How I Found the Data Center

For International Data Center Day, I look back on how I went from destroying home appliances to helping power the digital economy

Complex systems have always intrigued me.

As a kid, I was fascinated with how devices worked. What’s inside them? How do they fit together? I disassembled and reassembled my father’s old wrist watches. I almost tore apart our Apple II, but my brothers stopped me. They wanted to keep gaming. Luckily so did I.

Later, I became incredibly curious about science. I dove headfirst into chemistry in high school and molecular biology at Johns Hopkins. I loved being in the lab and doing research, but got frustrated that we didn’t have deep enough knowledge about how things interplayed in that world. After some soul searching, I decided molecular biology just wasn’t for me.

So I shifted to computer science and an entirely new world opened up. It was the early days of the Internet. People were just exploring its potential. Brands were just starting to build their online presence.

What attracted me was not only the complexity of this new technology, but what could be done with it. This curiosity still fuels me.

Of course, today’s systems are far more complex, and the stakes are much higher. If these systems don’t work, we sacrifice a lot more than playing Castle Wolfenstein on our Apple. These systems power governments. They power economies. People's lives depend upon them and they must be secure and resilient and high-performing.

The more I learned about how computers and their networks worked, the more I strove to understand something fundamental: ?how are all these complex systems connected? The data center. It’s the ultimate interplay – the digital substrate on which companies and the world build value.

Nowadays, what I enjoy most is working with our customers, strategizing with some really smart people. Hearing how new technologies accelerate their businesses, achieve their goals, and enhance their communities. I get to help fit all the pieces together.

In hindsight, my path to leading Data Center Services for the world’s digital infrastructure company seems obvious. For me, it’s the perfect interconnection between passion and purpose. But everyone’s journey is different.

Right now, we face a big challenge. Uptime Institute research shows that by 2025, the data center market needs talent. Lots of it – 300,000 more people than we have today at all educational and skill levels to keep our data centers powering the world. Security SMEs, AI and automation experts, green tech specialists, along with the network operations pros who have built the business.

This is why International Data Center Day is so important. It’s a reminder that despite the power of these complex systems, the most important asset we have is each other. People power the data center and we need the best talent to build and evolve this technology for decades to come.

You may be a student. You may be thinking about a career change. You may even be thinking about leaving molecular science (ha!). As you go through this journey, I ask you to think about the data center in relation to your passion and purpose. Think about what’s possible in a world where new technologies and applications like AI, quantum computing, and related digital infrastructures come together.

While my life is vastly different today than it was as an awkward adolescent tearing apart home appliances, my curiosity remains the same. And the data center continues to be the center of what is, and what is possible. #DataCenterDay