WHEN I HEARD RUMOURS OF LOCKDOWN , I RUSHED TO BUY AN EXERCISE BIKE . IT ’ S AMAZING HOW EXERCISE NEUTRALISES UNHELPFUL THINKING AND HELPS WITH CLARITY .
DEEP DIVE all have to be careful to de-lineate work from home life .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
I know it ’ s not our industry exactly , but I would say power . It ’ s reaching the point where the energy companies are struggling to meet the power demands of new data centre expansions in some of the more popular constrained markets . At the same time , operators and end-customers want increasing quotas of sustainable and zero carbon power . It ’ s a perfect storm at the moment , but one way or another it ’ s going to need significant planning and sustained investment from the energy industry and our own . For the operators , it will mean looking to locate data centres in alternate regions where extensible power is available and it may also see operators ( co ) investing in their own power projects .
WHEN I HEARD RUMOURS OF LOCKDOWN , I RUSHED TO BUY AN EXERCISE BIKE . IT ’ S AMAZING HOW EXERCISE NEUTRALISES UNHELPFUL THINKING AND HELPS WITH CLARITY .
the rate of change on the inside , the end is near .’ So , my role hasn ’ t changed much , but how I approach it is constantly changing . The same is true for Vantage , we ’ re moving fast and continuously evolving as we grow and this is what we must do to stay ahead . As for the coming months , it ’ s a simple case of more of the same – learning to keep a steady head in a rapidly changing world . �
What are the region-specific challenges you encounter in your role ?
More locally in the UK , we have a heavy presence in Cardiff . The challenge has always been to change the minds of customers towards the ‘ out of town ’ proposition ; historically enterprises have looked to traditional markets such as London for hosting , but increasingly they are seeing the advantages of more regional players in terms of space , costs , flexibility , security and access to power .
Zooming out to Europe , I would say the region-specific challenge is its diversity . Compared with the US , which is large but comparatively consistent , there ’ s far more diversity across the different European nations in culture , language , regulations , permitting , law and operations in each country . For an expanding operator like Vantage it creates a tension between the ease of deepening capacity in established markets such as Frankfurt versus the incremental costs / risks of jumping to new markets in other countries where we see a long-term expansion play . The simple answer is that we ’ ll be doing a bit of both .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the coming months ?
My role hasn ’ t changed much . What has changed is the world outside as we emerged from lockdown and witness seismic geopolitical shifts . I remember the well-known maxim from Jack Welch ; ‘ If the rate of change on the outside exceeds
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