Brian Green, EVP of Operations, Engineering & Project Management at Edgeconnex: Customers. People. Planet.

On this episode I am joined by Brian Green, EVP of Operations, Engineering & Project Management at Edgeconnex. Brian is very passionate about company culture and creating opportunities in the data center sector for veterans. 

Brian shares how he started his career in the US Navy and how he made the progression to the data centre sector. He outlines why his experience in the Navy was so valuable, and the reasons why veterans are well suited to the data center sector.

We discuss Edgeconnex and their rapid growth across the globe. Brian outlines some of the current regions they are developing in, and where we can expect to see further developments. 

We also cover a number of key topics within the sector, including the growth of the industry, attracting and developing talent, power challenges, and the challenges we can expect to face in 2024.

Learn more about Edgeconnex here - https://www.edgeconnex.com/ 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:29

Welcome to Inside Data Center Podcast. Today I'm joined by Brian Green, the EVP of Operations, Engineering and Project Management at Edge Connects. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Andy. Thank you for having me here today. Thanks for coming on. Big week over there in the US. I'm sure you've got you've got a lot to tie up before Thanksgiving. So it's uh I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today. Um obviously what we're going to do is we're going to go into a bit about your career, find out more about how you found your way into this uh wonderful world of data centers, also touch on culture and equally veterans and talent, because obviously that's something that you're very passionate about. And it's going to be great to hear your advice on how we in the sector can utilize that talent to attract more people to the industry. Before we go into all of that, I just want to give everyone a quick introduction and go into how you started your career and how you ended up in the world of data centers.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Uh absolutely. Um, I like to say my first data center was my first job out of college. Uh, my first job out of college, I was a naval officer and I was uh the electrical officer on board the USS WASP, which is essentially a US um marine aircraft carrier. And we carried uh helicopters, we carried carrier jump jets, and we carried hydrofoils, all the purpose of getting marines to the beach and supporting uh just different amphibious operations. Uh my job on board was as the electrical officer. And as electrical officer, I was responsible for um the electrical power generation on board. And I was also responsible for interior communication systems, our phone systems, the tele, the television, and as it integrated with our navigation systems. So, in a sense, I had power and I had telecommunication interaction and support. So I like to say it was my first data center job. And ironically, 30 years, you know, 30 plus years later, we're all getting older. Um, I'm still in the data center business. Although I I realized I how I came to this was a circuitous route, but I think I was always meant to be on a data center, except now I'm on land as opposed to sailing around the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So yeah, definitely. And I always think one point we maybe talk about in the sector is that transition of people from other industries into the world of data centers and and how it's a difficult transition, but you probably can't get more of a difficult transition transition from civilian life to your first career being a floating data center with very critical requirements.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Exactly. It's uh it's just one of those things when you know, as I more formally entered into the data center space, I thought about um critical availability, I thought about uh leading in operational environments, and then ultimately um going back to the shield must go on no matter what. I mean, if you're in the middle of the ocean and you lose power in the middle of a wartime situation, it's very difficult. If you're running a data center for what we do at Edge Connects, or even what I did at Visa, and you have a five-second blip, um, you're hauled in front of Congress and you're directly impacting the flow of society. So I think there's just natural linkages there. Um, one of the key, you know, we have a key passion at Edge Connects around recruiting veterans, um, just because as we look at our global uh mission or purpose, you know, coming directly from Brandy Bruckman, our CEO, is customer people planet. Um, you know, we're dedicated, we're customers, we're very much dedicated, we're people, and then the greater good and impact ties directly to um the military with is built a couch, a culture of sacrifice, service, and extreme accountability. So it was just it was a natural segue into this. And um, as they looked around um various data center companies, uh, it really appealed to me here because there's a natural fit and support for you know significant veterans of leadership, including myself, and what we're trying to do the environment uh uh or do for the environment and hiring good leaders. Uh, one of the other key things in the data center space or any critical environment is the extreme uh importance or or uh or leverage of the people involved because we're only as I mean, you I mean, you're only as good as the people you have running your data centers, same way in the military. You can have the most advanced technological system, have the most um reliable infrastructure, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the people who are executing it, operating it, and providing leadership principles, which is why it's such a natural fit um between the veteran community and uh greater in greater aspect, the data center community. I mean, you see that um with what the iMasons have done, salute mission critical, it's just it's just a really natural fit.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, definitely. And I always like to touch on it from a personal experience as well. How how did you find it when you made that transition from sort of from the um you know from the navy into the data center sector? How did you find the transition? Is there anything that maybe you've learned along the way that you'd like to share with anyone that's uh considering the same journey?

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yeah, uh absolutely. I I lucked out. Um, I uh I just sort of fell into the space uh because after I transitioned out of military, I knew I like to do, I just I I like to do operation. It's like I want to be in operations. Uh just and I had no idea what that was. And there's all kinds of different aspects of that. You know, I said that uh I first worked in financial institutions at JP Morgan, you know, operations looked like desktop support because there were direct customers on the trading floor, there was equipment that had to be maintained. And then as I dove deeper into that space, I got into project management, but I didn't realize there's a whole world of opportunity in the data center space where it was directly working on the equipment, it was planning, it was being available immediately and thinking about the longer term. So I would I would say the one of the best aspects of my transition was I knew I had passion for it. I'd been pretty good at it. I'd done a lot of international and global locations. So I really paid attention to the things that I like to do personally and look for the translation into where I could go do that. So I would say a lot of the the the and was really helpful for me, and I would give advice to others going through this pay attention to the things you really like to do or from your service where hey, I really love that, and try to distill back what were the greater things that you you were looking for. Was it the change? Was it the accountability? Was it um just the planning and always having a different challenge and always having to be held to a higher standard? And then as you think about that, there's all kinds of opportunities that you can get into. You know, data center space is a great example of this. If you just sort of tie in what are the different characteristics of the role or ultimately what are the bigger um internal strengths or of character that allow you to be great in the industry and just be open to new opportunities. Um I had it's only after the fact that I ended up in the data center space that I realized that everything I did the first day on the job is exactly what I'm responsible for now. It's part of that reflection. And I think understanding the natural tendencies of what you like to do, where you feel comfortable will make it really easy um in those transitions. So um, and then just in the other aspect I would say just be open to new opportunities to what you're leaning to what you're doing and the passion. And then if you don't like it, hey, that's okay. Um, and just bring it all back together again. Uh the job that I have now, specifically data centers, I'm leverage, I leverage a lot of my experience in the non-data center space in the uh in the IT world, um, what I did in financial services, the project management that allowed me to relate better to my customers because I had a wide breadth of experience coming here. If in the you know, if I had to all over again, I probably I would end up in the same space um with the different sequences of events, and I would I would understand that's what I was moving to. I just put I lucked into this um how I got here, but every experience I had definitely built into where I am today.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah, great advice. And I think one point I'll I'll pick up on, and we can come back to that topic later, is around the lack of understanding. I think one thing that the veteran community in the US is excellent at is getting your message to those people about what this industry is all about. Because we all know, everyone listening, and all of us in it, we try and keep it too much of a secret, and that doesn't help when we're trying to attract people to the industry. So I think you know, there's yourself and there's many others I know that are out there, and they've been on this podcast as well, that are doing some amazing work around just spreading the message of the sector and and getting it to those people like yourself that are that are considering what the next career opportunity could be. On um on Edge Connects, an organization that always so much is going on. I love catching up with you guys from Edge Connects because there's always a lot to talk about, and it's way there's always activity around the world as well. It's never share a quick overview of of where you're at as an organization and you know what what the uh listeners can can look out for in the future.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Absolutely. It's been we're in a period of extreme growth. Um, you know, with the impact of chat BT, chat GPT in the industry um and the effects of AI, we've seen tremendous growth. Um, in terms of, and you know, like you mentioned, you know, we started our business out just building uh smaller edge sites in support of cable uh expansion and um you know people watching and demanding more content delivery in local markets. And we've always had the perspective of you know, our custom we're in the digital infrastructure space. We want to support our customers and anticipate growth where it hasn't quite happened yet and moving forward. So we start off an edge. Now we're primarily build the suite as we build out our, you know, to the larger players or the familiar household um and the digital web scale space. So that's driven a lot of our growth um non-US domestic, uh, with larger and larger platforms that we're building. And now we're at an inflection point where we we start to see our average build base is increasing dramatically. So where we're, you know, we thought of hey, 10, 20 megawatts at a clip in multiple countries was um was interesting, great for growth. Now we're talking hundreds of megawatts all over, all over, not only in um developing markets, but also domestically, which means the a lot of planning and oversight and execution is much higher in terms of the amount of capital at risk, the commitment to our customers, and planning that out. So we have to become a lot more strategic as we scale into that space. And you'll see large, like, you know, our you know, our largest campuses in Amsterdam. But right now we're in the process of building out large campuses in Indonesia, um, Poland, uh in Asia in the Malaysian market, and then also down in South America. So you'll see more of that bigger build, and also you'll see some stuff domestically that we're we're going to be building larger in the next couple of years. And in the space where everybody's trying to grow as quickly in the marketplace, you also have to factor in environmental concerns. And also as an industry, we have to think about, and on top of that, as an industry, how do we impact our so our our surrounding custom customers and constituents? So you also see this notion of stakeholder management because it's not just our customers anymore, but it's also the world in which we interact. So a lot of focus on how we engage with local communities and making sure that they they understand what a great economic force and support as we give back to the environment. Um, you'll also see how we look at power and reducing carbon footprint as part of our sustainability goals. Because in a true stakeholder way of viewing the world, it's not just about our shareholders, but it's also about the people that live in our communities that have these um large um you know consumer of resources that they appreciate because they uh you know the digital worlds that they live and the constant availability that they demand, but they also want to make sure that it's not impacting them in terms of where they live and um the planet as we as we go forward. And it's very important for us as an industry to focus on that because as we get the digital, the digital life is only going to continue to grow. And if we don't take that into account, as we expand our businesses, you know, you're gonna hit an inflection point where people are gonna be forced to choose do I get the technological advancement? Um, but I can't do it because of the infrastructure in our lives. And we want to never want to be in that conversation, which is we have that moral obligation, hence back to the customer people planet, the planet piece of our commitment to constantly be thinking about that. And we want to be a leader in that space.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, interesting. And you you touched on AI and obviously sustainability, and like there's a lot of different facets, as always, impacting the data center sector and how we evolve. You you see it quite holistically in your role. You know, you're involved in design, the operations, and the build. So you've got that kind of holistic viewpoint of the sector. A lot of the time, I'm trying to join the dots with people from different roles to see how it impacts. But from your perspective, what have you seen as the main shift this year? Have we seen more shifts in how data centers are designed as the use cases changed? Is that impacting the operations yet? What's your overall view of it at the moment?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Uh, we're at the very early point of the inflection curve of shifting over to high density because there's a couple of challenges. So you have your embedded base of what you've built previously, as well as what you see coming down the pike. And it essentially comes down to power at the rack, and it's it's a matter of physics. Um, if you have an um an infrastructure design generally built, you know, we're consuming, let's say, 10, you know, between 8 to 10 kw per rack as an average, I think is even below that throughout the industry. And you're looking at a demand base of using that 10, 20, 30 fold, that's directly going to impact the physics. So there's a couple of things that are gonna happen there. Uh, the underlying um OEMs as they design the equipment are going to have to shift to anticipate. Um, and you're also talking about, you know, the the the assets you're sticking in the data center have a risk repressed cycle. Um let's say roughly 18 months, but you're putting that in in an asset that has 30 years or 30 years plus because of um just the timing and and development. And the key challenges that you're gonna see obviously the power source coming in, um, and how much how much is gonna be provided in a much smaller space. Um, and you're gonna have to go through a lot more quicker turns in your equipment. So the the capital pressures that you see are going to shift. I mean, they're constantly right now on the chip providers and the compute side of the house that are constantly churning it, but you're gonna see more of that pressure into some of the traditionally longer lead items or longer capital items that are gonna be forced to keep up. The other things that you're going to see from a data center operator space is a greater integration between the more holistic view of optimization between the traditional IT guys and the infrastructure guys that have to support them. Because as you get to moving down the cooling spectrum of uh different cooling mediums, the the actual IT asset itself, the CPU, the GPU, the the server that's sitting there is definitely more dependent on the critical infrastructure that supports it. And you're going to have people as they build out our sites or build out sites for our customers that have a lot tighter integration that you don't you wouldn't have previously typically seen. I mean, in the enterprise space in a previous role, I own the IT installs and driving and worked with my customers as well as the infrastructure side. And that, you know, and whereas in other environments, maybe real estate or or facilities versus IT has been more of a conflict that's not going to work going forward. And I think having that perspective as you talk to the infrastructure, whether it's compute or mechanical and electrical, um, from a design perspective, has to be tighter integrated, and which is great because then you have an overall optimization of everything in the ecosystem that I think this is going to force to happen. But we're very, very early in this time frame. That that's my perspective. I see it as evolving.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yeah, exactly. No, there's there's a lot to come. And from a build program perspective as well, a lot a lot of people I talk to, obviously, we're seeing expedited build programs in an ideal scenario from the customer. Is that another challenge that you're having to work towards?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Uh absolutely, because it's uh it's it's anti, it's trying to future-proof your capital investment because um there's a retrofit perspective, you know, brown field, but then there's also the green field of hey, we want this quicker, and you're going to have to make bets today that might change in three years, depending upon the new chipset in terms of what has to be there. So you have larger infrastructure or larger bits of okay, I'm gonna assume that we're not gonna see 50 to 100 mega you know, KW per rack for another couple of years, but I have to have some optionality at the back end to account for that. And that affects um the timing of the delivery, it affects how much capital you're willing to put at risk as you build out initially. And it's it's a lot of options analysis. But yeah, that that pressure is not gonna get even harder. And then also that's against the backdrop of um the energy and the energy um industry recover their carbon change as they shift from what their um demand, what their demand profile currently is to moving away from carbon to other renewable energy sources, and everybody's fighting for the same resource. So it's there's a lot of planning that's going and a lot of interesting things with the how the economy turns, the infrastructure, the delivery economy turns over the next 10 years. And we're just scratching the surfaces right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

There's always so much going on in the world of data centers. It's fascinating when you go see, you can you can just keep going deeper and deeper until find more challenges around every corner.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Absolutely. And the requirements are still the same: 100% availability, making sure that you deliver at a good price, and um you're always anticipating um whatever challenges are that you might face in the world. So it's it's a great business.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah, another topic I wanted to touch on because veterans always have a great insight to it, is culture. You know, culture is critical in the military, it's it's essential, and probably the best culture that there is out there to use as an example. And I know it's something you're very passionate about. And as the industry grows, obviously it's more important that there's staff retention as well as attraction, and that's why culture is so important. But from your own perspective, why do you believe that culture is so critical to a successful business?

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Absolutely, because culture, what happens when the leader's not around? It's a direct reflection of the leader's intent. And in whenever there's a war for talent, I mean, you could throw money. Uh my personal belief, people don't really work for money, and it's it sounds a bit counterintuitive. They work because they want to feel in a place where they belong, they feel appreciated. And you know, some of one of my core, there's three core leadership principles that I always look for in a culture. And and as my number one job, yeah, it's availability, but I have to lead or sponsor a culture where people do their best. And it's part of that is getting rid of psychological fear. But ultimately, I I see there's three key factors. One, in a great culture, everybody knows that they have impact. The fact that they get out of bed, they come to work, they do their their people are counting on them to do their job, and it motivates them because, you know, you know, um, whether it's a holiday or hey, I don't feel great today, I'm accountable for delivering my impact. The second thing I think is really important is people being empowered or having just as much decision-making authority as possible to do that, um, to execute against their impact. And when, and there's a second half of that, and when there's a challenge or a problem they run into, they know that the whole organization runs behind them and do what they can do to remove that obstacle and support them. And then, you know, as far as that empowerment. And the third thing is somebody says thank you, um, that they feel appreciated for all of that. I think I think that's an you know, in the military, having that aspect of culture, you know, they talk about unit integrity when you have to perform in very dire circumstances to provide that, you know, but sacrifice service and accountability. You want to do it in a place where you feel good about it, um, or you want to feel appreciated, or you have the ability to have some input in how you do your job. And I think the best culture. Tie that in, and that's really driven around. And that's really driven around an environment where the leaders care about the people. And like I said earlier, in an environment where people are your most critical asset, we have to create an environment where they feel good about themselves and they feel great and want to contribute with opportunity because those are the people you want in an organization. Otherwise, you know, people just go to the higher highest bidder. So I'm just going to get paid, but there's not really that commitment. And when you have long hours, difficult jobs, extra commitment and motivation is what makes it people want to get up out of bed, feel excited about coming to work and give that extra effort because that's the differentiator in this space. That's why it's so important to us at Edge, and but also in the greater data science community, which is why I think a lot of military people naturally gravitate towards this.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah, and I agree on the money point. You know, obviously, in my day job, I talk I talk to Talon all day all long. And the main reason for leaving or changing position is very rarely money. Obviously, it does happen on occasions where they feel that they're undervalued, but the majority of the time it's not financial. It is being challenged, having empowerment, career development, looking for a new opportunity that's totally different to what they do. So yeah, it's really important that you consider the whole aspects, not simply look at it from a financial perspective.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Absolutely. People join companies, but they leave managers or bad ones.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

That's the saying. And how have you found it from implementing this structure into a business environment? So obviously, you've you've taken what you've learned in the military and brought it into a business environment. And I'm sure there's there's elements that you've left there and there's elements that you've picked up along the way, but how have you found it integrating the the structure into your your current role?

SPEAKER_02 23:50

It's it's been really helpful. I mean, it's taken me a while to sort of distill it into what I shared, my my three leadership points, but it's actually been really effective. People just want to know that you have your best interest in them, you know, the authentic leader. You can't fake that. I mean, you have to truly believe and have that passion, and it naturally translates. You know, there's there's times when you have to ask somebody, hey, can you stay, can you stay late because we have to get this job done? And I know you're gonna miss your daughter soccer game, or you know, you might have to adjust your vacation. That's just the reality of being mission critical all the time. And then also having that that appreciation when it's not as critical, you have an opportunity to give folks that flexibility. So it's it's always having that accountability and understanding it and supporting the people or what they need to get their job done and creating an open, honest communication. Because if the leader has all the ideas, the organization is limited by the experience of the leader. And if people know that they have active, going back to what I said about the empowerment and raising challenges, if they know they have people care about what who they are and what they say and see their impact, know how important they are, it's it flows a lot better in the organization. Um, I've seen that um with that. And I've been very successful and blessed in my career to have opportunities because I always thought about it as how am I supporting? I mean, we have a job to get done, but how am I supporting you? And that's the most important aspect, you know, servant leadership or or supporting, which is an important part of culture because nobody wants to work for somebody where they don't care for. And like I said, in the mission critical space, it's extremely important because one person's not having their impact or paying attention for five seconds has significant downstream impact, life safety, revenue, and you know, industry affecting. So it's you have to make sure people are taking care of and listening to their needs.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Totally agree. And you see a lot of bad examples out there, and it's it's always great to hear the the good examples. And finally, on this point, on the veterans piece, as I said, you know, we've talked about it quite a bit already, but I think it's important to cover it, and hopefully there are some people listening that will take advice from this conversation. But why is it do you think that veterans are so well suited to this industry? And we have covered a few points already, but shout out to all the uh all the veterans out there from this uh industry is some great people. But yeah, why do you think it's important?

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Uh uh I would say most importantly, it's the notion of volunteering. Uh veterans have you know have committed theirselves to something much greater than themselves, their country, and knowing that that gift or that sacrifice could very well cost them their lives, you know, or being is like it's in the it's the ultimate greater good because there's extreme consequence. Um I would also say, you know, and like I said, going back to whatever industry they're involved in, their passion, but particularly in a mission critical space, they understand this notion of sacrifice um and service and accountability. And that's I mean, a veteran is somebody that's built their whole lives around subsuming themselves to a greater good, what like I said, through sac personal sacrifice of freedom and choice, service to their country and accountability for that choice, which is ultimately what the I mean, maybe not to the I mean, and you maybe not to the extent of let's say getting fired at or being on a firing line or being direct, uh, life safety scenarios, but the things that we work with in the data dispense data center space is definitely life safety environment. Um, you know, whether you're working with electrical equipment um or um the build process or uh operations or whatever is definitely high consequence to bad decision making. So I think that's really where yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

So see, you can't you can't put it clearer than that. I don't think it's uh it's a perfect analogy. And and obviously we should say as well, you know, thanks to you for your service and obviously anyone else that's listening as well, because you know it is it is appreciated, and we should we should thank people like yourself for doing it. So I think it's a a good point to do that now. Before we close up, a couple of final quickfire questions just to get your opinion on on what's happening out there at the moment. But we are now we are now nearly in 2024, which seems absolutely crazy. And and when I wrote these questions, I was always asking what challenges we'd face in 2023, but we we should now change that. So as we head into 2024, what do you think the main challenges are that we're gonna face uh across next year?

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Uh continued pressure on supply chains. Um the cost of capital is increasing dramatically. I think the geopolitical environment is going to continue to put pressures in other markets. You know, we have a couple of builds going on right now in the Middle East and obviously Eastern Europe and in Asia, that there's a lot of just sort of third-party risk geopolitical uncertainty. Um, I think is significant. Um, I think that within the supply chain risk and demand for um a limiting set of resources, I think is going to be critical. And I also think first and foremost that you'll appreciate the war for talent is only going to get larger as you have extreme growth of assets. The amount of people that know how to do this successfully are going to be are going to come in high demand. So the pressure is on managing your talent within the company and providing the best leadership environment because people are looking to steal away, and um that creates a lot of disruption. It's much better to retain or develop somebody than hire somebody else because they've already got in the culture, their understanding, and the ramp up's not there. So I think it's the economic pressures, leadership pressures, and then managing managing your teams so that not your best talent's not walking out the door. Because if you're not treating them right, um somebody is talking to them. I mean, that's how I ended up here, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

So no, I totally agree. And I always say it when I'm sat with with organizations, you know, we we consider and we talk a lot about how much we're going to invest in attraction, but how much are we investing in retention? Because you don't have to spend as much on attraction if you're retaining your good talent. So it's it's critical.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Couple of final questions. If you could ask everyone in the data center sector to start or stop doing one thing, what would it be?