DEEP DIVE
WE ‘DEEP DIVE’ WITH Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power
Division, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland, WHO
TELLS US ABOUT LIFE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICE.
What would you describe as your
most memorable achievement in
the data centre industry?
There have been too many to mention,
new customer successes always leave
you with a great feeling. Getting to know
our partners, learning more about the
challenges their customers face and
finding new ways to support them has
also been very rewarding.
What first made you think of a
career in technology/data centres?
In a sense, the technology industry
found me. I wanted to join a leading
technology company where I could
have a career and develop, so I joined
Schneider Electric, rather than the data
centre industry itself.
At Schneider, I progressed through some
of the other business units before I came
into the Secure Power Division, which
works directly with the data centre
sector. It was the opportunities that the
company provided to me, to take on
bigger and more complex roles, that
brought me to where I am today.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ
with your current position?
I’ve always been focused around
the people in the business. I firmly
believe that if we invest in our
people and their development,
we will see significant returns in
terms of customer satisfaction
and experience, which will deliver
success to the overall business.
Ultimately our business is led by
people, so it’s important to have
a motivated and happy group of
professionals working together
collaboratively, as a team.
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Issue
Issue 08
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What do you think is
the current hot talking
point within the data
centre space?
Edge Computing
is certainly one of
the main talking
points within the
industry today. Many
of our customers
are concerned with
reducing latency,
network resilience,
power availability and
with managing distributed IT
environments. That naturally leads
to an interest in deploying data centres
at the Edge of the network, where data is
created, processed and consumed.
There are various challenges associated
with the distributed environment and at
Schneider we believe there are three key
enablers for Edge. They include; remote
management with simplified monitoring,
24/7 visibility and predictive analytics;
greater physical security to prevent
unauthorised access to IT equipment;
and rapid deployment to ensure a
standardised, repeatable and quick to
deploy approach. Another important
talking point is about people and skillsets.
There is great concern throughout the
industry that there are not enough
skilled people to deliver projects in a
timely and reliable fashion. Something
very important to me is how we bring
new skills into the industry and how
we develop our people to serve our
customers both now and in the future.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside the office?
Golf and family. There’s nothing like
having a three-year old to distract you
from the office, but on the rare
occasions that I can tear myself
away from both, I enjoy a round
of golf.
What do you currently
identify as the major
areas of investment in
your industry?
For me, this comes back to the
issue around skills shortages
within the industry. We need
a variety of skilled people to
keep up with the demands of
today’s customers and ensure we
can deliver outstanding service
throughout the data centre lifecycle.
As an industry, this will include project
managers, engineers, salespeople,
marketers and technical specialists. It’s
vital that we invest in these people and
their skills because demand is growing
and we need to ensure that projects
are delivered to meet customers’
expectations. Right now we are very
focused on recruiting people with the
right skills into our business.
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