 Hi everyone and welcome to JSA TV and JSA podcasts where we're covering the latest stories trends and innovation from leaders in our industry And we're on day three the final day of PTC 2024. I'm Barb Mitchell. I'm joined today by Mark Cooper from Atlas Edge Thanks for joining us. Good to see you again. Yeah, we were just talking a little bit about It's the final day of the conference. Has it been so far? It's been fantastic when PTC is always great It's a great way to kick off the year As long as we made a joke this year, we should maybe rename it PDC Pacific Data Center Conference because there's so many DCs Yes, there are really changed over the years. That's so true. Yeah, it's a good point and from everywhere I mean you're coming from overseas. We've talked to people from Europe Asia Everywhere India, I mean the list goes on and on but truly global truly great way to kick off the year So why don't we just start for a minute if you don't mind just tell us a little bit about Atlas Edge Yeah, I mean Atlas says we're a pan-European data center operator We were founded in September 21 So we're still very very young in terms of our age in the DC industry and our focus is very much around edge Everyone says well, what is edge because everyone has a different definition on that but for edge for us It's about geography It's about having data centers in markets and cities which are closer to the end users Because that's what we see with this whole trend of kind of the applications the cloud platforms where they're at the point Now where they need to place the infrastructure closer to the end users to deliver You know the performance the security that the companies are looking for yeah And now so in addition to all the many meetings and networking I know that you've said you've had a fairly full roster But you also you took some time out to be on a panel. Tell us about the panel. What were some of the key takeaways? What were you covering? Yeah, it was a really interesting panel because it was Participants from the internet exchanges than myself. I've worked for an IX before so kind of know that market well But obviously in one thing that came up is AI Everyone talks about AI. It's become it's this kind of the hottest topic in the industry We were talking about things like how can you apply AI for networking? How can you use it to automate? Infrastructure, how can you use it to make things easier for the consumers of those services? That was one thing Another thing which came up was around shortages So whether it's shortages of power Shortage of land but we had quite a long conversation about the shortage of talent in the industry I think that's the challenge that we have. Yeah, there's a lot of gray hair in the industry or no hair And it's how do we attract more younger people into the industry because you know people look at date sensors in particular? Well, what's it's this gray box? It's not interesting So what can we do to kind of really motivate people and kind of improve the image of date sensors as well? Yeah, and the final piece was around sustainability and green because that's that's such a hot topic for everyone now All of our customers, you know, they have ESG targets. So it's kind of how do you deal with that? How do you what how do you make things more sustainable? Yeah, well that was that panel a full day? I mean Talent acquisition sustainability those are yeah, those are some big ones there There's some very opinionated people on the panel as well which helps. Yeah. Yeah Well, and it's good to we've been in conversations this week on similar topics and it's it's really it's good to hear um, especially on things like Like talent and sustainability people are really putting some effort behind those and of course ai as you said continues to be a huge driver To to growth and demand So 2020 we've said it's january 2024. Yeah, we're going to talk about that in a second But let's look back first So you had some I believe some new partnerships tell us a little bit about what were some of your key milestones in 2023 Yeah, I mean, I mean 2023 was a big year for us We had quite a few announcements around the partnerships, which you've done The majority of the partnerships were focused around networking connectivity Because one thing we figured out is there is no edge without connectivity So we announced partnerships with links the london internet exchange with console connects with mega port with packet fabric And that's really enabling the connectivity for the the consumers, whether it's your business or Kind of retail consumers to the the platforms that are in the dc's. That was one piece We also announced a partnership with north shore And they're helping us around esg and reporting because as I mentioned before We just have to have an answer on that for our customers. Yeah, so they're helping us from a sustainability perspective system perspective kind of data and analytics. Yeah, so I mean, those are some really great steps you've already put in place, but you know, we're always thinking about okay But what's next, you know, it's you can't sit still so 2024. We're you know By this time next year, what do you hope to be telling us about? um I think about that we're in a lot more markets than we were already Yeah, so one of the things I didn't mention before is we had an acquisition in 23 Which is a company called data center one in germany That's really helped us with a footprint that goes much much deeper into germany as a country um And you'll see more announcements from a student the coming year around acquisitions Which are taking us into new geographic markets. It's still very focused on europe Going kind of maybe further east further south, right? Okay. Well Thank you. I'm I know that you have 24 hours left here. So you want to make the most of it, right? But it's always a real pleasure to to speak with you and to connect and to hear more about what you're up to at Atlas edge. We look forward to hearing more and more throughout the year, but um, Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. So it was a pleasure. Yeah, thanks And thank you viewers for tuning in to jsa tv and jsa podcasts. Happy networking