Intelligent Data Centres Issue 15 | Page 67

DEEP DIVE I run or bike every day for at least 40 minutes. I go to a lot of concerts, mostly classical music. My wife wants to buy me a large gerbil cage to run around in. I’m also very involved with the musical scene in Boston and have been on the boards of many orchestras, conservatories and music schools. I’m also a serious collector of minerals and crystals. I gave a mineral hall to the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale. What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry? The amount of data being generated is growing very quickly. Our biggest investments continue to be the capital equipment necessary to store all our users’ data. Clearly AI, genomics, facial recognition, surveillance in general and medical imaging are creating and using huge amounts of data. What are the region-specific challenges you encounter in your role? Data sovereignty laws are proliferating around the world. This is forcing us to think about smaller data centres in smaller markets. In most countries, medical and financial data must be stored within the country, for example. 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? We have moved from being a development company to a significant operating company in the last two years. My role has shifted from start-up mode to operating mode, primarily lining up the financing to fund our torrid growth. And of course, strengthening our management team bench. ◊ I BELIEVE THAT DATA CENTRES ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE ABLE TO OFFER MORE VALUE-ADDED SERVICES SUCH AS STORAGE AND BARE-METAL COMPUTE, IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. www.intelligentdatacentres.com Issue 15 67