 Welcome to JSA TV Europe and our live two-day event on 2023 predictions. I'm Jean-Marie Lim and joining me today from Belgium at Data Center United is Friso Haringsma who serves as managing director and heavier warner who serves as CCO. Friso and Javier, thanks so much for joining me. I know it's quite cold where you are, which is great for free cooling in the space that we operate in. I was going to say, maybe you can talk about free cooling, but I was going to ask what have been the biggest events that have shaped the sector this year? Okay, well I think there are multiple ones. If you look at the sector itself, I think the biggest one was of course the energy crisis and the supply chain crisis. Besides that, we got the regulation coming towards the sector itself and we got the sustainability. I think those are the three top priorities for 2023. And also the beginning of the start of 2022, those are the three topics that are really relevant and will be becoming even more relevant in the near future. So those are the top priorities for myself and for the company. Okay, and Javier, in your opinion? My opinion as well as the consolidation of the market, which is still very dynamic in 2022 will be, I suppose, the same for 2023. Well, maybe a little bit lower, a bit less dense, because uncertain times bring uncertainties into investments and financial hard times. But at the end, this consolidation is, for me, an important aspect. And the energy crisis, like Friso said, is a big, big, huge game changer for the data-centered industry and brings a lot of challenges to face in the corp with this difficult times. But at the end, what we see is a lot of opportunities as well to go into innovation and meet the regulation which is coming towards the industry. I mean, regulation which is coming out of Belgium, it's quite interesting what's happening in Brussels, which around sustainability. What's your view of what's happening in Brussels? Sustainability-wise, with all the new regulations? Sustainability-wise, of course, is a big thing. And I think it's very positive for the sector itself. I think it helps us also to define the sector. If you look, for instance, from a European level, just getting one, just a definition of what is a data center and just making sure that there is, between all the nations themselves, there is some kind of regulation that can identify data centers and also can have specific regulations on sustainability for that sector. I think it's a big thing for us and it will help us to make sure that the sector will thrive and will be much more relevant in the future as well. Of course, the importance is huge. So they are really very important that we also are complying with the near future. I do think there is a lot of room for improvement. There's some self-regulation that is coming out of the sector and this will help to shape the future of the data centers. But in the end, I think we're going to evolve to data center 2.0 or 3.0 where the data center itself has to redefine itself as well. I think Brussels will help. It will help to drive more innovation, to drive more regulation and it will also help to make the sector bigger and make it resistant for all the future issues as well. But of course, on the short term sustainability is a challenge for most data centers. So that is something that will be focused for the next years of course. I was going to ask if you know a lot of operators of the opinion that once politics get involved, especially you start to bring regulation out, then they might drive the industry into a very complex scenario. But you kind of think that this is actually going to help advance the industry in the right direction as opposed to getting complicated. In my opinion, I think if you look at the professional data center operators, it will help to make the sector more resilient bigger as well. And it will also make some kind of a difference between the more the amateuristic data centers. The one who are just doing this because they did it in the past, the legacy ones. But it will make sure that there will be more drive to cloud, more drive to co-location. So I do think it's a good thing and it will help the sector to be much bigger and much more relevant as well. So I think it will also help us to make a positive image for the sector. Currently, I think there is still different opinions going on. And it's a good thing that we got some centralized opinion as well as a centralized institute that will help us to make the more professional. Interesting. And then you mentioned quite a few things already, especially around consolidation. So taking away sustainability because that's a big trend for next year. What's the one thing that you expect to happen in 2023? There's a lot of conversation around whatever we look at this conversation about supply chain, tier 2 markets, tier 3 markets, it's computing, technologies as you mentioned. Give us your top one. Is sustainability the top one? We'll remove that one so your top second one. Well, what I see and what I think is that the edge computing nowadays will help as well. As an underlying part of the sustainability, bringing the compute closer to the user will also bring a lot of positive impact. That's also related to the new technologies, which is IoT, intelligence artificial, the virtual, what could I say, the meta industry which is behind it will also be touched and will need some compute close to the customers. And we see Belgium is a little country, but at the end there's a little operators and this consolidation as well helps to have different sites in Belgium as well for this year with six locations, which help to position ourselves in the edge market. So this is my second, could I say, focus for 2023 if I look to our position itself. Interesting. If you guys had to place Belgium within the why the European data center monocly, where's Belgium in its journey to build this industry? It's a quite interesting question indeed. I think Belgium has been a bit of a country that is always a bit of not the first, not the front runner. It's one of the countries that if you look at geographically, it's located just perfectly between all the flap cities, the flap regions. So it's in the heart of the flap. It's also the capital of Europe. So I think there are a lot of trump cards that Belgium has. I think mainly in the past there hasn't been any activity proactive from the Belgium industry towards the outside world, towards our countries and also to present ourselves. So I think Belgium has a lot of positive things and a big play that everybody will come to play in the next future. Also, if you look at the size of the market, of course, it's smaller compared to the other countries. There are more denser, more, some more people living in those countries. But in the end, the opportunity is also quite good and quite massive for Belgium. They learn a lot. We can see a lot. There is a lot of things going on. And of course, also with the landing of some CSPs in Belgium in the next period, this will drive another growth in Belgium and it will set Belgium more to the market. So it will be more landing zones, will be added, I think, and Belgium will be on the top list to be added in the next coming years. Interesting. We've seen the hyperscalers moving into Belgium as well in recent months. It's always an interesting move. When those guys move in, the sector will boom. And it's a long tail indeed. A long tail that Google will follow. So they will follow the CSPs and that will make sure that we have a very bright future for Belgium on the perspective. Speaking of bright future and booming, you guys are booming as well. That is since United. First, I love the name. The name is quite catchy. Secondly, give us a spiel of what you guys are doing. Of course, you have already mentioned edge computing and being more into different locations across the country to connect IoT and the Metaverse. But give us a spiel of what you're building on the ground. Where are you building? How much money are you putting on the ground if you can share that as well? Let's go through the company. Yeah, well, it has been started in 2010. So we're quite active for 12 years, 13 years on the Belgium market. To be honest, we really focus indeed on the proximity on the edge locations, but also have a presence in Brussels. So besides the other locations, we have six locations that you can spread around the country. But the main thing for ourselves in 2022 was also obtaining the TO-4 certification for our facility. So we had it on design level. We made a constructed facility certification as well. So we're quite unique and we're quite proud, of course, that we obtained this in the beginning of 2022. It really set the mark for also other operators. It really set the mark and also give the intention to Belgium and to the United to make sure that we can stand out between the crowd. And it's just something we're really proud of, not only for ourselves, but because they built anything from the ground up. And it's really very positive and very enthusiastic to notice that everybody is really taking so much pride in the path towards the certification. Of course, the certification itself is just the ultimate goal. So we're very happy with doing that. And also the acquisition we did recently, in the beginning of the year, the acquisition of another operator in Belgium. So that's also something that helped us to make the step towards the next level. It gives us also the benefit of scale, but it also helps us to get a more stronger position into the market. And that's something, of course, for us, it was the most two important activities. We're just getting the uptime tier four certification and also the M&A transaction that we did in the beginning of the year. M&A transaction. I mean, are there any more M&A plans for next year? Javier, what's the plan? I will not dig into this question, Joao. But let me be clear, we are not staying in our comfort zone for sure. And there's a lot of things that could be happening on the Belgian market. And definitely, you know, we have a presence in Belgium in Brussels in the north, but you have for sure some movements as well to the south of Belgium, which is a zone, which is a grey zone for the moment. So everything is possible. But at the end, we are moving and we try to consolidate our position with the new acquisition of this year, which is also an important part of the business, is consolidate what you have and be sustainable on this aspect as well. We'll keep an eye on your shopping habits over the coming months. But will you eventually take the model as well beyond Belgium's borders? Oh, I think if you have to look at the digital, there are no borders. So why should we just define a sales business being only present in Belgium? I think it's just the wrong way of looking at things. We just want to build a more high quality data centers offering very good services, offering also the interconnected facilities, the cloud connected facilities, all those things we try to focus on and there are no borders for that, no boundaries. So if we need, if we can go to other countries, I think that it's a very relevant option. Okay. And then so guys, so if someone wants to reach out and learn more about what you're doing and keep track of the shopping lists and shopping journey, where can they go to, who they can speak to? I think many options, of course. The traditional way of reaching us, following us on the socials, being present in some seminars or present in big events in Belgium as well and in the Netherlands. A lot of things are moving as well across the border. I mean, I'm not going to give my personal phone number now, but if you just type in the USA, you will find us and you will see what's happening in the future and reaches. What may be also important to pinpoint is the certifications we've got for DTF4, make a lot of noise on the socials and in the news. Just type in, you'll find us. Subscribe to the newsletter or just follow the LinkedIn page and you will be getting all the notifications just recently. So I think it's the best way of getting into contact and otherwise just reach out via LinkedIn, send us a notification or whatever and we keep in touch. One meeting. Okay. Last question. If you had to describe how you're feeling about next year in one word, what words would that be? Ambition. I think we need to fulfill our ambition. In one word, of course, it's difficult, but it will be dynamic. Javier? I will say opportunities. Okay. Ambitious opportunities. Friso and Javier, thank you so much for talking to me and thank you to our viewers for tuning in to JSA TV Live. Don't forget to check out our social channels for more content. Until next time, happy networking.