 Live from the JSA Podcast Studio, presenting Data Movers, showcasing the leaders behind the headlines in the telecom and data center infrastructure industry. Everybody to our new podcast series, Data Movers. I'm your host, Jamie Scott-Ethitia, CEO and founder of JSA. Along with my fabulous co-host, Mr. Evan Costel, top B2B social media influencer. Hey Evan. Hey Jamie, hey everyone. Thanks for joining us with Data Movers where we sit down with the most influential men and women of today's leading data center world, supporting the infrastructure requirements of this new normal. So Jamie, summertime is upon us here in New England. You're from New England. You're gonna head back to beautiful Rhode Island, your place of birth. Yeah, my family is dying for me to get back there. I'm on the West Coast currently and as you know, I had a baby during quarantine. So she doesn't know so many of her aunts, uncles, grandmothers. So yeah, we're really excited to head back home. And it's such a fabulous time. New England summertime, it's, you know, everything is just ripe and the smell of flowers in the air and it's just gorgeous. No, it's really great. And Rhode Island, especially Newport, Rhode Island, one of my favorite summertime destinations. What's your favorite place in New England or Rhode Island? What are you gonna look forward to getting back to? Yeah, Newport is sensation. My cousin Marmot's there and there's like tons of historic mansions. Oh, the mansions, yeah. The cottages, as they called them back in the day, yes. The four cottages, darling. Honey esters, you know. And when I was a little girl, one of the, I actually think it was the astramansion. We used to dress up in period clothing and give tours. Oh my gosh, what I would pay to see those pictures, I tell you, that would be Twitter gold. But why don't we move on to our guest and get on with the show? Yeah, then we have an exciting show. Let's get right into it with our guest. As you know, here at Data Movers, we really do like to dive into those background stories, careers, highs, lows, everything in between. And today's guest really offers that unique perspective of the future of our industry. So please welcome David Legat, who's the founder and CEO of Data Center Hawke and fellow podcaster. Hey, David. That's right. Hi, how are you? Great, great. Thank you, welcome, David. And I've just been spending the last 20 minutes on datacenterhawk.com. What an amazing resource. I really got lost on the site. So tell us about your background and your career and what led you to get into the data center industry and create this amazing resource. Yeah, well, thank you for the opportunity to be on. I'm excited to get to interact with both of you. We started datacenterhawk back six years ago, and I actually got into the data center industry back in 2007 by accident. It's funny, many people get into this industry by accident, but then you find they stay in it for a long time because of how dynamic it is and the opportunities that there are. But I joined a real estate company at the time, CBRE, which is well known to many people in our industry, and just started learning how clients of CBREs at the time were thinking about their data center infrastructure. So I had the opportunity to do a lot of work with Fortune 500 companies that were trying to either evaluate things like co-location or evaluate things like site selection where they wanted to build a data center facility. And so through that process, I found that there was really a hole in the way that the data center information was being aggregated, analyzed, presented to the market. And so you had a lot of people spending a lot of money and doing it with data that, in my opinion, wasn't great. And so in 2014, we set out to start Datacenterhawk. And our mission is really simple. We help industry users make the best decisions possible. And so we do that with data, not just here in the US, but also in Europe and Asia. And we've got a great team. We sit here in Dallas. We have team members overseas as well. And we're really thankful to be in this space. And it's been an exciting and challenging and really fun last six years in doing this. Oh, that's so cool. And again, you're sitting in a very unique position. You have this eagle-eyed perspective of Popeye. I'm just saying. Yeah, there you go. I'm the industry. So what are the top trends I most excite you? Yeah, that's a great question. I think some of the things that we're seeing, this is like real-time info because we're consistently talking to people in the market, obviously, similar to what Jamie, your approach is there with your podcast and some things that you're doing. But some of the messages that we're hearing that are impacting the space today, certainly one is sustainability. So yesterday or a couple of days ago, I was in a discussion with Datacenter Dynamics around how that is impacting the market and how we're seeing that not just pay or play into how large Datacenter users are thinking about, how do we deploy these massive amounts of infrastructure, but also Datacenter operators that are helping with that are thinking through how to do that in a more eco-friendly way. And so you see that with the way that Datacenters are being designed today. You see that in a way that people in the space are thinking about water usage and doing that in a more efficient manner. But I'll tell you what else has been interesting is we've also seen it focused on with the small to medium sized businesses and really thinking through like, hey, we want to make sure that we are participating in a sustainable approach to the industry moving forward. That's certainly a trend that we've seen. And I think most people in our space would agree. That's a, it's kind of a very broad topic, but it's something that is front and center with a lot of the users and people in the market today. Yeah, really impressive. I'm actually on datacenterhawk.com now. And your site is incredible. It really kind of keeps a pulse on the Datacenter markets around the world and up-to-date information. It's amazing communities. What particular markets or geographies are most interesting to you these days and why? I love that question. And thank you for asking because we, you know, it has been so interesting to watch these different geographies grow over the last, I mean, I would say it does for six years, but really last 15. And I think those that are in the space really would understand this. But, you know, like as an example in the US, the top five datacenter markets are Northern Virginia, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas and Northern California. There's other markets like Atlanta and Portland where there's really exciting stuff going on. But I have been most intrigued with what has been going on in both Europe and Asia over the last two years. So in Europe, the top five markets are Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. But if you wanna see something that's really interesting, watch how some of these secondary markets are growing like Zurich, Berlin, you know, areas like that, Madrid. There's a lot of growth taking place in those areas. And it's a maturing of those markets that I think will point to like some future growth moving forward. And so, you know, those are some of the types of places that we're paying special attention to because there's a lot of demand. There's a lot of companies that go, hey, we wanna make sure that we can serve our Latin America communities or our, you know, European customers the same way we can serve them in the US and that experience is the same or in other places across the world. So those are some of the markets that, you know, we see really gaining traction today. You're singing my song. I'm in love with this conversation. And it's interesting to this move to tier two cities globally is right in line with a question that we're throwing out to our clients in our Ask the Experts feature that we do every month. But this month we're asking our Edge data centers to give us their thoughts and opinions on is the Edge still edgy? I wanna see, maybe what will be your response here? Yes, I think it is. There's a lot of money being spent right now to try to solve what is a current demand state but what people think will really grow into a much larger demand down the road. And so I certainly think it is. One of the challenges with it I think has been it's maybe been a bit slower. The maturity has maybe been a bit slower than the companies that are out there working on it you know, might have thought but I really think that this is something that will impact the market for years to come. I think, you know, our industry is really unique because there's trade shows and things like that. And so we talk about a lot of stuff and maybe sometimes we over hype things or maybe we hype things too early but I really think that Edge and the growth of Edge deployments as you know, things like 5G become more mature and more widely used and will certainly impact our space and the companies that are out there trying to build product or that have built and are building products and solutions to serve that. I think we'll win over time. You know, if there's one thing we've seen about this space is that early investment in some of these emerging trends can really pay off and I think the Edge market is certainly one of them. So is the Edge still Edgey? Jamie, it's a great question. I would say yes. I would agree, absolutely. And the data center space has been on fire during the pandemic for obvious reasons and data center professionals have been among the busiest folks out there including yourself I'm guessing. What are some of the key takeaways that data center professionals have kind of learned through the pandemic and what does it mean for their careers moving forward? Do you think? Yeah, well, this has been a very unique time for all of us. I think both professionally and personally and it's been one of those time periods that I know for me personally where you've had to really take a look around and be thankful for a lot of the things that are going on. And one of them certainly is to be in our industry probably like you both. I have friends that are part of industries that overnight changed significantly and really it impacted their job opportunities it impacted companies they had spent years building and you all know as well as I do when you're an entrepreneur and you're starting something and you spend all that time and then something totally outside of your control changes that it's very hard. And so I think in the data center space, Evan, you mentioned it, I mean, it has been frenetic and whether you are a data center operator an investor in the space a consultant I mean, it really doesn't matter it's really been there's been a lot of things happening and so my takeaways are number one is I'm really thankful that our business has grown. I'm sure like many others of people that are listening in this industry. So that's one thing too it really shows you the resiliency of our space in this industry and I would say that the pandemic really shined a light on our industry differently than it had before. And I think there's some good things there's also some challenges with that. The good things are I think people realize there's this invisible infrastructure that supports literally almost everything we do. When you think about the way we use our phones the way we use technology at home I mean, all those different things that's a big part of it. But I think too the challenges are people are starting to think through even some of that sustainability commentary that we talked about at the beginning of the call or the podcast that this is an industry that uses a lot of power, a lot of water and so really thinking through that well I think people are paying attention to that probably more today than they were 18 months ago. So I know personally and for us at Daddison or Hawke we are certainly thankful to be in this space and we're really excited about what the future opportunities are. And I would imagine that most people in our industry would agree. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So that kind of moves us into our fun fast rapid-fire question section. Can't wait. And so we're gonna draw some questions at you and you just think about to respond with whatever pops into your mind first. So I love this one actually. What is the most used app when you go to your phone? Unfortunately my calendar is probably the first thing I would bring up and I'm not sure that really qualifies for a very good answer but I feel like I am just constantly looking at my schedule and the changes that are going all that stuff. I would say I have a group of people that I run with here so there's a fitness app that we'll look at that I probably use maybe too much to check in on things but those two apps probably get the most amount of activity on my phone. That's a good balance, that's a good balance. Yeah, there you go, yeah. Yeah, the last guest answered email so we're at least we're diversifying the productivity apps. Absolutely. But as far as smart technology goes I'm sure you're a techie as we are and one of my favorite applications is smart home tech, the internet of things at home and my favorite is my Philips Hue lighting where I can change the mood and the colors and the density of all the lights and automate it when I walk in or leave. But what's the smartest tech you're currently using at home? You know the one we use probably the most is the one that controls our temperature at home I would say is just doing that in a more appropriate manner and it's also great if you're traveling or something like that to be able to do that. I think that's certainly one of them. Another one that we, so we have two kids our boys are I guess like 15 and 11. And so we have really tried not always done our best but we've really tried to monitor like technology usage and just really thinking through practically like, hey, how are we helping our kids learn how to use technology well? And I think all parents struggle with this like just thinking through that and so there's some really cool apps that help parents. And so if you're a parent in this phase, this is hopefully helpful but there's some really cool apps that help you kind of keep track of what your kids are doing and helping kind of stair stepping them in to like appropriate technology usage. Cause when you give a kid a smartphone it's a lot of, there's a lot of things that they can use that for and so just helping them do that wisely and thinking through that something we've tried to do. I think I need this app. I think someone needs to monitor my Twitter usage Jamie do you wanna be my parental guide here and help me? Okay, I keep my tweeting down eight hours a day. I get it. I think Evan, it's funny you say that cause I think what it shows is that we've become so dependent on technology all of us have and in my opinion it's a learned skill and there's definitely value in helping especially our kids thinking through how to do that well and like I don't know about you all but when I grew up there was not that type of technology opportunity, it was very different and so you're just growing up in a different world and so just trying to help them think through that well is where we're at right now. Nice. I'm a basketball player and my one year old all she wants to play with is to like fake cell phone. Yeah. Oh, I'm in trouble. It starts early. Yeah. So if you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would it be and what would you chat about? So I am unfortunately and fortunately a Dallas sports fan and I so the Dallas Mavericks have a player named Luca Donchich and I think it would probably, I would look, yeah, he's unbelievable. So I would actually love right now specifically to go to lunch with him and ask him who he's gonna pick to be their next coach, which is a little unique because players don't typically pick the coach but in today's NBA they kind of do. So that's who I would go to lunch with. I would buy you both lunch cause I would want to meet with that guy as well. And as far as me, I would have, I would want to have lunch with Jamie. So that's, that's my answer. You may have noticed I'm a social media fanatic. I have 300,000 Twitter followers, which is insane but what's your favorite social media platform and please don't say Facebook. It is not Facebook. I think for me and for us, you know, when I started our business, it was just me. And so we utilize LinkedIn in a major way. And I think even before it got as much traction as it has as it relates to like marketing business-wise and things like that. And so, you know, I would just say that's really been effective for us, you know, business-wise and it's helped us get our message out there maybe in a different way than, you know, data center typically like companies in the data center space market what they're doing. And I think Jamie, you would certainly be aware of this. You know, we looked about six years ago and said, hey, we want to do this differently. You know, we think PDFs and articles while they're great, you know, there's, it's much more interesting and from my perspective to put faces with ideas and, you know, do some of the things we're doing here. It's a great way to share ideas and so we've really tried to use LinkedIn to do that. It's really been helpful for us. So I'd probably say that is my favorite. Oh, I would agree. And I find if you haven't discovered and you're listening to Creator Mode, you got to check it out, turn that feature on. You can add videos to your LinkedIn bio and, you know, all kinds of live options now. So it's really become a cool media destination. And thanks so much, David, for joining us. I really intrigued by, you know, what you're doing and the resources, you know, you've created and I can't stop browsing datacenterhawk.com as we're actually on the show. There's just so much cool information there. So I look forward to meeting again in person somewhere around the country. Right on. Yeah, it's been, this has been a great time together today, so thank you for having me and certainly respect what you all are doing and, you know, excited for the next one. Thank you so much, David. And guys, if you enjoyed today's Data Movers podcast as much as I did, go ahead and check us out at JSA.net slash podcast for upcoming Data Movers episodes. We release those every other week on Wednesday morning. So please go ahead and tune in. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at Jay Scott-O and Evan Kurtz-Dell and see you there. And as always, guys, stay safe and happy networking.