 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA podcast the newsroom for telecom and data center professionals I'm Jean-Marc Lima and joining me today in London. I've got Alex rabbits managing director of the European data center association Alex thanks a lot for joining us We usually talk every year quite often, but this year has been quite an odd one I mean, how are you doing to stop it? It certainly has been odd, hasn't it? Yeah, no everything's good I mean, we're still we're still active obviously everything is now online So, you know, we haven't had any face-to-face meetings with anybody for a year, which is interesting But it's it's all okay. It's good Okay, well, let's hope that soon enough we can have a drink or just to catch up in face-to-face rather than just virtual But let's talk about the EU DCA I mean tell our viewers what the organization is what it does what your objectives are I'm just a bit of a brief Okay, so the EU DCA or the European data center association is a effectively trade association with data center operators And people associated with the industry in Europe We have really sort of three main activities The first is is lobbying so we lobby at a European level On matters relating to data sensors. That's quite important because people in the EU Who are making who are legislating? Against or against all four-day sensors very often are doing so without the knowledge of what a data center is Let alone how it works or when it's placed in society So actually just informing and educating and hoping to get them to understand what a data center is and it's important So the in the world in general is something really important Second though, we also do Marketing for our members So some of the smaller members might be a small operator in a you know, maybe an outlying country or somewhere like science for example I say that since I remember there just a small data center And they could never afford to market on a European wide or even a global scale So so we also market on behalf of our members So for some of our smaller members and I take for example an operator inside Chris We've got a small data center couldn't afford to market to have a whole of Europe or even a global scale So what we do is we've provided marketing platform for them where they're actually being seen in a much wider scale And that's obviously good for them We've had members who've picked up businesses from from from Conferences and events that we've done around the world that weren't even at those events, but ended up with business So that's that's kind of our second Second activity if you like our third is we act as a coordination point for the for the NTAs for the for the national trade associations Because they're here in Europe. We've got people 27 countries And each one might have a national trade association or some countries where they're where the data center market isn't quite so big Don't have one but what we do is we act for them Bring them together at a committee and then they can share the challenges and Issues with a phase at a national level And we can maybe help them with those as well. So that's kind of the third activity be like Okay, just a quick follow-up question on maybe point number one. I'm loving close to the you do you think with COVID? Brussels has got has become a bit more aware of what data center operators do or Do you think COVID has helped the industry to be recognized at the political level? I would say I'm totally honest I don't believe that it has It was what certainly I think what's has happened is COVID has made Brussels aware that the internet that video calling that That kind of thing is really important But but how that all happens. They don't really seem to have a grasp on they just kind of look at it So, you know, it happens in fact, it's not that So I don't think it's particularly healthy industry move forward, but it has at least raised awareness of something that's happening Okay, it's interesting. Well, but one of the things they've already accomplished this year and we only one month into 2021 It's a climate neutral data center packed Launched in January. I mean talk talk us through the the pact. What is the pact? What are the objectives? There's a lot of companies and associations involved as well organizations Given as overview of these news. Okay, so so the climate neutral data center packed What it was about was basically getting together and forming some kind of agreement between data center operators cloud operators across The well, I was gonna say across Europe. It is across Europe. But many of them are global players But and I'm agreeing a way forward to try to aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 Why did we do it? Well, there's two reasons really first of all Well, I've got to say that we know data centers are in my opinion and most people who work in this industry's opinion They are incredibly good for the environment You know people people doing things online people shopping online And that's something's much better for the environment than people going out and buying things in cars and all that sort of things So so we are good for the environment But we're perceived very often as almost as priors because we use lots and lots of parents use lots Not so he we don't seem to do anything and it's all in a box in a building somewhere that nobody really understands so We needed to we needed to Come up with a with something which was easy for for non-industry members to understand About what we are doing to improve our environmental Status and improve the way that we are in the environment. So that was that was really tough The basis that packed came about Why is it important? Well, if we don't let if we don't self Self-regulate ourselves then trust me they will And and and they're and they're not people as I said They're not people who really understand what a data centre is or how critical it is yet They're gonna they're gonna start drafting laws that the will have to abide with which may be impossible So it's incredibly important that we got there and got their agreement. I mean they're coming with us Well, they're not they're not against us. They you know, they know what we're doing and they agree with us And they they're coming with us. So which is why there was actually a minister statement in the commissioner statement Sorry in the in the actual press release But you know, yeah, it was really important to get this doing and it's taken about six months to get to where we are Okay, well, I think it's a very good initiative for the industry because I mean we've had some That's going back publicity for our sector, especially last year with some documentaries from some of the nationals in the UK And yes, I mean there's a lot of good things happening on the climate front Especially the Nordics obviously the heat exchange And saving energy giving energy back to the community So it is quite interesting. But aside from climate and I really don't want to call climates a trend, but For the sake of the question here, what are the trends that you see in the marketplace across Europe happening this year? I think I think one of the things that that is obvious is the growth Growth It's a terrible thing to say that Kobe is actually quite good for the state center industry in some ways because it's driven growth You know, this driven demand for online and everything and everyone has gone online And that's great and it has really grown grown the industry which is fantastic So that's one one thing is that the market is growing It's also it's also still consolidating that's been going on for a few years and will go on for a few more years So, you know mergers acquisitions that happening and they can they can seem to happen I think what may happen is some of the smaller Players may end up getting swallowed up by the bigger players. I'm not sure whether that's necessarily a good thing But I think is what what's happening Um And then I guess the other thing that I think is is really interesting is we're beginning to mature We're not we're not mature, but we're beginning to mature And no, it's going to take a long time. We're teenagers now So, you know, it's it's it's going to take as long time to mature properly, but we are beginning to mature We're beginning to get away from this idea That the industry is completely manned by middle-aged men in gray suits We're also beginning to get away from the idea that everything we do is bleeding edge because the awful lot of the stuff We've been done for years, you know, I remember not very long ago Being at a conference where somebody announced that they were doing some adiabatic cooling in their data center And I wonder if it wasn't how bleeding as it was, you know, but adiabatic cooling was event by the Egyptians 4 000 years ago It's not quite leading edge. Um, and so really, um You know as an industry that we're now beginning to mature and we've been beginning to be able to to understand our place in society, you know, we are we are the foundation of the digital age We are incredibly important to everything that goes on even more so right now um, but but we need to find our place in society and Be seen to do the good that we do do And that's good and then they're sort of leapfrogging me to the next question, which is What is the USA going to be doing of the next six twelve months to help the industry find its place in society? Good question. So I think I think I think there's a Again, a few things we'll be doing will be continuing to lobby There's an awful lot of regulation coming out of Europe right now And we're looking at that regulation all the time reviewing it all the time. We're commenting. We're taking stuff back to the industry We're so we're we're taking that Legislation and we're making sure that it's appropriate to our industry So we'll continue to do that We're going to do we're still going to do some events this year. Um, they will probably be online events But we will do some events this year And we're partnering with with you know various organizations that we have done in the past It's important to our members that we are involved with those events because that's one of the ways in which they market their Their particular services to to to a wider audience. So we'll continue to do that this year What we're also going to try and continue to do Is continue to grow the udca to again For the udca to have its place in society You know, we're a relatively young organization We've made some incredibly important steps recently But we need to continue to move forward. We need to continue to move the industry forward And make sure that actually the industry is understood as being critical infrastructure and not something which is for For geeks or people who play games, um, you know, which is which is unfortunately the way we're seeing quite often Yes, well, I mean, I've been following the udca story for quite a while now and it's quite an interesting path Um, but I mean if our viewers wants to want to learn more about udca and even perhaps join the udca Where do they go? What's what's the process? How the how does that happen? If you also know more about the udca then you can go to our website. I was just udca.org There's a lot of information about what we do there who we are who our board members are There's also a joining form. So you can actually you can actually apply to become a member through through the website We do publish a weekly newsletter Which can be found at news dot udca.org And we also publish to our members a monthly newsletters, which is actually emailed out So but if you want to join that main list then then please join it again, you can do that through our website Or if anywhere has anything specific that they'd like to Like to say or do or ask then then you're free to email me Alex dot rabbits r.a.d would be ewts at udca.org Um, Alex rabbits managing director of the european data center association. Thank you so much for talking to us Um, and thank you to our viewers for also tuning in into jsa tv and jsa podcast And don't forget to check our social media channels as well. Um until next time happy networking