7x24 Exchange Fall Event Preview: Focus on Emerging Technologies for Mission-Critical Data Centers
The theme of the upcoming 7x24 Fall Conference 2024 centers is on "Emerging Technologies" for ensuring end-to-end reliability in mission-critical facilities and data centers. The event is set for Oct. 20-23 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge resort in the western U.S. data center mecca of Phoenix, Arizona, a fitting choice of location. As cited by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, with over 300 megawatts (MW) of existing data center inventory and additional 250 MW planned for the near future, Greater Phoenix is widely known as the nation's fifth largest data center market, alongside Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Silicon Valley, Atlanta and the New York Tri-State Area.
Formed in 1989, 7x24 Exchange is currently celebrating its 35th anniversary as a professional association. The conference organizers pride themselves on putting forth a program perennially designed for anyone involved with 7×24 infrastructures, be they IT, data center, disaster recovery, cyber security and/or network/telecommunication managers, computer technologists, facility or building managers, supervisors and engineers. Vendors, consultants, and others concerned with uninterrupted access to critical information will also comprise the attendees of this year's sold-out 7x24 Fall Conference.
Data Center Frontier (DCF) is media partner for 7x24 Exchange and your correspondent will be in attendance for the Phoenix show. As such, this article will preview some of the attention-grabbing highlights of the oncoming 7x24 Fall Conference 2024 program, as devoted to emerging technologies for mission-critical data centers - which, as may go without saying, defines a good portion of our bailiwick here at DCF.
2050 Visions and Sustainable AI Synergies
Conventional wisdom holds that the secret to a compelling conference kick-off is engaging, relevant keynote speakers, and the 7x24 Fall show line-up for Monday, Oct. 21 seems to amply fit this requirement.
The kick-off keynote will be delivered by futurist, tech expert, strategic foresight advisor, serial entrepreneur and former Wired managing editor Peter Leyden, who'll deliver a talk entitled, "The Great Progression: The Story of America & the World from 2025 to 2050."
Based on his current and eponymous magazine piece, eschewing pervasive "doom and gloom narratives," Leyden's presentation features to illuminate and locate our current technological era in the broader context of American history, while advocating compellingly for the idea that we’re heading into another period of great national progress that stands to solve many of our society's greatest challenges.
Leyden's macro-level keynote will feed into the tightened data-centric focus of the morning's next presentation entitled, "From Chip Design to Operations: Driving Sustainable Data Center Transformation with AI and Digital Twins." Presenters include Ciaran Flanagan Global Head of Data Center Solutions, Siemens, and Dion Harris, Director of Accelerated Data Center GTM NVIDIA.
These presenters certainly embody the industry's emerging technologies on the following basis: Two truisms to be gleaned from present data center industry discussions seem to be that AI infrastructure design and deployment in today's power, cooling and sustainability -focused climate pretty much won't work without employing digital twins technology; and that the NVIDIA GPUs and reference designs are the lodestone for much forthcoming data center infrastructure.
Also seen earlier this fall presenting at the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit (Sept. 4-6) in Virginia on the topic of AI, power and sustainability's converging "trilemma," as Siemens' Global Head of Data Center Solutions, Ciaran Flanagan is leading the continued development of the Siemens Smart Infrastructure brand as a technology partner to the global data center industry.
Prior to joining Siemens, Flanagan held various senior data center roles at notable multinational corporations. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies in the areas of data center operations, technical architecture, energy efficiency, procurement strategy and financial planning. Flanagan was also a Founding Contributor to the EU Data Center Code of Conduct and a Contributing Member of The Green Grid and the Open Data Center Alliance.
Dion Harris is Director of Accelerated Data Center GTM at NVIDIA. In this role, he focuses on driving product strategies for scientific computing, and AI data center solutions, including NVIDIA’s Earth-2 initiative. Additionally, Harris also serves as part of NVIDIA’s corporate sustainability steering committee, where he spearheads many of the company’s data center energy efficiency initiatives. He holds an MBA from U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from U.C. Berkeley.
WiMCO Modular Data Center Construction Talk
Monday afternoon's 7x24 WiMCO panel pulls together a compelling lineup of participants. WiMCO stands for Women in Mission Critical Operations and is a program developed by 7x24 Exchange to increase the participation of women in the mission-critical and data center industries. WiMCO's initiatives include: recruiting women into the 7x24 Exchange organization; supporting STEM initiatives, scholarships, and programs; promoting industry opportunities for women; and providing professional leadership opportunities through community.
The theme of this Fall's WiMCO Panel, "Unveiling the Future: Embracing Innovation in Modular Construction, Sustainability and Operations Efficiency" reflects the present data center construction industry's great intersecting interests in the areas of modularity and sustainability, especially in the age of AI-scale demand.
This year's WiMCO panelists will include Casey Eldringhoff, Data Center Engineering Operations Cluster Manager for Amazon; Amy Marks SVP, Innovation for Compass Datacenters; and Katie McGinty, VP Sustainability for Johnson Controls. Session moderator Juli Ierulli serves on the board of directors for 7×24 Exchange International as Vice President, and established and leads the WiMCO community on a national level, as well as 7x24's International Data Center Day initiative.
During the talk, these industry leaders will delve into the cutting-edge aspects of modular construction with regard to sustainable data center development and operations. The panel is set to dynamically explore the fusion of innovative modular construction iwth sustainable and operational best practices, and how these elements shaping the future landscape of data center infrastructure.
Focus On: Data Center Sustainability Processes and Information Security Foibles
Tuesday Oct. 22 will open with the presentation of 7×24 Exchange International Lifetime of Service Award. 7×24 Chairman and CEO Bob Cassiliano will present the award to 7×24 Exchange International Founding Member Dennis Cronin in honor of his lifelong career, leadership, and extraordinary service and commitment to the mission-critical industry.
Next for his morning keynote, Kevin Kealy, Global Chief Information Security Officer, Light & Wonder to deliver a talk titled, "Artificial Intelligence to Real Stupidity – Security in the 2020s."
Taking a measured look beyond the current AI hype cycle, this discussion will wake attendees up to practical IT realities and failings, as Kealy takes a look at the sometimes bizarre world of information security response in the modern age. Covering topics such as “the largest IT outage in history” and some of the surprising ways that "plain old stupidity still rules," Kealy's session is intended to entertain as it educates.
Sustainability is ideally more than just a word to the data center industry, and shedding light on how the actual process works will be the focus of 7x24's mid-morning talk on Tuesday entitled, "Using a Sustainability Index to Align Targets and Increase Transparency in the Data Center Industry."
The need for a standardized sustainability assessment tool for new data center builds is growing, driven by factors such as environmental concerns, regulatory compliance, corporate sustainability goals, operational efficiency, and technological advancements. The discussion will examine how, with these factors converging, best practices are emerging to measure and standardize environmental considerations in construction.
The talk will explain how employing a Sustainability Index establishes baseline measurements for data center aspects and aligns performance goals with the environment and communities they serve. The discussion will explain how the Index acts as a unifying mechanism for design teams, helping them stay organized and focused on their goals and the interrelationships between various aspects.
This panel will bring together expertise and insights from J.D. Lambert, Sustainable Design Leader Mission Critical for HKS; Elizabeth Larsen, Senior Sustainability Engineer for Bala Consulting Engineers; Karen Petersburg Vice President, Data Center Development and Construction for PowerHouse Data Centers, who was also seen earlier this fall at the DCF Trends Summit presenting on the topic of sustainable data center construction.
Top Emerging Trends: Data Center Workforce Cultivation and Site Selection
Based on the amount and tone of discussions heard so far in 2024, workforce cultivation and mentoring is one of this year's major data center industry trends. And so Tuesday's 7x24 panel titled, "Skills to Scale for Hyperscale – Strategies for Resolving Skill Shortages and Developing the Talent Pool" will bring together solution ideologies and insights for this emerging trend as provided by IT and data center industry talent and workforce experts.
With all projections indicating significant global data center growth to say the least, this session will focus specifically on addressing skills shortages and developing the robust talent pool necessary for building hyperscale data centers and cultivating a workforce adept in the latest technologies.
Panel moderator Tashbeeb Shahid is Senior Director, Global Solutions with ICT and data center infrastructure specialist Black Box. Shahid will probe the seasoned telecom and data center expertise of panelists including: Vince Hoover Regional Director, U.S. South Central-Mountain for Corning Optical Communications; current BICSI President David Richards who also holds the role of Quality Training Manager for Global Departments at Black Box, and Buddy Rizer Executive Director for Virginia's Loudoun County Department of Economic Development, who also presented at last month's DCF Trends Summit.
Strategies will be discussed for upskilling current employees, attracting new talent, and implementing comprehensive training programs to meet the increasing demand, particularly in remote areas where industry presence and talent are limited. Panelists will explore innovative approaches to workforce development for ensuring a smart, efficient, and scalable operations to support the rapid expansion of global data infrastructure.
Similarly among the year's industry-topping trends, the practice of data center site selection and development is up next on Tuesday's 7x24 agenda in a session titled, "Scaling Data Center Development Through Program Management." STACK Infrastructure VP of Development Vanessa Kennedy Bohler Associate Michael O’Shaughnessy will discuss how as the industry is expanding so rapidly, to manage such rapid and scalable growth effectively, developers should consider adopting a program management approach.
The session will discuss how such a strategy ensures efficient site selection, thorough due diligence, and standardized design processes, allowing developers to manage multiple data center projects simultaneously, control costs, and accelerate speed-to-market. The talk will also examine how partnering with program management experts also enables developers to customize processes to their specific needs and achieve ambitious goals.
Review of Data Center Water, Energy and Operations Challenges
The last day of this year's 7x24 Fall Conference on Wednesday Oct. 23 presents an intriguing selection of keynotes focused again on data centers' sustainability and energy challenges in the escalating AI era. To begin the day, Jay Paidipati, Vice President of the Sustainability Program at Uptime Institute, will deliver his closing keynote on "Options to Address the Rising Challenge of Sustainability and Water."
Next, 7×24 Exchange Founding Member and Mission Critical Global Alliance Board Member Dennis Cronin will be joined by AlfaTech Partner Rich Garrison to present on their "Years of Lessons Learned." With decades of experience, in this talk the presenters will share some of their most notable lessons learned covering data center incidents, their causes and analysis. This will include design caused issues, how to burn up a cooling tower, commissioning – disaster or salvation, and as many others as time allows covering all aspects of data center design, construction, commissioning and operations.
Finally to close out the 7x24 Fall event's presentations, Colin Cagney, Director, Infrastructure, Capital Projects and Climate at global business management consultant KPMG will deliver a talk examining "How Tech and Energy Companies Can Work Together to Solve the Data Center Energy Challenge."
The premise of this discussion will be the contention that tech companies aggressively pursuing the advancement and proliferation of AI have fundamentally hit a brick wall in insufficient power, especially green power. That brick wall is in mosaic with stereotypically slow-moving utilities and other energy companies. Cagney's talk will ask the question: how can these two entities -often considered polar opposites in operations and culture - work together to respond to the challenge?
The following video wraps up event coverage from this year's record-breaking 7x24 Exchange 2024 Spring Conference as held in Orlando, Florida.
Matt Vincent
A B2B technology journalist and editor with more than two decades of experience, Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier.
