Amid evolving IT use cases and digital requirements, change has been a constant force for enterprises and end users alike. While recent events have impacted all differently, the virtual world has become a mainstay of any and all facets of life for businesses and communities. As a result, the IT and telecommunications sphere has been experiencing an all-encompassing push to deliver enhanced capability. Networks and data centers are at the core of communications, of learning, of business initiatives and empowerment and of day-to-day operational tasks, so having a robust, diverse infrastructure in place is now the key to maintaining success and growth.
Jeff Wabik, Chief Strategy and Connectivity Officer for DC BLOX, and Tom Brown, President and CEO of DataGryd, recently took part in a Bisnow Network Design Series webinar alongside other esteemed industry peers from Schneider Electric and Uber to discuss this transformation and what it means for data centers. As part of two data center providers delivering mission-critical capabilities in the Southeastern U.S. and New York City respectively, these individuals both have keen insight into the demands, drivers and changes that have been occurring across IT infrastructure over the last few months and years.
To begin the panel, moderator Joe Reele, Vice President of Datacenter Solution Architects at Schneider Electric, notes that now, digitization, globalization, mobilization and more all need to come together in an efficient and powerful way. In the face of a digital surge, service providers must innovate to keep pace with new applications and opportunities. To support this, colocation capabilities in carrier-dense, cloud-connected facilities with ample space and power is key to getting the low latency and distributed networking for today and tomorrow. In essence, location, network optimization and cloud access matter. As Jeff states, “We really think that DC BLOX and organizations like us are the intersection of remote humanism, because there are a couple of absolutes in the world — [one of which is phones], which we all depend on for mobility, creating the demand for more.”
To meet the needs of this ‘more, faster, bigger’ digital demand, data centers have to serve as the bulletproof home of these transactions and data requirements. The digital surge has reinforced the core necessities of IT infrastructure — having reliable and widespread access to a central cloud is more important than ever, having redundancy and business continuity plans in place to protect against disruption is vital and having strategically located facilities is key for transporting data efficiently. This is why DC BLOX is concentrated in the Southeast, offering underserved areas access to vital services and allowing businesses and data to flourish even beyond densely populated, central hubs. This migration to the edge means that providers like DC BLOX are leading the way by serving locally while still connecting globally.
Yet, the demands aren’t just growing, the demands are creating change in the way solutions are delivered. Tom comments, “Think about the concentration in Lower Manhattan… what we’ve seen in just a few short years is a footprint going from 3kW to an average of 7-10kW. The compute power [is larger], the actual physical space is smaller. You’re seeing that densification.” To support this, DataGryd engineered cooling and power that is able to support high-density computing. When a customer came to DataGryd in need of a cabinet that can facilitate 80kW, they were able to offer a solution. This level of request is going to become more and more common.
All in all, no matter what changes occur, it’s clear that the world has now arrived at the time when services, applications and digital businesses are creating, transporting and consuming data as a core function. Furthermore, that data needs to be protected, reliable, highly available and always on. Whether you’re a multinational bank processing millions of transactions or just a single person ordering an Uber to your front door, networks and data centers are the enablers that create and facilitate this ongoing ecosystem, building the opportunities that support enterprises and users alike from the core to the edge.
To view the panel in its entirety, please click here.
To learn more about DataGryd, please click here.
To learn more about DC BLOX, please click here.
