firewalls

input to create data, the volume of

do not work with these devices that are

information being sent from the edge

out beyond the enterprise’s network.

of the network, back to data centres,

Rather, powerful, cohesive encryption

and out again to enterprises, is render-

algorithms and certificate-based

ing traditional centralised data centre

authentication are a must,” he explained

architecture unfeasible.

in an article last year. “The devices and

The solution, many believe, is to push

processors living at the edge must each

for the decentralisation of data centre

be hardened against attack. Robust

infrastructure. Jean S. Bozman, vice

identity verification and encrypted data

president and principal analyst at

transmission are two critical components

Hurwitz & Associates in Palo Alto, said

of this approach.”

recently that, since “transporting data over large distances for processing

DECENTRALISED DATA CENTRES

incurs a delay that real-time applica-

The ongoing trend of shifting data

tions can’t tolerate,” a better solution

centre IoT security towards the edge

is for processing to be done at the

is indicative of a wider migration. As

network’s edge. “Data center manag-

mentioned before, the traditional flow

ers will need to deploy more forward-

of data out from data centres to

looking capacity management in these

enterprises has been reversed by IoT.

areas to be able to proactively meet

Furthermore, as these devices are

the business priorities associated with

no longer dependent on human

IoT,” added Skorupa. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

63

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

64

DIGITAL INNOVATION: BUILDING THE DATA CENTRE OF THE FUTURE WRITTEN BY

AUGUST 2020

M AT T HIGH

65

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CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

PETER PATSALIDES, DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY EXPERT, ON HOW ENTERPRISE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS DRIVING DATA CENTRE DESIGN AND BUILD The data centre industry of today would be unrecognisable 10 or 15 years ago. Technology, naturally, has changed exponentially over that period, most recently typified by the acceleration of migration to public and private cloud networks. But, so too has the importance – and volume – of data that governs how enterprises and organisations make decisions, operate and, ultimately, succeed. Indeed, data plays 66

such a prominent role for both organisations and individuals that an effective data centre strategy is now a prerequisite of any digital transformation, whether you are a hyperscaler or an SME. According to Peter Patsalides, this trend isn’t going away. On the contrary Patsalides, who has spent more than 15 years in the data centre industry in roles covering design, build and service provision, sees only a quickening in the demand for data centres globally. Among his previous roles, Patsalides held the position of Senior Director Designer & Construction at CyrusOne, a leading provider of mission-critical data center facilities – both as colocation solutions and built to suit – for close to 900 customers worldwide. He joined us to explore what this continued growth means for data centre design and build, as well as the key trends driving this acceleration.

AUGUST 2020

67

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“ Colocation is absolutely the way to go. Developments in cloud have really made it impossible to go any other way for all organisations, from small companies to the largest conglomerates” Barclays, JP Morgan and Chase, Citibank and so on. It started off very DC: How has the design and build

simply – literally in the closet in a main

of data centres changed over the 15

office – before moving on to purpose-

years you’ve worked in the sector,

built data centers.

and what technologies have driven that change?

It was the growth of the data centre owner-operators, companies like

PP: Initially, say 15-20 years ago,

Digital Realty, CyrusOne and others,

data centres were really exclusively

that really drove the shift away from

designed and built for the end user,

that approach, which typically

typically large global players like

favoured the needs of the business

The Future of the Data Center CLICK TO WATCH

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CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

over the needs of the technology.

By that I mean you’d have these large corporates, both in the US and Europe, building data centres with fancy offices and all of the other things they wanted that weren’t really based on any technology requirements. The owner-operators came along, at the same time as the providers of connectivity made steps forward in innovation, and showed these organisations a different approach: that they didn’t need to spend their own money 70

building data centers; that the technology had developed to such an extent that it could be located anywhere, in the right environment so that it could run 24/7 and be entirely secure; and that the connectivity was available

multinational level to enter the data

to give absolute guarantees in terms

centre game.

of operational effectiveness.

It was the genesis of the colocation

DC: Can you explain more about

market. And it meant that companies

the growth of the owner-operator

no longer had to worry about their

companies and how that has

own data centres, they could scale

changed the market?

up faster, it was cheaper and more

PP: It was much more advanced in

effective, and that the level of provi-

the US in the early stages, particularly

sion was the same for everyone. That

in terms of persuading those larger

in turn made it far more simple for

players to take the first steps into

commercial companies below the

colocation. The company I previously

AUGUST 2020

“ Big Data requires analytics, and the processing required for that is enormous”

71

worked at, CyrusOne, began at that

it comes to scaling, just like other real

time – around 15 years ago – working

estate companies, data centre owner

on data centres with the oil and gas

operators will only invest the money

sector in Dallas and Houston, for

when they have to. So, the blueprint is

example. And, as you can imagine,

you buy the land, build the shell and the

it’s an industry that deals with huge

core, then don’t fit out until you have

volumes of data.

the customers.

Essentially, companies that offer

Each company developed its own

the owner-operator model are real

approach as to how to best scale in

estate businesses, they just buy and

the sector. During my time at CyrusOne,

build data centres rather than pent-

for example, we developed our stand-

house apartments or houses. So, when

ardised ‘cookie cutter’ approach. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

“ Any mid-sized company upwards that doesn’t have a dedicated strategy around how they are going to migrate to the cloud will be left behind” We realised that in order to expand

various scenarios millions and millions of times and requires vast amounts of server space. It all feeds into the need for more data centres, and the only reason or circumstance I can really see that changing is if technology eventually allows that data to be stored on something far smaller – and we’re not there yet.

quickly and serve the market that was

72

there we should hone in on a modular

DC: Can you expand on why coloca-

design that’s fit for purpose and

tion is becoming an increasingly

covers the large majority of needs.

used approach to data centers?

By using that approach the business

PP: Colocation is absolutely the way

was able to bring the turnaround time

to go. Developments in cloud have really

down from 18 weeks to closer to 12.

made it impossible to go any other way for all organisations, from small compa-

DC: Is the exponential growth

nies to the largest conglomerates.

representative of how important

Security-wise, because of its dispersed

data has become to companies

nature, it offers several advantages and

and organisations?

makes cyber attack far more difficult.

PP: Absolutely, but I’d go further

The beauty of migrating from the private

and say that data is also essential to us

to the public cloud is that everything

as individuals. Even you and I now, our

is open and free for people to dive into.

data is raw material for somebody and

There will eventually be no need for

for some purpose. Big Data requires

security, because part of the security

analytics, and the processing required

is that it’s already open – there’s no

for that is enormous – even to predict

need to ‘shut’ everything in the tradition-

something pretty inconsequential like

al sense, it just needs to be hosted in

how a sporting season will end runs

a secure data centre.

AUGUST 2020

73

Other advantages to colocation

centres over the course of this year,

are a greater level risk mitigation and

they’ll typically build 30 to 50 and

benefits in terms of scaling an enterprise.

they’ll take the rest of the space from

Take the hyperscalers as an example.

colocate because, if you go to market

They build their own data centres –

and need a 100,000 sq ft data centre

they have the means and capabilities

you’re typically looking at around five

to do so. But, if they need 100 data

years before you can be in. With da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

“ Sustainability is going to be a key market driver and it’s something that has to be thought about very smartly when designing any data center” colocate, that’s reduced to two and

industry, to be working with owner-oper-

half to three years. If you’re a large

ators two or three years in advance of

bank or conglomerate, why start building

the latest technology being introduced

budgets for five years ahead when you

so as to plan properly the amount of

don’t need? It’s an obvious choice.

space you need, the demands your business will have and how to meet

DC: With that in mind, do businesses need to have a dedicated data centre 74

strategy in place today as part of a wider digital transformation strategy?

PP: It’s essential. Any mid-sized company upwards that doesn’t have a dedicated strategy around how they are going to migrate to the cloud will be left behind. The technology and the market are developing so rapidly that if you wait too long to determine the system or solution that you need, it’s too late. It’s already been designed and built to someone else’s requirements, so you’re reduced to buying off the peg.

On the other hand, if you have a strategy it gives you the opportunity to feed your requirements into the AUGUST 2020

that demand and let you scale.

DC: What do you see as the core

build and operate more efficiently,

trends or technologies that will drive

to find ways of distributing the heat

the biggest change in the future,

produced by the data centers such

and how will COVID-19 affect

as heat networks that could be used

the market?

to heat homes or water and so on.

PP: Sustainability is going to be a key

Likewise, cooling and access to

market driver and it’s something that

water will become more important as

has to be thought about very smartly

we are forced to build in already built

when designing any data center. And

up areas. However we do it, sustain-

that’s not just building cheaper or less

ability has to be at the core. The

– that’s impossible the way the market

second driver of change will be how

is going – it’s about finding ways to

quickly technology evolves.

More broadly, I think COVID-19 will only increase the demand. Even now in Europe we’re at the point where we can’t build data centers fast enough, but the huge changes brought about by COVID – working from home, introducing new technologies to facilitate different working models and so on – makes it very likely that demand will just explode over the next five years as technology and data plays a much greater role for every organisation.

It’s going to be big – really big.

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75

Data centre CEOs

76

Data Centre Magazine takes a look at 10 of the leading data centre CEOs worldwide, in no particular order WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE

AUGUST 2020

77

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T O P 10

10

Jason Goodall NTT

Having held senior leadership roles for the past 15 years, Goodall is a highly experienced industry professional and has been CEO of NTT Ltd since the summer of 2019. Goodall believes in the power that technology has to drive change and harness digital transformation across organisations. He is also an advisor and shareholder for Catalina Labs, a company at the forefront of IoT that has ambitions to improve day-to-day life. In 2009, Goodall was named African Business Person of the Year. In his spare 78

time, Goodall is a keen sports enthusiast and enjoys long distance running, cycling and triathlons.

NTT: CEO shares the organisation’s ambitions, innovation and culture CLICK TO WATCH

AUGUST 2020

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2:57

MarketplaceLIVE 2019: Bill Stein, Digital Realty CEO CLICK TO WATCH

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5:47

79

09

William “Bill” Stein DIGITAL REALTY

Stein joined Digital Realty initially in 2004, serving as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer before stepping into his current role as CEO in 2014. Under his leadership, Digital Realty has undertaken a series of transformational transactions that have sharpened the organisation’s strategic focus and enhanced product offerings. Stein has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Science degree with Distinction from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

Between hope and possible there’s a bridge.

There from the beginning to where we stand today. And to where we will go from here. One company. One promise.

If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.

Equinix: CNBC interview CLICK TO WATCH

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4:13

81

08

Charles Meyers EQUINIX

Meyers has spent over 25 years in the high-tech industry. Having joined Equinix in 2010 originally as President for the Americas region, Meyers led the organisation’s largest P&L through a time of significant growth and strong operating performance. He then became Chief Operating Officer in 2013, leading Global Sales, Marketing, Operations and Customer Success teams. In 2017, he became President of Strategy, Services and Innovation before transitioning into his current position as CEO and President the following year in 2018. Meyers was awarded dual master’s degrees from Northwestern University’s J.L Kellogg Graduate School of Management and McCormick Graduate School of Engineering. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

CNBC: Future of Data Centers CLICK TO WATCH

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6:51

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07

Gary Wojtaszek CYRUSONE

Wojtaszek has been the CEO and President of CyrusOne since 2011.

CyrusOne is a high growth data centre company that is focused around meeting the needs of the Fortune 1000, including nine of the Fortune 20. Under Wojtaszek’s leadership, the organisation has grown the company’s revenues and profitability by expanding into new markets and product lines. He is experienced in challenging situations, such as initial public offerings, leveraged buyouts and turnarounds with a proven track record of value creation, including industry experience in telecoms, technology and data centres. In 2014, Wojtaszek won EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for his leadership at CyrusOne and exemplary achievements with the business overall.

AUGUST 2020

06

Chad Williams QTS

Since founding QTS in 2005, Williams has served as Chairman and CEO of the organisation. Under his leadership, QTS has become one of the largest and fastest growing data centre providers in the US. Williams’ vision of obtaining and revitalising infrastructure rich, large, scalable properties in growing markets has become the cornerstone of its business strategy. During his time as CEO, Williams has been involved in helping to create all aspects of its business, from strategic investment in product and asset acquisitions to site selection, design, development and construction.

Williams also participates in several charitable efforts nationally, as well as in the Kansas City area.

QTS Realty Trust Calls 5G a “Unique Opportunity” for Data Centers CLICK TO WATCH

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Digital Transformation.

Made real every day.

Find out how big advances in AI have made it easier than ever to unlock the power of data, create value, insights and a new level of intelligent security. From Individuals, to small organizations, to the Global Fortune 100, AI and machine learning are improving businesses and lives everywhere.

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Aligned Energy’s CEO Andrew Schaap CLICK TO WATCH

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05

Andrew Schaap ALIGNED ENERGY

Schaap is an experienced senior executive and entrepreneur, who has served as a principal at a software development firm, a private equity group and a leading global data centre provider. He is currently the CEO of Aligned Energy and is focused on data centres, cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud deployments. During his tenure, he has supported customers across Asia, EMEA and North America. In his role, Schaap is dedicated to accelerating the development of Aligned Energy’s business objectives at a vital part in the company’s growth stage as demands for its adaptive data centre continue to exceed expectations.

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

04

Nelson Fonseca CYXTERA

Fonseca has over 20 years’ experience as an IT executive. Having originally joined Cyxtera in 2017 as President and Chief Operating Officer, Fonseca became CEO in November 2019. Alongside this role, he is also a Partner at Medina Capital, where he is focused on offering strategic advice and counsel to Medina Capital portfolio companies in the areas of operations, strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions, international business and government contracting. Fonseca received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Barry University and his 86

master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami.

AUGUST 2020

Datacenter Week Awards : Mr. Bruno Lopez CLICK TO WATCH

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03

Bruno Lopez ST TELEMEDIA GDC

Lopez has been the CEO of ST Telemedia GDC since 2014. In his role, Lopez is responsible for leading and driving the growth of the organisation, both organically and through strategic acquisitions.

With over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications and data centre industry, Lopez previously worked as the CEO of Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation in Singapore prior to his current role. In 2017, Lopez was recognised as the Business Leader of the Year at the Datacenter Week Awards (Asia Pacific). He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours from the National University of Singapore and a Masters degree from Rutgers University.

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E M E A | A P A C | | APAC N O R T H | A EMEA MERICA AMERICAS FIND OUT MORE

FIND OUT MORE

T O P 10

02

John Corcoran

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GLOBAL SWITCH

Having been appointed CEO of Global Switch in 2014, Corcoran brings 30 years’ international experience to the role. With a comprehensive background in the property and finance industries, Corcoran previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Multiplex Group, a large Australian diversified property group, where he was in charge of finance, treasury, administration, planning and major investments. In his role as CEO, he is responsible for overseeing the short and long-term objectives of Global Switch and works alongside the Board of Directors to create the strategy for the company. Born in Australia, Corcoran was awarded with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Laws from the University of Sydney.

AUGUST 2020

91

Global Switch: John Corcoran CLICK TO WATCH

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T O P 10

01

David Ruberg

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INTERXION

Ruberg became the CEO of Interxion in 2007, following five years as chairman. Before joining Interxion, Ruberg was the CEO and chairman of Intermedia Communications, a broadband communications service provider, while also chairman of its majority-owned subsidiary – Digex. He mixes important insights into the needs of Interxion’s customers, particularly in IT, technology and communications sectors, with a knowledge of how colocation technology can provide value to such companies and help them develop their business. Ruberg holds a Masters degree in Computer and Communications Science from the University of Michigan.

AUGUST 2020

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Interxion’s London Data Centre Tour CLICK TO WATCH

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Data center sourcing made simple WRITTEN BY

JOHN O’HANLON PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

AUGUST 2020

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COLOTRAQ

Dany Bouchedid, CEO of COLOTRAQ, on his vision to provide colocation, managed hosting, cloud, network and data center services globally

G

reat businesses often spring from very small seeds: the seed that grew into COLOTRAQ was a lecture, one of a

series, from an early .com entrepreneur to a final year ‘ecommerce’ class at NYU’s Stern School of Business in 1999. The internet was largely unex96

plored territory to the students of management including Dany Bouchedid, who approached the entrepreneur at the end of his talk, expressing his interest and asking him for a tip. After a moment’s thought, Jeff Bezos (for it was he) answered: “Infrastructure.” The class hadn’t yet tackled this subject but Bouchedid was sufficiently interested to ask his professor for a reading list. “I never looked back,” he says. After thoroughly acquainting himself with the data center infrastructure that supports the expanding internet, he founded COLOTRAQ as a full-service consultancy to help companies and institutions source data center colocation.

This proved a winning business model, and today COLOTRAQ uses a global network of data centers from over 400 service providers and has helped more than 10,000 clients, giving them access to AUGUST 2020

COLOTRAQ Covid Switchover DC CLICK TO WATCH

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COLOTRAQ

“ When it comes to the whole as-a-service concept, where does the rubber meet the road? It’s in the data center” — Dany Bouchedid, CEO, COLOTRAQ

upwards of 3,000 colocation and managed hosting facilities. Its custombuilt cloud-based software DCITRAQ allows them to instantly identify, with granular detail, the best data center infrastructure (DCI) to deliver their business goals. It also lets them compare, in real time, the technical specs of the different options facing them.

DCITRAQ was launched five years ago, and has evolved since then with new features. It is available to customers, their consultants or agents

98

to dynamically compare and source data center services such as physical or wholesale colocation, managed hosting, cloud and cybersecurity, he explains. “You can have multiple vendors compete for your business through DCITRAQ.” Essentially, DCITRAQ is a reverse auction model for the data center industry, costing the client nothing to gain a transparent view of the physical, virtualized and hybrid offerings available from a huge pool of providers.

It gives the client all the information they need about a provider from their physical facilities to their software capabilities and carriers. “The power AUGUST 2020

COLOTRAQ Main Services DC CLICK TO WATCH

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of DCITRAQ lies in 21 years of experi-

bookseller should have set such a

ence and thousands of projects. All

store on infrastructure. “It wasn’t till

this information is collected to an intui-

Amazon launched AWS almost a

tive dashboard – all your deal history,

decade after Bezos gave that talk that

communications all fully integrated

his master plan became clear: he had

with COLOTRAQ’s cloud based enter-

been the retail king but now he was the

prise accounting platform – and that

infrastructure king!”

information is always up to date.”

Though the rise of the internet was

When the corporate flight to the cloud started, Bouchedid heard people

clearly going to drive demand for data

say the colocation business might

center services and be the basis for his

suffer as people started to abandon

business expansion plan, Bouchedid

on-premise solutions and put their

did wonder at first how someone who

data and their operations in the hands

seemed no more than a clever online

of AWS, Oracle, Azure and the like. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

COLOTRAQ

favor a hybrid approach: good news for COLOTRAQ, which is uniquely placed to help them navigate these waters.

For 21 years COLOTRAQ has been pitching digital transformation, virtualization and outsourcing. Suddenly the arrival of a global pandemic has meant that instead of a phased introduction, corporations are faced with an urgent need to move to a distributed workforce and off-prem systems as an immediate survival strategy. As an example, he cites telecoms: “You’d be 100

surprised at the number of organizations that still retain PBX systems: we are seeing an unprecedented take-up Far from it, he soon realized: “When

of UCaaS.” For 10 years COLOTRAQ

it comes to the whole as-a-service

has maintained its core systems

concept, where does the rubber meet

including its DCITRAQ platform in the

the road? It’s in the data center!” For

cloud so it experienced no disruption

COLOTRAQ, the effect has been that

whatever when lockdown came in.

the lower value, high churn business

Many businesses were totally

did reduce as small business clients

unprepared for the pandemic. One of

moved to the cloud, but that was good

COLOTRAQ’s biggest projects cur-

news. Its biggest market is now among

rently involves digitizing a large law

mid-market to large enterprises as well

firm’s entire caseload and building

as the providers of services over IP, such

an enterprise portal enabling them

as VoIP, UCaaS, IaaS and a host of ser-

to virtualize all the complex informa-

vices driven by technologies like IoT or

tion that litigation requires, work on

blockchain. Large enterprises do tend to

the case and present it at a Zoom

AUGUST 2020

court session through screen shar-

who have not done so will be urgently

ing. “Law is just one vertical that is

virtualizing their entire value chain.”

still quite archaic in many ways, with

So called ‘traditional’ industries like

lawyers showing up at court with

law or real-estate may be racing to

piles of papers – that is not much use

catch up, but the need of tech-based

at a Zoom meeting. The many firms

verticals is just as pressing, for slightly

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Dany Bouchedid Title: CEO

Company: COLOTRAQ

Dany Bouchedid is a relationship-driven entrepreneur, leader and visionary with a proven track record of success in building, growing and managing multimillion dollar enterprises. In 1999, he founded and is currently CEO of COLOTRAQ, a full-service sourcing and consulting firm that helps companies and institutions source data center colocation, managed hosting, cloud computing, network infrastructure and other related telecom services in 140 countries. Dany has been published and quoted in various industry publications and has been a speaker at several industry conferences. He has served on several boards for both non-profits and corporations. Dany is the founder and president of The Bouchedid Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to identify and evaluate thousands of charities and non-profit service organizations and rank them using a proprietary algorithm to determine which causes to fund directly.

The foundation considers a multitude of variables including the focus of the charity, the urgency and direness of their cause, and the level of disenfranchisement and vulnerability of the group they service. The ultimate goal is to fund the most immediate and worthwhile causes that are affecting the most underprivileged and neglected groups. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

101

Data center and colocation providers like Equinix are investing in expanding their footprint to meet the demands of their consumers and changing technologies.

Equinix and Colotraq: joint data centre pioneers Jules Johnston, Vice President, Americas Partner Sales at data centre company Equinix, discusses the company’s collaborative approach to interconnection.

Jules Johnston is Vice President, Americas Partner Sales at data centre company Equinix. Having joined in early 2016, she has overseen a move to new sales channels as part of the company’s work. “The team we’ve put together in the last few years has helped the company go from what was single digits in terms of partner-connected selling to something greater than 30% of our bookings globally,” she says. “We’re on a path and committed to do the majority of our business with partners, so it’s been very exciting to be part of that. The team I lead today is the 40-person Americas partner sales organisation, and our job is to work with partners so that we can help our field and inside sellers meet at the customer.”

While Equinix is renowned as a co-location and data centre organisation, Johnston is clear that the company takes a broader view. “We really think of ourselves as an interconnection company and as the global platform for digital business. So when companies build their digital infrastructure and platforms within Equinix, what they’re able to do is dynamically connect to the world’s largest ecosystem of clouds, data, suppliers and customers.” Constructing such an ecosystem has required a significant amount of infrastructure. “Equinix has invested in over 210 data centres around the world, or international business exchanges, IBXs, as we call them. That allows Equinix to be able to meet the needs of any company today with global aspirations.”

Equinix works closely with colocation broker Colotraq, with the organisation having been one of Equinix’s master agents for around five years. “Colotraq is a fellow pioneer in the data center space,” says Johnston.

“As one of the oldest master agents in telecom, they’ve intersected with us naturally. Equinix started as a place for the world’s networks to come together in a neutral fashion and Colotraq also prides itself on being network neutral.”

The partnership extends far beyond the surface level, with Colotraq agents and Equinix solutions architects jointly meeting with customers to advise on digital edge strategy briefings.

Jules Johnston @ Equinix

“One of the places that we intersect is in helping customers in their network optimisation strategies,” says Johnston. “We have the largest collection of networks in the world in Equinix data centers, and Colotraq advises companies on optimising their network strategies and spend. We’ve had a really long, productive association given that overlap.”

Incoming trends such as 5G, AI, IoT, blockchain and more all signal a bright future for Equinix and its cloud offering, with the company continuing to prove invaluable for customers even during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Equinix was able to help a global financial powerhouse stand up 120,000 employees remotely in three days. In this current climate, companies have a real need for that.

We’re able to use our digital platform to help companies make those kinds of moves.”

Learn more

COLOTRAQ

different reasons. Another big current project involves a very popular online gaming company: “They are expanding their footprint like crazy, and they need to get to the edge. Edge computing has been a huge driver: any business where there’s consumption of streaming content or which is bandwidth-intensive like streaming media, music or online gaming needs to push its network out to the edge, closer to its end users and subscribers. That is good news for colocation because 104

with edge computing you need to control the location of your data center equipment.” The mantra of ubiquity, where it no longer matters where the physical equipment is as long as you have access to your application, does not work for edge computing architecture he noted. “Many businesses of this nature are moving towards hybrid models now. 20 years ago it was all about location, then it shifted to the notion of ubiquity: now we’ve come full circle.”

Blockchain is another major disruptor, he continued. “You can’t have your blockchain nodes on a public cloud platform: the whole point is to have the controls in place for all the AUGUST 2020

“ It’s vital for any entrepreneur to make sure he is not outpaced by the market he is in” — Dany Bouchedid, CEO, COLOTRAQ

different blockchain nodes, and the only way to do that is by having racks in each of your key markets, with georedundancy.” Edge computing and blockchain are developments where a one-size-fits-all approach won’t answer in the post-Covid world.

Looking ahead the company is keeping a close eye on the internet of things (IoT), in particular industrial IoT or IIoT. “We have seen only the tip of the iceberg: as manufacturing and logistics really starts to implement IIoT devices throughout the supply chain it will create so much big data, for storage and to have the computing power at the edge, to be able to feed back data in real time to those devices. This will escalate the demand for colocation, create more ‘sprawl’ and get us closer to the edge, where customers and subscribers actually live and work. Many data center providers to my knowledge are investing in expanding their footprint.” The industry has come full circle when even AWS and VMware have gone physical for the first time ever with their recently launched Outposts, an integrated hardware rack that seamlessly connects to Amazon’s public cloud. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

105

COLOTRAQ

COLOTRAQ is a company that thrives on change, and nothing drives change like a pandemic. Every client he speaks with is scrutinizing its IT infrastructure and architecture like never before, and that presents opportunities in every aspect of the IT value chain from their data center infrastructure to their communications and their networks. Security is again at the forefront: “Hackers are having a field day thanks to the lockdown, where businesses secured their offices but not their 106

employees’ home networks, so we are seeing cybersecurity projects coming in relating to the post-pandemic world.”

“ Over 21 years I have been blessed by having rock stars for my employees and that makes it really easy to lead the company” — Dany Bouchedid, CEO, COLOTRAQ

The terrible economic and human cost of the crisis will accelerate the pace of change. Already the data center industry was predicted to grow at an annual rate of 25% over the next five years. “It’s vital for any entrepreneur to make sure he is not outpaced by the market he is in. For COLOTRAQ, if we feel we can’t handle demand at this scale we may raise a capital growth round and staff up – it will be a great problem to have!”

It would be nice if the realization that IT consumes far more energy

AUGUST 2020

COLOTRAQ DCITRAQ DC CLICK TO WATCH

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107

worldwide than any other activ-

visible by DCITRAQ – it’s a good case

ity would drive the greening of the

where the triple bottom line is driven by

industry, but in Dany Bouchedid’s

profitability as well as social pressure

opinion that goal will more probably

to combat climate change.

be reached though economic pres-

Meanwhile COLOTRAQ is happy to

sure. “All operators are under pressure

share access to its platforms with the

from their shareholders to lower their

many entrepreneurial players entering

operating expenditure, and energy is

the colocation space, and work with them.

the biggest part of that. And that OpEx

“There will be more than enough space for

is passed on to customers. There’s

everyone, and I see new entrants as co-

a direct correlation between better

opetition rather than competition.”

energy management and competitive pricing.” All of these metrics are made da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

108

Interstitial Systems: flooring for data centre efficiency WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

AUGUST 2020

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da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

INTERSTITIAL SYSTEMS

William Collier, owner of Interstitial Systems, on what the company’s electromechanical raised floor distribution system offers data centres

I 110

nterstitial Systems is a manufacturer of multilevel electromechanical raised floor distribution systems for data centres.

William Collier is the company’s founder and owner, bringing his extensive 42 years’ of industry experience to the firm.

Collier emphasises both the simplicity of Interstitial Systems’ TIER E/A electromechanical raised floor distribution system offering, and the enormous impact it can have. “It’s remarkable that something as simple as dividing the underfloor horizontally into two levels for wires and air can have such a huge impact on the way a data centre is designed, serviced and maintained.” Traditionally, data centres have been built with conventional raised flooring or on concrete. “That’s basically the two options that are available,” says Collier.

“We’re the third option that nobody knows very much about – what we refer to as an electromechanical distribution system.”

AUGUST 2020

Pyramid floor structure design to meet seismic requirement

111

Remove unlimited number of floor panels without affecting structural integrity

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INTERSTITIAL SYSTEMS

Interstitial Systems: Ventilation Effectiveness CLICK TO WATCH

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Compared to conventional flooring,

unit to escape. So if you open up four

Interstitial Systems’ approach comes

floor panels, all of the cabinets in that

with a host of benefits for data centres.

air handling unit’s zone downstream

“The beautiful part about our system is

from the opening are going to be

you can open up an unlimited number

starved of air. Because of our pres-

of floor panels for as long as you want

surised plenum, we’re able to distribute

and never lose air pressure.

This is untrue for a traditional raised floor. The

AUGUST 2020

air over a 200 foot area, meaning we can push air 200 feet across the room, whereas a typical raised floor air

opening created when

conditioning unit can do no more than

four floor panels are

30 to 35 feet at best. That allows us

removed permits all of

to reconfigure the design of a room to

the air produced by a

better optimise the space and improve

30 ton air conditioning

efficiency for the user.”

William Collier

“White space is gold and cabinets are diamonds” — William Collier, Owner, Interstitial Systems 113

“It is our belief that in data centres, white space is gold and cabinets are

space, I have a compelling story to tell.”

Another crucial element of the data

diamonds,” says Collier. Accordingly,

centre puzzle is uptime, with redun-

the company emphasises achieving

dancy therefore being critical. “What

maximum efficiency for its clients,

data centres typically look for is N+1

with clear examples of improvement.

redundancy. So for every four or five

“In a typical room, of around 10,000

air handlers, designers add another for

square feet, the owner’s plan was to

redundancy. But this does not provide

put in 418 cabinets. With Tier E/A, the

effective redundancy unless the extra

owner could put 512 cabinets in that

unit is adjacent to the unit that goes

room. That’s 22% or so more cabinets

down. We, on the other hand, build a

in the same space. Every one of those

central mechanical equipment room

cabinets increases revenue. So if I

and, by providing a mixing box, are

can put 94 more cabinets in the same

able to provide true N+1 redundancy da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

Returning to work with chemical free disinfection.

Staying at work with a UVC air cleansing systems.

Sales And Installation Services For Interstitial Systems

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“One of our methodologies when doing business is that we work in a very lean and mean way,” says Collier. “We’ve been doing this for a long time and we’ve always believed in working to the best optimisation.” Consequently, the organisation chooses its partners carefully, such as TekClean. “They’re in the data centre cleaning business down in Atlanta. We teamed up with them a long time ago thanks to their good reputation. I need a rep that has responsibility, loyalty, is smart, savvy and just down to earth.

People that make good relationships and want to bring good things to their customers.”

AUGUST 2020

“ We’re the third option that nobody knows very much about – what we refer to as an electromechanical distribution system” — William Collier, Owner, Interstitial Systems

a terraced, raised floor for control and command centres. Thanks to our two-level approach, we can ensure consistent air distribution in that pressurised bottom plenum and allow for the rapid change, relocation and reconfiguration of power and structured cabling underneath the floor.”

Achieving high tech solutions doesn’t itself require anything too revolutionary for Interstitial Systems, instead it leverages technology smartly. “We’re obviously big users of AutoCAD because we typically receive a set of

for the entire room with a single extra

plans, where the client says: ‘this is the

air handler. This is because of the Tier

direction we’re going in, how would

E/A’s pressurised plenum’s superior

you optimise the facility using your sys-

air distribution capabilities. We’ve just

tem?’ Then there’s computational fluid

planned a project where the original

dynamics analysis - again not a new

design called for 32 air conditioning

technology - but when used correctly it

units. We redesigned the room and did

is a powerful tool to head off any short-

the same with 26 air conditioning units.

comings that might occur in a facility.”

Taking six air conditioning units out of

Like all businesses worldwide,

the equation for around $250,000 a

Interstitial Systems has not been

piece provides huge savings, and also

unaffected by the ongoing COVID-19

saves a great deal of energy.”

pandemic. ButCollier is an eternal

The company is continuing to

optimist believing that this challenge

develop its capabilities. “Something

will eventually result in a better world.

that we did with the trading pits for the

“I can’t tell you how many people I’ve

Chicago Mercantile Exchange is build

talked to in the last 90 days that have da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

115

INTERSTITIAL SYSTEMS

Generous Cable Cuts –no need for gaskets

116

“ It’s remarkable that something as simple as dividing the underfloor horizontally into two levels for wires and air can have such a huge impact” — William Collier, Owner, Interstitial Systems

AUGUST 2020

Power Wiring installed in Wireway

said: ‘Oh my God, I pick up an extra three hours a day not having to commute to the office.’ That’s found time.

That’s family time. That’s quality of lifetime. That’s exercise time. That’s all kinds of time that allows people to do things for themselves. And at the same time, it’s helping the planet because we’re not putting out all the emissions from commuting back and forth.”

As for Interstitial Systems’ future, Collier is confident it is treading the right path. “We’re going to keep plowing ahead, one job at a time. That’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we’ll always do. We want to bring the best value to our customers. Everything’s about relationships. You build networks, you find like-minded people. And when you find the people that appreciate what you do, you love doing work with them, you become a team. You become partners. You even build friendships.

That’s how we like to do business.”

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

117

118

DPR: collaboration and sustainability in construction WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

AUGUST 2020

119

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

DPR

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe at DPR Construction, on the company’s technological and collaborative approach to data centre construction

D

PR Construction is a global specialist in technical construction, working in five core markets – advanced technology,

commercial, healthcare, higher education and life sciences. Damian Farr is Europe Managing Director at the company. “We’re proud builders,” he says. “Fundamentally, I think we understand that construction is a service industry. We’re striving to 120

be an extension of our customers’ organisations by putting their projects and end goals first, and always thinking about how they need to use the building.”

DPR is playing a big part in fulfilling the ever growing need for data centres, as Farr explains, “In the last four to five years we’ve built close to $3.5bn of mission critical facilities across 200 separate projects, but our data centre heritage stretches right back to our founding.” DPR has grown rapidly since its foundation in Silicon Valley in 1990 and is now one of the 10 largest general builders in the US. “In those 30 years, something very special has happened, which is the idea that everybody’s working together to achieve the same thing: we exist to build great things – not just great buildings, but people and relationships as well. It’s an idea that’s very sincerely held throughout the business.”

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DPR

“ We are working for customers who are delivering buildings that have become absolutely critical to our infrastructure” Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction 122

The company has far from a conventional structure, operating with a shared leadership model. “We very much have a model of distributed leadership throughout the company, and that resonated with me profoundly,” Farr explains. “We’re title-less internally, which empowers employees at every level to be independent, do their best and make change for our customers and our business. Put simply, it’s really about eliminating barriers between two people having a conversation.”

Effective collaboration has, from the start, been DPR’s desire. “We pioneered integrated project delivery.

We bring stakeholders together – architects, customers, trade partners, our own team – right from the outset,” explains Farr. “We work in five core markets and we seek to know them very well. We want to work on buildings that matter and also that challenge our teams. That’s what we enjoy doing. The collaboration that we bring to our projects is therefore key. We really do like working with customers that we enjoy – a true partner who wants to help us change the world as well.”

AUGUST 2020

DPR: Great Teams Building Great Things CLICK TO WATCH

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CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

or prefabrication, or integrating project

Virtual design and construction, in broad

teams and improving collaboration.”

strokes, refers to the practice of using

Digital technology is a hallmark of the

digital tools to drive real value in the

firm’s approach, but it is always used

construction process. It’s a trend that’s

purposefully. “It’s all really about collabo-

long been transforming the industry,

ration and providing that single source of

and one which DPR embraces whole-

truth that the whole team can go to and

heartedly. “First and foremost, our role

talk through. Things like building infor-

is really to try and innovate in the areas

mation modeling and consulting, and

that we can control such as construc-

then execution. We use model-based

tion technology and best construction

quantity takeoffs for our estimating. We

practices. And that’s where we’ve had

then use the model to generate prefab-

the greatest success, whether it’s in the

rication processes and go straight from

field of virtual design and construction,

the model into manufacturing.” da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

DPR

Alongside a host of other applica-

PEOPLE, PLANET AND PHILANTHROPY

tions, DPR is also investigating the

Sustainability as a whole is highly

use of emerging technologies to

important to DPR, with the company

further refine their approach. “We’re

following a model of global social

now looking at artificial intelligence

responsibility. “We want to be integral

applications, of which we were an

and indispensable to our communi-

early supporter. There is the potential

ties, and that’s been a long held view

to create AI constructability analysis.

of the business.” DPR has three pillars

The hope is that, if we’re missing some-

guiding its approach, namely: people,

thing, the software and the technology

planet and philanthropy.

can generate some different thinking

In thinking about data centers and

around how we might optimise the

the first pillar – planet – efficiency is

construction sequence.”

key. “The energy efficiency of the

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buildings we’re constructing is important. And as governments start to worry a little more about data centers and their energy use, we have a role to play in helping our customers figure out the best solutions.” Avenues being explored include the use of thermal aquifer storage. “That’s an important step that we can make in the here and now. We take it very seriously and we are trying to play our part in solving the problems that our customers are facing.”

1990

Year founded

$5.8bn+ Revenue in US dollars

6,500 Number of employees

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da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

DPR

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“

We exist to build great things – not just great buildings, but people and relationships as well” 127

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction

da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

DPR

When it comes to taking care of the planet, DPR takes a more active role, leading by example with six net-zero and three WELL Certified offices throughout the business to date. “DPR walks the talk. We have net-zero energy offices that we’ve built ourselves and we’ve led the way in that. We take our responsibility to reduce our impact on the natural environment very seriously and embody that through pretty much everything we do.”

With the people pillar, Farr is clear 128

that DPR puts diversity, equity and inclusivity first.

“We truly want to look the way that our communities look. I know it’s an easy thing to say, but it’s not enough to level the playing field – some people in some communities are going to need extra help.”

The latter pillar includes community initiatives by local office teams as well as a separate DPR Foundation that issues direct cash grants to causes. “There’s a strong volunteering ethos within the business,” says Farr. “We have year round initiatives such as volunteering directly to renovate a building or volunteering on a pro bono basis to provide organisations construction advice.”

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“Famously, DPR doesn’t have titles” Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

DPR

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“ We want to be integral and indispensable to our communities”

WHAT’S NEXT Like all companies, DPR has had to face up to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Farr emphasises the company’s readiness, being preexisting heavy users of collaboration software. Of course, as a construction company most work cannot be carried out remotely, but DPR has found a way through. “In Europe, we haven’t had a

Damian Farr, Managing Director Europe, DPR Construction

single project closed down to date. We have adapted, and I’m very proud of the ingenuity our teams have shown to keep job sites safely moving, because

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we are working for customers who are

we can make sure that any physical

delivering buildings that have become

distance requirements are upheld.”

absolutely critical to our infrastructure and our new ways of working.”

Farr believes that construction after

With things like 5G and cloud coming down the pipeline, well-built data centres are set to become ever more

the pandemic will move to a ‘next nor-

necessary. Farr believes DPR is well

mal’, which has been some time coming,

suited to thrive going forwards. “We’re

the pandemic hastening its arrival. “In

a company that’s incredibly agile

the future there may be fewer people

– that’s always been our way. Our found-

on site, but we’ll create space for pre-

ing principles are as relevant today as

fabrication and offsite construction to

they ever have been. We respect the

really come into its own. We can build

individual and we change the world.”

parts of our buildings away from the job site in controlled environments where da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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DELIVERING MISSION-CRITICAL DATA CENTRE INNOVATION WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

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B A S E FA R M

PETTER M. TOMMERAAS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT DATA CENTER SERVICES AT BASEFARM, DISCUSSES DELIVERING MISSION-CRITICAL DATA SERVICES THAT ENABLE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

P

etter M. Tommeraas recounts his first experience with a data centre as “walking down a hallway in an office building, back in

1998, and coming across several servers outside a 134

single room off that hallway. Those servers and that room were the data centre. And that was a solution being delivered by one of Norway’s main data centre providers to a large, national customer.”

To say that the data centre industry has transformed in the 20 years or so that Tommeraas has been operational in it is something of an understatement. Currently Senior Vice President Data Center Services at Basefarm, a managed service provider that delivers services based on both public and private cloud services and manages its own data centres, Tommeraas has a unique view of an industry at the heart of global digital transformation.

“The pace of change has been tremendous,” he notes. “Naturally, that change has been facilitated by technology, but it runs much deeper than that the overall quality, the level of security provided and AUGUST 2020

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B A S E FA R M

“ THE OVERALL QUALITY, THE LEVEL OF SECURITY PROVIDED AND THE ENTIRE PHILOSOPHY AROUND WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR DATA AND YOUR DATA CENTRE IS SO MUCH MORE MATURE” — Petter M. Tommeraas, Senior Vice President Data Center Services, Basefarm

the entire philosophy around what you do with your data and your data centre is so much more mature. That’s particularly the case for companies such as Basefarm that provide mission-critical services to customers. The broader pace of digital transformation has driven data centre growth in particular.

From our perspective, there’s been a real shift in companies moving away from doing everything, and most of it well, to using digital technologies and tools to focus on honing their USPs

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and placing effort into the most important or core things. It means that the rest of those services - in this instance how to manage data - are sourced from other specialist companies.”

Basefarm is one such company.

Founded in 2000, it is today part of the Orange Group, and offers a suite of mission-critical IT services that covers Big Data, cloud, and managed, security and professional services. Tommeraas is responsible for operations related to data centres. “I have two main responsibilities,” he says. “I deliver colocation to customers that want to mainly take care of their own operations but are looking for a service due to reasons AUGUST 2020

Why choose Basefarm’s data centers in Norway?

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2:12

137 such as regulation or an added com-

Tommeraas says that there are sev-

plexity. Alongside that, I take care of

eral reasons why colocation is an

and deliver all the data centre service

increasingly attractive choice: “Often,

to support the other areas in Basefarm,

it’s for customers that need the

such as managed services, cloud solu-

added layer of operational stability

tions and the rest of the portfolio.”

and security that they can’t get from

Digital transformation has changed

managing the operations themselves,

all organisations over the last decade

for example,” he explains. “Other

or more. In particular, companies are

examples could be a public customer

faced with increasing volumes of data

that needs an added level of privacy

to manage. Despite this, the design,

or has very specific needs around

build and operation of purpose-built

who can access their data, or even

data centres is becoming a less

a competitor services company.

common route to the cloud, with many choosing a colocation service.

“The biggest difference between Basefarm and other colocation da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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138

providers is that we have the entire

Basefarm calls this total service

portfolio within our businesses,” he

‘idea to cable’, an integrated package of

continues. “So, while we have many

the key competencies for digital trans-

customers that need to use our

formation including Big Data, cloud

colocation services as they progress

computing and information security.

through their project or migration,

This allows Basefarm to provide stra-

they regularly use our additional

tegic advice, implementation projects

offerings, such as our advisory

and infrastructure operations under

services or specific knowledge in

one management and on any cloud. It

associated areas. I’m confident in

is, Tommeraas concedes, a service

saying that we can offer a total solu-

capability further enhanced by the

tion that few other colocation data

company’s belonging to the Orange

centre providers are able to in terms

Group. “We became part of the Group

of delivery and competence.”

in 2018, and the advantages of that

AUGUST 2020

include belonging to one of the biggest

says: “Our customer teams are very

networks in the world. It allows us to

proactive and work with every client,

deliver network services around the

to the extent that we insert our people

globe in one of the top five networks

into the organisation and ensure that

and has certainly broadened the port-

they work alongside the customer’s

folio we’re able to offer our customers.”

delivery team. Public cloud is an area

Elaborating on the scope of the company’s portfolio, Tommeraas

that is growing very rapidly and we have a very broad suite of deliverables

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Petter M. Tømmeraas Title: Senior Vice President Data Center Services Company: Basefarm Petter M. Tømmeraas is Senior Vice President for Data Center Services in Basefarm. He has more than 20 years of experience within data centers, IT and telecommunications. After working for an American software and hardware vendor in the mid-90s, he started working in EUnet in the first half of 1998 and was part of the KPNQwest team that built a pan-European fibre network and a number of data centers all over Europe. In the years after, he worked within the companies that developed from the old EUnet and KPNQwest organisations mainly focusing on data center services, telecommunication services and managed services. In 2009 Tømmeraas helped set up a company to deliver data center services and managed services, mainly to the Norwegian market. The company was sold to Swedish publicly listed company Phonera.

He then joined Norwegian data center company Green Mountain as the Chief Sales Officer of the company.

In early 2018 Tømmeraas joined Basefarm as Senior Vice President Data Center Services. da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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Unique, open & intelligent technology solutions

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company, helping organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere.

Visit www.hpe.com

“ THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BASEFARM AND OTHER COLOCATION PROVIDERS IS THAT WE HAVE THE ENTIRE PORTFOLIO WITHIN OUR BUSINESSES” — Petter M. Tommeraas, Senior Vice President Data Center Services, Basefarm

it requires a different approach. That kind of scenario means that providers like us also have to work far more closely with our customers - we’ve even been forced to change ourselves in response to that direction.”

For Basefarm, Tommeraas explains that digital transformation has meant a rapid shift technology-wise, first from on-premise data centres, to the public and - looking ahead - a hybrid model.

“The future is hybrid,” he explains. “It

in this area. The biggest challenge is

won’t be feasible to use the public

often communicating to the client the

cloud or data centres alone, but rather

specific solution or group of solutions

a combination of several innovative

that they need, which is why we work

technologies and solutions in a hybrid

so closely with them to ensure they’re

model. The key challenge in that from

getting the best of breed in every area.”

our perspective is ensuring that all of

Elaborating on this point,

those technologies work well together.

Tommeraas states that digital transfor-

There’s not many providers out there

mation and the migration to the cloud

that can do that at the moment and it’ll

means businesses have to change their

be a crucial differentiator for Basefarm,

traditional operating focus. “It used to

and Orange Group, moving forwards.”

be very much focused on big projects

Understandably, to provide such a

every couple of years, which required

level of service requires that Basefarm

a larger step-change,” he states. “It’s

works with several leading technol-

not like that anymore. Organisations

ogy providers, including AWS. The

are faced with constant change or

company is currently Norway’s first

evolution, with a continuous flow of

AWS managed service provider, a cer-

projects to manage and learn from, so

tification that enables it to offer greater da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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“ WE CAN OFFER A TOTAL SOLUTION THAT FEW OTHER COLOCATION DATA CENTRE PROVIDERS ARE ABLE TO IN TERMS OF DELIVERY AND COMPETENCE” — Petter M. Tommeraas, Senior Vice President Data Center Services, Basefarm

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expertise in cloud infrastructure and application migration. “As well as AWS, we have several big partnerships,” says Tommeraas. “For example, we’re certified by Microsoft for a lot of our work on public cloud, and we also have long standing relationships with companies such as HPE, Lenovo, VMWare and Dell. Each of these is really about the partnership for us more than just the delivery. We want to work very closely with each of our partners to put bestin-class products to the market, it’s beneficial to us and our customers.”

Technology aside, sustainability is a key driver of data centre innovation, not least due to the significant amount of energy consumed by such sites. It is here that Basefarm has a distinct advantage in its Norwegian location. “We’ve carried out a lot of analysis over where the industry may go over the coming years, and for us, Norway is the obvious choice. It offers low-cost power and 100% renewable energy, which is really important for us and our customers’ environment strategies. Obviously, it’s also easier to cool data centres in our climate as opposed to other locations, but there da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

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“ PUBLIC CLOUD IS AN AREA THAT IS GROWING VERY RAPIDLY AND WE HAVE A VERY BROAD SUITE OF DELIVERABLES IN THIS AREA” — Petter M. Tommeraas, Senior Vice President Data Center Services, Basefarm

are also other, more practical reasons.

In Europe, 80% of the market is in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, and each of those locations is getting pretty crowded.

“I see two distinct trends. On the colocation side, there’s a lot more international interest in putting data centres in Norway,” he continues. “But through Orange we’re also moving into a number of other markets such as the UK, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium for example. In that sense, the

AUGUST 2020

2000

Year founded

€135mn+ Revenue in Euros

766

Number of employees

future outlook is definitely more of a

is getting fiercer. We’re in a very good

pan-European project, with us also

place, but you have to be mindful that

eyeing work in the US and Far East for

to survive and prosper you need to be

a number of clients.”

offering true best of breed solutions

More broadly around future developments, Tommeraas notes several

that take into account the increased value of data to all organisations.”

trends around the technology side of data centres. “Density is increasing,” he states, “so putting greater levels of power into smaller sizes - that totally changes the way you have to think and build in terms of cooling and so on. More generally, the competition da t a c e nt re ma ga z in e. com

145

Unique, open & intelligent technology solutions

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company, helping organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere.

Visit www.hpe.com