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 Phillip Marangella of EdgeConneX.
PHILLIP MARANGELLA, EdgeConneX
Currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at EdgeConneX, Phillip Marangella has over 20 years of international marketing, strategy, and business development experience working in the Data Center, Telecom and Technology sectors for leading service providers. Prior to joining EdgeConneX, Phillip most recently worked for Equinix in various capacities in both marketing and business development. In addition, Phillip had stints at Coresite, Verizon, MCI, Nortel and Globalstar. Phillip was also a partner and founder of a tech consulting firm focused on international technology transfer and venture funding of university developed technology. Currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at EdgeConneX, Phillip is focused on developing, evangelizing and executing the marketing strategy and ecosystem development for the company. Phillip also serves on the advisory boards for Apomaya and Infrastructure Masons. Phillip holds a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of California San Diego, and a Masters in Multinational Commerce from Boston University.
Here’s the full text of Phillip Marangella’s insights from our Executive Roundtable:
Data Center Frontier: More providers are targeting the hyperscale computing market, and more customers appear to be “graduating” to super-sized requirements. How is this market changing, and what are the keys to success in serving the hyperscale sector in 2020 and beyond?
Phillip Marangella: EdgeConneX could be considered one of those providers. As a pioneer of Edge data centers with a global platform, we have recently built several large hyperscale facilities in a number of core data center markets around the world. The reason for this evolution is that our web and hyperscale customers define their Edge in terms of locations, scale, and density. EdgeConneX simply enables their Edge by building what they want, where they want it and when they want it. The market is evolving as you see both ends of the spectrum rapidly scaling up and out with more investment in core infrastructure on the one hand, while yet simultaneously experiencing rapid growth in more distributed Edge deployments. Therefore, having the ability to support the whole spectrum of data center requirements from hyperlocal to hyperscale in an integrated and seamless fashion is an important one and a key to future success.
Data Center Frontier: Artificial intelligence is bringing more powerful chips into the data center. What’s your take on the present and future of rack density, and how it may influence data center equipment and design?
Phillip Marangella: Deployment densities are definitely on the rise as a result of technologies like AI and things like cloud gaming, for example. Requests for rack densities in excess of 20 KWs per rack are certainly increasing. Being able to adapt and utilize technologies like liquid or immersion cooling will be key to support those densities. At the same time, doing so, while factoring in sustainability, will be a key challenge as customers and providers look to meet their goals of being carbon neutral.
Data Center Frontier: What do you see as the most important trends in data center connectivity and interconnection, and how have they been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Phillip Marangella: As our homes have become the new Edge where we work, watch, study, and play we are seeing a huge push to increase network and data center capacity at the Edge to alleviate those traffic bottlenecks and ensure that the User Experience continues to be a high quality one. Peering, interconnection and smart routing of traffic from Edge data centers will be key to efficiently and effectively ensure that cloud applications, video conferencing, streaming content, on-line gaming, and many other applications maintain a premium quality of service and experience.
Data Center Frontier: The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting companies to pursue automation to limit health risks. What are the most promising innovations the data center industry can adopt to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic?
Phillip Marangella: Data center automation and “lights-out” facilities are definitely becoming more critical as those who work in a data center can no longer travel. Being able to remotely monitor and manage your workloads is absolutely necessary to give customers peace of mind and be able to continue their business operations with zero downtime. Having a DCIM platform that can provide the customer with those remote capabilities is key during COVID-19, but it will also create a new normal as data center managers become more comfortable and experienced in remotely managing workloads.