The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry. Here’s a look at the insights from Nancy Novak of Compass Datacenters and Infrastructure Masons.
NANCY NOVAK, Compass Datacenters and iMasons
With more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry, Nancy Novak brings extensive expertise in oversight and responsibility for Profit and Loss. In her current role as Chief Innovation Officer for Compass Datacenters, her focus is cutting edge technology, lean practices, and innovative culture through diversity of thought to add value, improve return on investment, and disrupt the construction industry. Prior to joining Compass Datacenter’s Novak was National Vice President of Operations for Balfour Beatty Construction. At Balfour Beatty, Novak was a key resource in assessing and strengthening the company’s ability to scale knowledge and bring national consistency to strong, existing operating standards. Previously, her 20 year career as an Operations Executive with Hensel Phelps Construction Company gave her the expertise needed to build complex projects efficiently. Novak is heavily involved in organizations that lead the way for technology advancement in the construction industry, and she is an advocate for women’s leadership. Her passion for advancing women in business occurs through organizations like iMasons, Women for Women International, The National Woman’s Party in Washington DC, Women in Government Relations (WGR), Women Construction Owners and Executives (WCOE), the World Trade Center (WTCI), Fortune Media Most Powerful Women, and Above Glass Ceilings LLC.
Here’s the full text of Nancy Novak’s insights from our Executive Roundtable:
Data Center Frontier: Is liquid cooling gaining traction? What are the key factors that will guide whether liquid cooling technologies see greater adoption?
Nancy Novak: I think we’re seeing an uptick in the acceptance and use of liquid cooling, but this incremental rather than step function. The current economics aren’t supportive of mass adoptions at this point. That being said, we are seeing users with large processing workloads identifying the technology as a cost-effective means of controlling heat rejection costs. The fact that data volumes continue to grow at an exponential rate only bodes well for greater use of liquid cooling.
To a certain extent, I think the popularity of the technology will be pulled along, versus being a primary driver, by a number of factors including grid stability, compatible hardware, more skilled personnel as arising necessities to support ever larger workloads.
Data Center Frontier: Cloud, colo, on-premises and edge … deployment options abound. What trends are you seeing in where customers are deploying workloads, and how are these decisions changing?
Nancy Novak: Perhaps the biggest change we are seeing is that as the decision-making process on adding capacity grows shorter, the current supply chain issues are necessitating that providers develop more fluid, rather than linear schedules that incorporate a greater amount of customer involvement throughout the process.
We’ve found that by collaborating closely with our supply chain partners we can identify potential issues early in the process and develop potential alternatives for our end users. Because, let’s face it, in their eyes “supply chain” problem isn’t viewed as a “get out of jail free” card for providers.
On a more macro level, we’re seeing our customers’ longer-range plans under continual revision, and this is a good thing. A pre-planned zone requiring 100MW a year ago is now sliced into smaller components, but with similar capacity requirements.
As for the “edge” we’ve come to view this term as a misnomer, and I think it has limited end user thinking regarding the need to quickly add incremental capacity without adding headcount and new capital requirements. Not every new requirement demands a multi-MW facility.
We think that what the market is really looking for is “White Space as a Service” where the provider takes care of all the normal activities associated with permitting, installation and even on-going operations to provide end users with a flexible eco-system enabling them to quickly add capacity where it’s needed (an existing data center or facility or remote locations) without disrupting their existing operations.
A row of backup generators at the Compass Datacenters facility in Goodyear, Ariz., one of three sites where Compass will use HVO in place of diesel to fuel its generators. (Photo: Compass Datacenters)
Data Center Frontier: After several years of active discussion of diversity and inclusion, how is the data center industry doing? What additional steps are needed to make a bigger difference?
Nancy Novak: The need to change the face of the data center industry has met with increasing awareness and acknowledgement over the past few years. I think that the work of organizations like iMasons has contributed greatly to making companies aware of the availability of reservoir of talent that has been increasingly overlooked.
Certainly, increased attention to encouraging more women and minorities to pursue STEM-related coursework and careers is beginning to establish a pipeline of future data center employees and leadership. Naturally, these efforts must continue and there is also an onus on existing women in leadership positions to provide the mentorship needed to those just beginning their careers if these efforts are ultimately going to be successful.
Personally, I think one area that is impeding our D&I efforts is “credentialism”. By this I mean positions where having a degree in a field is a pre-requisite for even being considered. Naturally, this makes sense in very technical areas (engineering for example), but, if we’re being honest, experience is really the better predictor of job success. If industry D&I efforts are really going to succeed, companies need to stop thinking in conventional terms of hiring and place greater value on actual experience, rather than using degrees to establish artificial hiring barriers.
Data Center Frontier: Will microgrids play a larger role as the data center industry addresses power constraints in some key markets? What problems could they address?
Nancy Novak: We certainly think microgrids will increase in importance in the next few years. We’ve even begun to build substations on some of our campuses to reduce power costs and increase reliability.
The grid instabilities over the past few years have provided a wake-up call to the industry that providers are going to have to be more actively involved to ensure power availability to their campuses. I wouldn’t be surprised to see microgrids become de facto requirements on larger projects over the next five years as we continue to deliver more internet-delivered capability.
Now this is probably a distant prediction, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of the businesses larger players begin to act as “quasi-utilities” by generating their own campus power and selling the excess to surrounding communities.