 Welcome to JSA TV Europe and our live two-day event on 2023 predictions. I'm Jean-Marc Liman, joining me today is Alex Brou, Regional Director for Northern Europe Advertis. Alex, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. It's been an incredibly busy year across Europe, especially within the region that you cover Northern Europe. So I want to maybe paint a picture of what have been the biggest events this year that will have a long lasting impact in the sector, especially within the region that you work with. Sure, it's great to be here, great to join you. Thank you. Thanks for the invite. Yeah, I think we were aware of some fairly significant global events that have taken place this year, right without naming specifically what they are, but there's some obvious ones that come to mind and they've had a dramatic impact on our industry as they have many others. I think sort of primarily if we wind the clock back to the beginning or the end, sorry, of 21 in fact, when we were really entering that the start of that post-COVID era, really the biggest impacts that we were feeling at the business at that point was the strains on supply chain, right? The world was waking up, demand was increasing and the raw material provision simply wasn't mobilized and online to deal with that acceleration in demand. That had a really substantial impact on our business. It had an impact on our customers. We had to work very closely with them in order to mitigate and minimize the impact of those disruptive trends that were registering at all different levels within our business and theirs as well. That's really changed the shape of how we do business, particularly with a lot of our major customers, but also with others. In many respects, it's kind of elevated us and brings us to the table far earlier when we're engaging with them on projects, timelines for particular data center bills that they're having to do. We have incredibly open, incredibly transparent dialogue around the challenges that are facing customers in terms of their ambition to build new sites, to populate new sites and the availability of the engineering solutions that we can offer them in order to do that. The positives, I think, are very much that kind of, like I say, elevation of status, the partnership-led sales methodology now that we have as a result of all those headwinds. Ultimately, we've come through it. Business is incredibly strong. The region is doing really well. We're capturing new clients, we're growing existing ones and I think generally we're recognized as a key vendor within the space. It's been definitely interesting here and it's been an industry-wide impact when it comes to supply chain, but on top of what you said around partnerships as well, I think you made our industry even plan more ahead. This is not to be an industry that plans well ahead anyway, but I think this whole made it even further ahead several years ahead. Exactly that. We've had to work incredibly hard to secure the availability of the key components to guarantee the availability of the products that our clients need, but likewise, also having to work very hard with us to make sure that the orders are in place as our future will be part of their supply chain for equipment that isn't necessarily typically looking to be deployed in the traditional timeframes that we would expect. That presents really unique challenges to us as well as a business. There's a heightened level of risk that we can carry in terms of working that way with customers, but transparency is key. You talk about the risks that we have as a business and the risks that they're trying to mitigate. As long as you can understand and agree and respect one another's positions, then we've found that there's a great openness with our clients to work to overcome those challenges together, and that's what's led to what has been a very successful year for us. I think together really is the key word because the beauty of the ugliness of this whole situation is that everyone was in it at the same time and at the same level. Everyone struggled, no matter if you're big or small, everyone struggled during this period. But are we going to 2023? The supply chain conversation is still going on, there's still some people struggling with it. How do you expect that to change over in 2023 and what other things do you think will happen next year that could have a good impact in the market? I think the situation is definitely far more under control. We will not arrive back at where we were 18 months ago in terms of that equipment availability, but there's a very common understanding of that within the industry now, and we've all collectively adapted us, our clients, our supply chain, other members within theirs to work within what is now the new normal, if that makes sense in terms of data center delivery and projects and the like. I think as we look towards next year, really for us 2023, the Nordics is a super strategic part of Northern Europe. I think a lot of the issues that we've seen last year, power, availability, continuity, guarantees, et cetera, have really strengthened the user case for development in the Nordics now, both from the availability standpoint, but also the sustainability angle as well, the construction methodologies there, the way in which you can embrace greener technologies because of the climate and so on and so forth, that's really strengthening the Nordics user case from an end user utilising colos or some of the major clients that may look to build themselves. For us, we've got a real heightened focus on that area and making sure, of course, that we're positioning ourselves to service those clients appropriately. London, of course, will continue to retain its position as one of the key markets for us and we're still seeing a number of landmark developments, many of which we've been working on over the course of the last 12 months and are due to come online next year, which we'll see it retain that position so we don't see that changing. The other reason for us, of course, of a key market within the Northern Europe segment for us at least, is Dublin and Ireland and that's faced a really unique set of challenges because of the sheer size of the data centre industry there relative to the total available power that the country consumes. I think it's something like 14% of the data centre consumption of the overall electrical consumption of the region now or that may be a 21 figure and so that itself is presenting really unique challenges to them and what we're seeing there is new government legislation around the adoption of greener more sustainable practices. They don't obviously want to discourage data centre development but the nature and the rate at which it's developing is meaning that clients are having to think a little bit differently about their facilities and how they can complement the local community. Data centres have a high amount of potential in terms of how they can interface and offer some of their byproducts to support local communities, so you have things like district heating, you have the possibility to use grid supplementary power connecting methods to help alleviate the stress on the grid and so on and so forth. So we're working in the background to make sure that our technologies complement the changes in governance or potential new legislation that may be coming over the hill to ensure ultimately that there are no roadblocks in terms of the adoption of these greener and more sustainable building practices that will continue or enable the industry to continue to develop and grow. So that's a really key aspect for us is making sure that our technology stays ahead of a number of those kind of market trends that are happening and we're very much seen by our customers as being the enabler for them to then actually build in a more sustainable way. The sustainability piece for 23 I think is going to be absolutely key. We've published some trends that talk a bit more about some of the key topics there but it's not just about making your data center facilities or your critical facilities operate as efficiently as possible. The whole design ethos associated with sustainability is around how that facility is run, what it can offer back to the local community in terms of like I said utilizing some of those by-products and so on and so forth and I think that data sensors on the whole are becoming ever more, there's a heightened public awareness of them and how they're featuring but what we can't get away from is their absolute fundamental requirement to enabling society and itself to evolve. They're almost a utility now in terms of that need for data and the purpose that they serve and that's naturally why the light will be shone more or so on them and therefore we need to get ahead of the game in ensuring those sustainable practices are being utilized now and we're keeping ahead of the curve. Okay you gave me a lot of food for thought as I was going through questions in my head you answered the next question. I'm still going to dissect some of them especially the public opinion and the sustainability side I think that's very important but maybe a painful one to take out of the way because I mean we still live in a very uncertain times I mean we still got the biggest conflict in Europe since the Second World War we've got a looming recession with inflation, inflation is just going off the roof so at least the beginning of next year could be very challenging in many aspects. From what you hear from clients do you think or you see people kind of delaying a little bit the project or going a bit back to the drawing table and rethinking some expansions on the back of those things? Honestly no, we don't anticipate a significant slowdown. I think that if you think about the role of a data center it's to host an IT platform, it's to host a network and the nature of how companies and enterprises are revolving their working practices is to autonomize, make use of AI or just smarter or automated ways of working fundamentally and that is always going to have a dependency on an IT platform and that IT platform by its very nature is going to have to be resilient and therefore there's going to be a requirement for critical engineered solutions the likes of which we provide so at the moment no we don't see a particular slowdown. In many ways we are looking at diversifying some of our market coverage but that's to capture new areas that are developing where we see that there's actually a growing need for our products so for us the kind of the number of user cases that are developing within the market outside of just the classic data center, co-location, hyperscale type space is increasing and so in terms of the strength of the data center industry, the critical infrastructure, whatever you want to call it it is by nature incredibly resilient I think and therefore it's a good place to be with obviously like you say some darker events potentially looming over the hill and what could be a bit of a difficult start for us all next year. Okay hopefully not as fairly surprising as it was at the beginning of this year. From what you said is it correct to assume that the inverted is also going to start focusing on other industries and if so which ones are you going to focus on? Yeah so you know there's I think if we were talking about some of the sort of evolved edge or user cases that I mentioned a minute ago I mean edge is a really interesting one, my edges we've talked about edge for years and we've seen players you know new players certainly becoming more established and some of that is conforming more towards some of the more classic data center type work we do and some of it is very new and it's very innovative so I think you know we continue to have a heightened focus there and we see our business growing. I think actually within the sort of sub segments of enterprise you know we see the likes of manufacturing, there'll be a new manufacturing facilities you know the likes of which you know you might reference them maybe the gigafactories that are coming online across various places across Europe or the retail segment where you know again that autonomization of how they're working you know the sort of networks that they build that connect their stores with distribution centers and so on and so forth. All of these kind of enterprise type outfits are seeing a growing need for you know resilient IT infrastructure and that's where we come into play so without disclosing our full sale strategy for next year it's kind of you know it's a really really key piece for us. I think that diversification and it presents great opportunity and having worked with you know some of the most esteemed sort of data center providers you know for decades now we have a huge amount of expertise that we can bring to the table with clients that perhaps are a bit less well versed particularly in the resilience and critical aspect of some of their deployments so you know there's good opportunity there. Okay just picking up on the public opinion then we will close as well because we don't take too long of your time but just on the public opinion side of things because you're operating very interesting markets very big markets they attract a lot of attention from the local communities where the infrastructure is built especially Dublin where we've seen a bit of a backlash with the local populations and then often this is down to the lack of education on what these infrastructures do for the wider economy not just for the local community economy but the wider economy the GDP. How is virtue going to help with those conversations within the markets you operate because you operate in very big markets and also a becoming market in the region that you cover so how do we ensure that what happened with those doesn't happen with the new ones? Yeah you mentioned I think you mentioned kind of that that key point really which is education and that's kind of understanding I think the one thing about the sort of data sensors is people don't necessarily understand the true extent of what it is they facilitate you know day to day lives right it's kind of it's something that that's really really key we couldn't be talking to ourselves in the way that we are currently I couldn't be answering my phone I couldn't have the emails buzzing away on my phone in my pocket they are they're underpinning you know pretty much you know a large part of how society you know it sort of operates but you kind of understand what they've been in this day and age I think I think what's absolutely critical in terms of like you say bridging that gap between the heightened awareness and then the understanding of what they need is the sustainable agenda and educating people on how you know yes the necessity for these types of you know for these types of facilities isn't going to decrease it's not going to go away and actually you know data center operators or developers and various types have been building these uh their facilities to be as efficient as possible from day one because it's it's it's you know it's it's just logical that you simply try and reduce the power consumption associated with them and making them more efficient but I think where where you know the journey will go on in terms of that you know the relationship with a wider public view of data sensors and you know and how society perceives them will be one of actually you know data sensor starting to evidence what value they can bring to society not just in terms of supporting you know mobile networks and IT platforms and so on but actually that that by-product element and seeing how can they can be used to supplement it so it could be that you know you're taking the waste heat rejection that comes from a data center and use it to supplement you know your local district heating system that's something that we've seen in a few different places in the Nordics right local councils are saying the data center developers yeah you can build but you know well let's let's let's interface this with some of the local infrastructure so that you know the local the local residents are benefiting from the from the development that you're going to that you're going to be deploying and I think we'll start to see that more and more you know again it's kind of one of the key reasons the Nordics have kind of been ahead of the curve on it and will continue to see that strengthen there but I think we'll see that you know more so across the northern Europe region and you know it's down to companies like us and and many of the clients that we work with to promote what we're doing well in that space and at the moment there's a huge amount of activity that goes on there that we perhaps we just don't talk about enough so yeah so there's a very there's a lot of good use cases they are not being explored with the wider public and then just to quickly kind of close our conversation I was going to ask if we looking to the northern Europe market the one that you cover ways where it's going to do the biggest investment next year so it could be either build something or hire more stuff where's the attention going to go to within the region the operates as in the most attention is going to not yeah I mean I mean look the Nordics is really critical for us of course and and that is as that as that market continues to grow and as long as we're successful there of course we will continue to we will continue to invest to ensure that you know we don't we don't we're not just in it for the for the sell right we go when somebody when somebody buys our products or our solutions or a full-term key prefabricated data center from us you know we we enter into a you know a relationship that will last decades with that customer through servicing and and and the contract and and and remedial works that we will have to do on the equipment that we sell over over many more years and you can't do that without having the right presence you know within an organization it's the key part of our deliverables and and and how customers you know will grade us in terms of our effectiveness to support them so that that's that's a really key aspect for us for sure I think you know in terms of a broader kind of sort of northern Europe play UK and Ireland with incredibly established we have we have you know we are traditionally probably one of the larger reasons we miss entered around the fact that we have obviously Dublin and London here and it's about I think there really where our investment is going into looking at optimization we have a huge legacy estate with many of our customers and you know a lot of these designs are in some ways limited in terms of their ability to optimize and improve on those efficiencies but we are developing have been invested quite heavily in a number of tools and almost consultancy type services to to look at these facilities and support our clients to understand where they may be able to make improvements and how they can you know realize you know returns on investment for some of those optimization projects that they may look to to to embark on so it's kind of an evolved offering from you know the hardware and servicing of said hardware so actually looking at facilities and kind of helping clients and educating them on actually where where they could be operating and perhaps a smarter and ultimately more efficient and more sustainable way so that's a really key piece for us as well I think within within the region over the next couple of years to be to be circular economy and then I was going to ask if people want to learn more about what VertiV is doing in Northern Europe and then even if they want to reach out as well how can they how can they do so yeah there's obviously free to reach out to me on on LinkedIn of course they can contact us through the website and so on and so forth but you know what we have we have presence at a number of industry events and we actually do a number of different technical seminars as well on various different subjects some you know some of them are looking at deep diving into particular technical topics some of them are sort of more high level you know consultation type led seminars that we do so we have a host of different ways in which we can we can you know interact and help educate with some of our clients yeah they just simply need to get in touch and then we'll make sure they're directed through to the right people yeah the white bears that read are always very interesting and the webinars as well so I'm sure it'll be worth checking them out Alex, thank you so much for your time and joining us today as for our viewers thank you for tuning into JSA TV live and don't forget to check our social channels for more content until next time happy networking thanks so much for