 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA Podcasts, the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals. I'm Barb Mitchell coming to you today from PTC 2022 and joining me today is Philip Marangela, CMO of EdgeConnex. Pleasure to have you, as always. Thanks, Barb. Great to see you. So we're here, we're live, we're in PTC. Tell us how, what's it like for you this year? It's good to be back? Yeah, it is certainly. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen with Omicron, but got the booster and there's quite a QR code process getting here, but glad to finally make it. Yeah, it's good though, right? Making it safe for everyone. And I think that I know that you've been busy and lots of meetings happening. I think everybody's happy to be back in Hawaii, so it's certainly good to be back after being locked up for so long. Right, hopefully it's an indication of where things are going. We'll be more and more in person, right? Yeah, absolutely. So tell us about what's happening at EdgeConnex. I think that some new investments and global expansion, can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, sure. I mean, since we last talked, I was talking with Jamie two years ago here. It's been a busy two years we were acquired during that time. And then having by EQT, it's a Swedish infrastructure fund and having that new partner, that new backer, has really accelerated our growth. So last year has been crazy. We started the year in February with a big joint venture in India. We formed a company called the DonnieConnex and we looked to build out a national data center platform across India. Booking that at the end of the year in China. So we invested in a data center operator called Chaiora. So those are both massive markets, each in their own right. So did that. And then in between, we did an acquisition in Israel. We expanded into Barcelona, expanded into Brussels, expanded in South America. So it was an absolutely crazy year. And it was COVID, right? So doing all that in 2021 was no small feat, but certainly busy. But it was great. It was fun. And kind of the global edge has kind of been our mantra this past year. Yeah, amazing that you've been able to keep all of that in motion with everything that's been happening around the world and do it globally. And a lot of our viewers, I think know, of course, EdgeConnex, you're not new to our conversations. But, you know, and I think people know that you build and support data centers from Edge to Hyperscale and across the spectrum. But tell us, I think you have another mission that maybe we could talk about today, customers, people, planet, mission. Talk about that and why it's so important to your view as a company, but how you fit within the industry as a whole. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of our underlying mission is keeping it simple, right? And it's if you take care of your customers, you take care of your people. And lastly, if you take care of the planet, everything else should, you know, buy a large sort of self out, right? And it sounds, you know, very kind of simple and tried, but, you know, you unpack that a bit, right? And listening to your customers, giving them what they want, where they want, when they want. That's not rocket science, right? And that's what's been our secret to our success. And in many respects, if we're not making the customer come to where we are, we're listening to them. And it's that hyper local Edge data center or that Hyperscale data center and anything in between and really given the products and the solutions that best meet their needs. So then they can best meet their customers needs in return, all the while focusing on the people of edge connects, right? We have a very robust and rich diversity inclusion program. We look to, you know, we've been rapidly, you know, expanding and hiring over the past year to support this tremendous growth and creating this culture and this framework to, you know, grow out because those are, that's essential. They're supporting the customers. So you want a happy employee base. And most recently, we started adding, you know, not only through throughout the organization, also on the leadership team, we have a new chief strategy officer, a new head for innovation, a new leader in Asia also kind of focused on supporting our customers. So, so, so that's vital. And then lastly, and it's kind of the wrapper on it all is the sustainability efforts, right? Taking care of our planet, making sure how we build is done in a extremely sustainable way, right? And that's not just carbon. That's water, right? That's materials. That's everything that goes into the data center, thinking about it from a sustainable way, start tracking it, start reporting on it, and start innovating on it in terms of how we build and operate. And again, it's kind of this Venn diagram. You do that, that supports our customers as well, right? Because that's now becoming table stakes. So you can see the why customers, people on planet, it's all interrelated and they all kind of build upon each other to kind of allow us to kind of deliver the bliss, kind of global data center solution around the world. It's so honestly impressive and exciting to watch how you've just been exploding with growth, but doing it with a real eye to your corporate values and in a meaningful way and actually living them. So it's not just words, you're actually doing all of this and it's refreshing and great to see. So tell us what next? We've sort of lots been happening over the last couple years you've been mentioning, but talk about 2022 and beyond. Yeah, no rest, right? Pedal to the medal. We continue obviously to integrate the acquisitions we did last year, expand also those in terms of investing in them and going to new markets in India and China and elsewhere. But this year you will continue to see that global edge expansion, right? Asia has been a big focus last year. It will continue to be a focus this year, more markets, more dots on the map, Latin America as well is certainly a growth area for us and kind of scaling out our footprint there, not only where we have it, but into new markets. And then Amia as well, we continue to build that capacity across the way there. Again, getting back to the sustainability thing is also investing in the technologies, the innovations, thinking about power differently and partnerships around renewable energy, renewable sources, solar, wind, hydro, all these kind of things are what we're trying to innovate on. This is in particular something we're doing in India with our partner with Adani. They are the largest solar manufacturer and provider in India and being able to integrate that into our offering is really differentiating us. And so using that kind of proof point and use case replicating that in other markets and other locales around the world are things that we're looking to further expand upon and build out in 2022. So important, such important work and so great that you're doing this in parallel. You've got duff on your plate, but you're also taking a really important view at how you do it and carefully and thoughtfully embarking on that. So thank you so much for joining us today. It's been really, it's always a pleasure. It's always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. We miss Jamie. I know she didn't make the trip, but always a pleasure to see you guys at JSA and appreciate everything you do to help us in terms of our global expansion. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. We're honored to be part of it with you. So thank you. And thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA TV and JSA podcast. Happy networking.