 Welcome to JSA TV where we're covering the latest stories, trends, and innovations from leaders in global connectivity, real estate, and the networks within. I'm Allison Whelan, and joining me today is Duncan Club of Cambridge Management Consulting. Duncan is a senior leader, technology executive specializing in strategy, design, and implementation of mission critical data centers and enterprise infrastructure. Duncan, welcome. Thank you for having me. Yeah, so Duncan and I actually got to chat ahead of the conference. So fun. We get to catch up now here at the conference in person instead of virtually over the web. So since we've been here, let's start talking about the edge. Is this still something we're hearing about common? Is this still a thing you would say or something else kind of replacing that now? No, I think it's very much still a thing. It has taken a while to develop, but interestingly, the developments in AI are really driving it heavily. And speaking to a lot of people here, they're seeing a big uptick in demand, a lot of investment and development being put into what most people would classify as edge. So yeah, it's time seems to have come now. And I think we're going to see a massive, massive boost in development over the next two to five years. And a lot of it will be driven by growth in AI. Yeah, and no surprise there, but that's a perfect segue because you spoke on a keynote panel here at Data Cloud USA about the AI revolution where you dove into how the industry can optimize data centers for generative AI. What were the key takeaways from the panel there? Well, there were lots. I think one of the interesting things is that there was still certain amount of disagreement. I'll call it that, but you know, there was opinions. There were differing opinions about how things would develop. But the one thing everyone agrees on is that there's a massive growth coming. It's already started. Interestingly, the USA appears to be well ahead of most of the rest of the world as leading the way, certainly compared to Europe. It's streets ahead. But I think what we ended up discussing on the panel is there are different types of AI. There are enormous big training engines that need to be built. And the market for that is going to be huge. It could triple the amount of data center capacity currently out there over the next probably 10 years. But it's still, you know, the forecast is very, very large and it's needed now, not in 10 years. So I think, you know, we're seeing the big investors putting a lot of money into building out these big centralized systems. But, you know, that's only part of the story. So once the training systems are out there, then what we also need is inference engines. These are the things that take the training models, put them into practice. And for a lot of cases, those need to be nearer the action. They need to be near the customer or near where the data is. And that's going to be the trigger for putting stuff towards the edge. So these will be a lot smaller, but there'll be a lot more of them. And so, you know, there's a bit of debate about, you know, how quickly those will develop. I mean, I think, you know, all of the interest in the moment is in building the big stuff, the training engines. But they, you know, to complete the picture, we're going to need the whole mix. So I think, yeah, I mean, like I said, the one thing everyone definitely agrees about is that there's going to be a massive uptick in construction. The biggest challenge by a long way is where do we get the power from? Right. There are lots and lots of challenges with that, both in terms of generating the power, but also power transmission. So we've talked a lot about putting training systems near where power is generated so you can get off grid. There are solutions like hydrogen fuel cells and renewable systems which can help as well. But that's going to be one of our biggest challenges, not just for Edge, not just for AI. But in general, AI is going to make it a lot harder to work with. Yeah. I think just overall key takeaway is AI is here to stay. It's not official anymore. It's real. Right. We're not just talking about it. We're working with it. It actually is happening. And, you know, there are real life use cases out there. There are so many more to come. It's going to be massive. Yeah. We'll keep an eye on that. And thank you for the update there. Let's look two, five, 10 years down the line. How do you see the data center sector as a whole evolving? I think it's just going to get bigger and bigger. You know, demand is not shrinking. All of these new things as well are net new. So they are adding to what's already there. They're not replacing it. So I think we'll see, you know, increased capacity in all of the different markets when it's a co-location, hyperscale, whatever the AI market develops in, you know, whether it becomes part of the hyperscale market or a new category, it's just all going to add to it. So I think we're going to see huge development in that. There's going to be a bigger and bigger focus on power, both in terms of like delivery, as I was saying, but also renewables. Right. So much bigger focus. Certainly in Europe at the moment, you know, that everything being talked about is to do with ESG, energy efficiency, sustainability. And I think that's going to become a very big topic. But I think it's growth, growth in all aspects. Growth at the core, growth at the edge. So we're looking at AI, sustainability and power are three big topics. Three big topics for a while. Yes. So the network as well, you know, there's a lot of development going on there, but there are again challenges for the network operators. But, you know, the, again, this is all predicated on the need for extra capacity, more and more growth, more and more distributed. And those challenges create opportunity. More opportunity for our industry, more opportunity for the young talent. So it's a great time. Talent is another challenge for the whole industry, but I'm sure you've put that extensively. But no, it's, it is a challenge, but it is also really exciting for everyone. Well, Duncan, thank you so much for joining us. It was so nice to get to talk to you in person. And to our viewers, thank you so much for tuning in to JSA TV live here at Data Cloud USA 2023 in beautiful Austin, Texas. Until next time, happy networking. Thank you.