 Welcome, welcome, everyone, to our very first edition of Know Before You Go, a new broadcast briefing powered by JSA and telegeography. I'm your host, Jamie Scottokataya, CEO and founder of JSA. Know Before You Go, what is it? Well, it is a show that covers everything attendees should have on their radar. We're talking insider talking points to conference logistics before attending the next big industry event. And guess what, guys? We're here to take care of that conference prep for you. So, today's briefing, we are focusing on Datacloud USA 2023, taking place September 11th through the 12th in Austin, Texas at the Four Seasons Resort and Spa. Go ahead, guys, there's a QR code too that we'll bring in. And of course, we are very happy to be joined by telegeography principal analyst Eric Kreifelt and this year's opening keynote speaker, Lee Kirby, our friend, chairman and co-founder of Salute Mission Critical. Hey, guys, welcome, welcome. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. We're just so excited, so excited. Eric and Lee, again, talking to us about the conversations that attendees can really expect in and around conference sessions. I can't think of two better people to get us up to speed on the headlines. You'll want to have a handle on before heading to Austin. All right. So, also, we are here joined by broad groups, Laura Edwards. Laura has some insider tips for making the most of Datacloud USA this year, her baby. Welcome, welcome, Laura. Thanks, Jamie. Great to be here. And so, Eric and Lee, we're going to put you guys in the hot seat first. Let's jump right in. As we are beginning the trends to know before you go section, Lee, I'm going to go ahead and start right with you. Can you share us a preview of what your opening keynote might be? You bet. It's on September 11, so everybody will remember that date and many dates in our history and give pause and thanks for those that have served. But I'm going to try and change the conversation to one of business because I think the act of hiring a veteran or a military spouse has an ROI associated with it far more than most realize. And what I'm hoping to do is give that ROI. I'll provide a couple case studies and have a business conversation about it because the case studies will show not only do you get it at the individual level, but the company itself will outperform the industry. And that's when you start seeing action rather than just feelings. Yeah. And I love that you began noting the conference beginning on September 11th as a New Yorker that lived there during that time. Our hearts are full. And thank you again for your work with veterans and as a veteran yourself, of course. Can you tell us a little bit about Mission Critical's mission to train and employ veterans, particularly in data centers? You bet. We started 10 years ago with the mission to be a bridge to the industry for the military community and establish the training programs and the operations. And we found out through the process that it was actually a great formula for business success because we knew what services we wanted to provide. And we got a workforce that was by far the best in the industry and it's shown in the market adoption. And just 10 years were over a thousand employees and it's been a great success. And that commercial success, I'd like to be used as an example for others to start the wave of hiring veterans and military spouses so that they can take advantage of such a great resource pool. So, so well said. And what a great mission. One near and dear to our hearts. And thank you for all you do. And I want to bring in Eric here and move to a topic that's been making headlines around the world and nearly every industry, and particularly ours, of course, AI. How is AI going to be part of the conversation this year? Yeah, AI, what's that stand for again? Yeah, artificial intelligence, of course, is that, do you think that you spent the summer reading any news at all? I mean, that's that's what's really been so predominant, not just in our industry either. I mean, just everybody has something to say about it, which is kind of gratifying that, yeah, we don't have just our little part of the world. You know, it's interesting, there's really two fundamental aspects of it. And the first part is sort of, I guess, what I find more intuitive is, you know, what is, you know, how is the data center industry and then the networking industry and general going to serve this wave of demand generated by AI and AI applications to basically to host all that storage and compute essentially. I mean, so that's the first fundamental factor. But the other is that AI also is driving applications that can make data center operation and network operation more efficient to handle that better. So it sort of, you know, solves its own problems potentially, you know, those are the two fundamental areas. But in that first section, you know, it's really, you wonder, and I'm sure this is exactly what we discussed at the conference among other things, which I think the opening, you know, right after the keynote, right after the lead session, I think that's the first session is on AI, I believe there's two of them, and they get to both of these dimensions. But one thing I'm curious about is, you know, is it just a lot more of the same, just a whole lot more growth in the data center business as we know it? Or are there going to have to be fundamental adaptations to accommodate AI specifically? So I'm sure that'll be part of the the dialogue and which also implies maybe that second part. I kind of want to defer to maybe Lee on some of that, you know, with the more operational view on what's going on there. And if you have any observations on either on both parts or you project that second part in particular. Absolutely. AI has been a great win for us from a business point of view because of the demand curve. But from an operational excellence point of view, we've been deploying AI in our operations to be able to capture the data that takes tons of work to do as an individual or as a team on site. But with AI incorporated into our CMS systems, we can capture all that data and trend it immediately. We can also use autonomous capabilities. And we're doing this with drones and robots to be able to go and gather the data rather than having a human walking around. And that data is immediately uploaded. So to me, it's the most exciting change in quite a while in the industry. And that capability that it's giving us in operations is going to give us the ability to scale with the demand because I've heard from our clients that there was half a gigawatt of leases taken down this year way off their projection of what their demand is. So those leases will result in builds will result in operations. So we're going to see this demand curve, I think, for quite a while. And it's exciting because it's both sides of the coin. It's going to drive more business, but it's also going to drive more efficient business. Couldn't agree more. And talking about efficiency and business, there's a topic that has been having some serious ramifications since the early days of COVID. We're talking supply chain. Are supply chains normalizing? Eric, you want to kick this off for us? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think there's one way to frame it is I think we're seeing visibility into that normalization. Perhaps they're not normal yet. But you can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel where you can see a path toward that normalization. And the market is starting to adjust to that or a resumption of some semblance of normalcy I think is a big part of that. And of course, maybe that depends on those different aspects of the market. I mean, honestly, that anecdote was really more tied to there's a lot of disruption in the transport part of the network and just being able to do cable upgrades and things like that. It had regional attributes, particularly in Asia, was very highly affected by that. But so there's a little bit of it depends as part of the answer. And again, I would maybe kick it back over to Lee for some specifics on some of the operational attributes and I guess what you're seeing on the ground. There's a few gating factors that people have to plan around. There's still the 18 to 24 month lead times on certain equipment. There's all kinds of things with the supply chain for some manufacturers to produce quicker than that they're used to. So we're seeing an uptick and quality assurance needs at the manufacturing level to make sure that the equipment comes off ready to be commissioned. There's also going to be some underlying things in the microchips. The return on investment for the five millimeter microchips that chip manufacturers started doing because of COVID is much better than the 60 millimeter which we guys that we need for commercial. So we need to get the chip manufacturers to refocus on what the commercial needs are, especially with AI coming at. And it's going to be at a cost to their business that they're going to need to be able to consume. So I think as an industry, we're going to have to push for that with that manufacturing capability. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And as we were talking supply chains, we sort of have to talk regulatory activity, right? What do you think regulators are doing in the major markets here in the U.S., like Ashbin, but also globally, Europe, Asia, places like Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Singapore, what's 2023-24 shaping up like? Harry? So yeah, it's really one of the bigger issues and it relates to the, honestly, the kind of the previous question, because another dimension of all that is energy availability. And that's really tied to a lot of the, I guess, kind of regulatory consternation such as it is, you know, in a lot of these places, that it is, yeah, it's just a big factor there along with just other fundamental things of just a pure lack of space. It's literally to run data centers in the conventional places where we would expect them to be, you know, a Singapore, for example, you know, which just recently lifted a moratorium that it had for, I guess, years, you know, on a new development and that's been lifted some, but clearly with criteria associated with that. And that's what ties into sort of that regulatory question. You've got, you know, specifications for moving forward, you know, and sort of a little bit of not my backyard kind of, you know, frustrations with things. But at the same time, we've also got the economic development attractiveness pushing things. And almost like what Lee was saying about certain kinds of chips, you know, it's like, you know, I know maybe a face value, it's not as attractive, but in order to move forward and get the benefit of AI and all that, you need to do those things. And a lot of those factors are sort of driving the different dynamics of regulatory environments. I mean, they're not the same, of course, throughout the world. But, you know, it's still a major factor that you can't take, take things for granted that you can keep doing what you were before. So yeah, you're definitely, definitely a lot of moving parts there. And I think the whole environment's going to be very fluid. You see them focusing on energy and real estate, I think we'll see them start focusing on air quality standards. That's why it's so important that we as an industry get together on sustainability standards so that we can be more self governing. But as our data centers get larger and larger, I think we're going to attract more and more attention. So there's more to come on the whole regulatory environment. But I think the more we can do to self govern and be as efficient from an energy point of view as possible, the better for our industry. You know, I couldn't agree with that more. We've worked on greener data together. So yes, absolutely. Now, let's shift a little bit of focus to the edge, something that got a lot of conversation, a lot of attention in previous years. Is edge still a thing or is network automation keeping us more centralized in the network? I know you guys are the pros here. Lee, I'll begin with you. Well, it is still a thing, but I think it's how do you define what that thing is. To some companies, the edge can be a regional data center to others. It may be a footlocker at the bottom of the cell tower, but the majority of the investment is still in the large hyper scale type data centers that's going into the industry. So I think edge is how you define it. And we're seeing a lot of applications. If you know what your latency and your distribution requirements are for the data, that's where the edge is going to be. And that can be a regional data center, or it can be a small modular device that you put out. So it's still a thing. It's just not as big a thing, I think, as the large data centers, which is okay with me. I think it's a fair view. I mean, I think of it, and I can corroborate much of what Lee said. It's a bit more conceptual, but I think of, I mean, the edge is somewhere along a continuum from, and I'll just go with the extremes. I mean, one is right here on your desk. And I need that storage and compute right here with custom hardware in my laboratory. And that's the only way this application is going to run. Or the other extreme, which is the cloud, the public cloud. And I can just ship off all my storage and compute there and have all that done there and get all the economies at scale and all the goodness that comes with it. Somewhere in between is the edge where you're kind of combining both of those qualities. You're closer to the end user where that's nested. Basically, you can measure that in latency if you're within a few milliseconds of, you know, for example, you can kind of use that as a figure of merit. Like, okay, I need to be within five milliseconds of this application. And the edge, it's a good way to define the edge, for example. But if you have those kind of, you know, so applications that fit that spot will make sense to do, but those that still need just, you know, just really bulk computing power that they can ship off or really specialize hardware that is on premises, that has not gone away. You know, and maybe there's a rebalancing and kind of a shifting of needs. And again, AI comes in, maybe that shifts things around. As Lee was saying, right now, the bulk of it is still out there in the cloud. And I think that's a fair observation. But there always has been, I don't know if it's a long tail, but there are others that have different attributes. And that may change. And maybe the edge becomes more of a thing or less of a thing. It's maybe it's also fair to say it hasn't really experienced its killer application that has made it, you know, disproportionately more in demand than other points on that continuum of application. Well, I am so glad we're recording on this, Eric, because finally I got a succinct definition of the edge. So thank you for that. We have covered such a lot of ground already, clearly in a short period of time, but I do have one final question for you both. Are hyperscalars running hot? Are they slowing down or just working through major investments that will resume? Are we bullish or bearish on the hyperscalars? What's what's going on there? Lee, I'll start with you. About a year ago, when the cost of capital changed, we got very conservative in our forecast and we thought it was going to be a slowdown. We were wrong. It's the pedal, the gas pedals to the floor and the hyperscalars are growing and investing like never before and I think AI has a lot to do with it and it's exciting to me because I'm way ahead of forecast so that makes me look good. Yeah, it's a tough to bet against them, you know, for sure. But the thing is, you know, even they will tell you that their growth is hard to predict. It's just a lot of it, you know. And yeah, to bet on them kind of slowing down, they may be slowing down, but slowing down compared to what? You're compared to explosive growth, which is now huge and even it becomes a bit more incremental. That's on a huge base. And once again, relating back to AI, you know, who's really going to be, I guess, doing or hosting the AI? If a lot of it is at the hyperscalars, which makes sense, they already have a lot of capacity or a certainly a roadmap of, you know, data center capacity and other, you know, parts of networking and computing. So then it becomes a question like, okay, can they kind of handle it within that with large s or is there going to have to be that much more with a big unpredictability band around that? But yeah, probably wouldn't go with the, you know, the sky is falling one on that. Yeah, I'm hearing bullish embarrass from you both from each of you, but I think we're leaning more bullish and and that that sounds right to me. All right, guys. Thank you so much, Lee Eric for joining us for your insight. As always, we so appreciate you guys some really incredible insight that I'm sure attendees are going to just be so happy to have in advance of this amazing event. Now, let's go ahead and finish out this briefing with some insider tips for making the most of our time at data cloud USA. Next up in the hot seat is broad groups Laura Edwards. Laura, welcome to know before you go. Thanks, Jamie. Great to be here. We are so excited to have you. Of course, broad group, the creator, the producer of data cloud USA. So getting it straight from the horse's mouth, as I say, Laura, tell us what do you think attendees will be most excited to learn about during data cloud USA from an educational standpoint? Yeah, absolutely. As you've just heard from both Eric and Lila, there's so much happening in the data center space. So I think attendees will be excited to hear from many leaders in the industry, such as Lee and Eric across two days of content. And some of the topics that we will be covering will include how data centers are future proofing for generative AI, which I know they both mentioned earlier. It's a huge topic at the moment. We'll also be looking at secondary and tertiary markets, such as Portland and Phoenix. We'll have sessions focused on Latin American growth, and of course, investment trends, looking at the M&A landscape, and talent is also a hot topic as well. That's just a taster. So the full agenda is on our website so people can take a look there. Absolutely. Absolutely. And tell us a little bit about what type of companies you're expecting to see. Who's going to be there? Sure. So it really is the whole data center ecosystem. So we'll have data center operators, hyperscalers, vendors, finance, real estate, some enterprise. So yeah, it's a real mix that will be in attendance. I love that. I love that ecosystem approach to events. Absolutely. Something for everyone, if you will. All right. So what's new about this event? Because you are returning back to Austin on September 11th through the 12th, but what's different this year that we should all be watching out for? Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the main thing that's new is the location, although we're still in Austin. Last year we were in beautiful resorts on the outskirts in Barton Creek. However, we had a lot of feedback that people wanted to be downtown. I did venture downtown last year, so I can see why people wanted to be there. So this year we're delighted to be in the four seasons. So that's really exciting. And we also have launched a talent and tech initiative. This is headed up by Susanna Kass. So we will be inviting university students to attend for free. We'll be running some workshops and there'll be opportunity for mentorship as well. We are looking for support on this. So if anyone's interested in reaching out on mentorship or support for that, please do get in touch. Susanna Kass is extraordinary, one of the leading minds in today's sustainability movement. Such a great win there too. So I love, love, love that you guys are in collaboration there as well. What do you think attendees will have the best networking experience during this conference? What's going to really drive networking? Sure. So what we do say is half the work's done before you attend. So once people register, we will be sharing our networking app where people have the opportunity to see who's attending and reach out to arrange the meetings beforehand. We do advise people to do that and not leave it too late because people's schedules get full up. So I think that is essential. And then also we have many opportunities for networking at the event across the two days, including the lunches and we have a drinks reception. And for women attending, we will be co-hosting an event on the 10th of September, so on the Sunday with I'm Women. We launched this in Monaco with them and it was a great success. So we will be sending information about that shortly and we'll be having Haiti in the four seasons. So looking forward to that as well. Haiti in the four seasons. I mean, you can't be that plus networking with other women in our industry. My heart is full. All right. So can you share with us your top three tips for getting the most of this year's conference in a nutshell? Absolutely. So I already touched upon one of them, but I'd say sort of pre-event, arranging your meetings. I think that that's really important. Then we find that our events are very content focused. So people want to be in the conference room. So see what sessions we have taken place. See who you want to hear from well in advance. And then while you're there, ask questions. We find that having audience engagement is really valuable for everyone. And then I'd also say social media engagement as well, post in advance, see who else is coming so you can connect ready for the event. Love that. It couldn't agree more. All right. So I'm an attendee. I'm heading out. What is the best way for us attendees to keep up to date on the latest from Data Cloud USA leading up to our arrival? Sure. So we're always posting on social media. So LinkedIn, we're putting updates there, of course on our website. So you can just search for Data Cloud USA. We have a newsletter to stay up to date. And if anyone has any particular questions about the event, they can get in touch via email. So exciting. So exciting. There's certainly a lot of excitement for Data Cloud USA before we wrap up today. I just want to say thank you so much, Laura, for a phenomenal event in the four seasons. I'm already excited. It's already a success in my book. But before we do wrap up, can you share with us the plans that are on the horizon for Data Cloud conference series? You guys are picking the best locations all over the world. Yeah, absolutely. So we have many things planned for the next year and beyond. So a couple of weeks after Data Cloud USA, we have our Data Cloud ESG event taking place in Oslo. We're also in the plans for Data Cloud Global Congress. And that's moving to Cannes next year in June. And we also have plans for future launches as well. So watch this space. Love it. Love it. Love it. We will be there. We will be tracking your every move for sure. Thank you so much, Laura, for joining us and bringing the guys back. Thank you, telegeography principal analyst, Eric Kreifeldt, and opening keynote speaker and friend, Lee Kirby of Salute Mission Critical for giving us such great insight on the latest trend. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you. And we should note, guys, to get all the details to prepare for Data Cloud USA, just like Laura told us, visit broad-group.com during the conference week. Use hashtag Data Cloud USA. And by the way, guys, we have a QR code too that will link right here to the registration page. And use the discount from JSA, JSA 10 to save 10% on your registration. So go ahead and use that QR code and it makes it a little easier to save. Also tune in the week of Data Cloud USA as JSA broadcasts live across multiple platforms, just like we're doing here today, but from the expo floor with interviews with top thought leaders like Lee. All right. In the meantime, follow both JSA and telegeography on LinkedIn or find out more on jsa.net and telegeography.com. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to know before you go. And as always, happy networking, my friends.