On this episode of The Bridge, I’m joined by Tony Bishop, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Platform Solutions at Digital Realty. We’re talking about the data center economy and so much more.
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data "meeting place". Digital Realty enables its customers with the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 27 countries on six continents.
During our conversation, we discussed COVID-19 as both an accelerator and a distraction in digital transformation, the concept of capacity as the new data center currency and the scarcity of capacity in the data center market, the data center economy and more.
Topics covered in this episode:
● Tony's background, including his Canadian origins and career in Enterprise IT.
● Digital Realty's strategic focus on creating a "data meeting place" to accommodate the increasing need for data exchange in the digital economy.
● The significance of Digital Realty's network backbone in facilitating data exchange between locations and metros.
● The impact of COVID-19 on Digital Realty's connectivity fabric strategy.
● The shift in network focus from locations to humans and the challenge of building networks for hybrid work scenarios.
● The challenges related to power, land availability, and physical complexity in expanding data center capacity.
● The impact of AI companies on data center infrastructure, including power and cooling requirements.
● The distinction between AI workloads for prediction and inference (smaller, colo deployments) and AI training (large farms).
● Challenges related to power density, cooling strategies, and cabling for AI deployments.
● The importance of contiguous space for AI workloads that require proximity between data and computing resources.
● The need for long-term planning for infrastructure to accommodate AI and other evolving workloads.
● AI's impact on traditional models of cooling and power ratios leading to a scarcity of buying options.
● The role of AI in changing the traditional data center model and the need for advanced planning.
● The significance of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives in data center discussions and the need to address sustainability as part of the overall criteria for data center operations.
Predictions for the next 12-18 months.
ABOUT TONY BISHOP
Tony Bishop is Senior Vice President of Platform Planning & Solutions at Digital Realty with responsibility for the company’s global growth strategy. He plays a central role in prioritizing the enterprise business segment, championing Digital Realty’s platform strategy, and integrated partner solutions. This includes the programmatic launch of platform and solution capabilities that position PlatformDIGITAL™ as the leading data center platform and global meeting place for enterprises and service providers.
Prior to joining Digital Realty, Tony served as Vice President, Global Vertical Strategy & Marketing at Equinix, where he was responsible for creating the global growth strategy for Enterprise and Service Provider Markets through Vertical Solution Development. Previously, he served at 451 Research as Chief Strategy Officer focused on digital infrastructure research. Earlier in his career, Tony was Managing Director, Global Head of Enterprise Datacenter Operations & Strategy at Morgan Stanley & Co.; and he led the global team that defined and implemented the data center transformation program.
Tony also served as an advisor to NuCyper, is a Second Degree fellow with Infrastructure Masons, and is the author of Next Generation Datacenters: Driving Extreme Efficiency & Effective Cost Savings.
Tony studied Business and Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick and has been awarded Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders, ‘Top 40 under 40’ IT Leaders, and the Network World All Star Award.
CONTACT TONY
Web. https://www.digitalrealty.com/
LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonybbishop/
LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/digitalrealty/
Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/digitalrealty
Twitter. https://twitter.com/digitalrealty