DEEP DIVE
a busy week of work there’s
nothing like spending quality
time with my family.
My son and I enjoy taking his
foot-powered scooter to the
local skate park; I probably look
like a bit of a plonker when I
take a turn on it, but I love it all
the same.
What do you currently
identify as the major
areas of investment in
your industry?
5G is a major investment area
for the data centre industry, as
data centres have a key role to
play in achieving the infrastructure
robustness the new technology will
necessitate. Six Degrees recently
worked with a client that is building
5G networks, using multiple Edge/
aggregation data centres in each
metropolitan region to aggregate the
data from the 5G network in a resilient
way. As 5G rolls out across the UK, I
expect more organisations to invest
in regional data centres in order to
leverage its capabilities.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
What are the region-specific
challenges you encounter in
your role?
Operating in Birmingham offers us
great transport links, high bandwidth
connectivity and access to top talent when
it comes to recruiting new staff. Honestly,
I don’t believe there are any region-specific
challenges we face – I feel very lucky to run
data centre facilities in the West Midlands.
What changes to your job role
have you seen in the last year and
how do you see these developing
in the next 12 months?
At Six Degrees, we have merged our
connectivity and colocation businesses
within a unified network infrastructure
practice. I think this makes a lot of
sense – connectivity and colocation are
intrinsically linked and expanding my role
into connectivity has given me a great
opportunity to consolidate and align our
data centre facilities even more with
the connectivity requirements the latest
transformational technologies carry.
Technologies I’ve spoken about like 5G,
SD-WAN and Edge Computing are here to
stay – I expect them to become common
parlance over the next 12 months, so
pursuing a unified approach across
connectivity and colocation makes
sense for Six Degrees and for the clients
we support. ◊
MY SON AND I
ENJOY TAKING
HIS FOOT-
POWERED
SCOOTER TO
THE LOCAL
SKATE PARK;
I PROBABLY
LOOK LIKE A BIT
OF A PLONKER
WHEN I TAKE A
TURN ON IT, BUT
I LOVE IT ALL
THE SAME.
Issue 14
67