DCD Zero Downtime: The Bi-Weekly Data Center Show

Afleveringen

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  Episode 109 - Organizing opposition to data centers in the US with Amanda Gardcia, Southern Environmental Law Center 13.08.2026 27min

  As data centers continue to spring up across the US, opposition to them has grown in intensity and breadth. We talk to Amanda Garcia, an attorney who leads the Southern Environmental Law Center's data center advocacy, about why local communities are pushing back against data centers, the SELC's role, and what the future of data center regulation looks like.
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  Episode 108 - Networks of the future with David Rothenstein, Ciena 30.07.2026 35min

  DCD speaks with David Rothenstein, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Ciena, about how the company plans to support the demands for AI infrastructure. Rothenstein talks about connectivity up, out, and across data centers, hollow-core fiber, AI, coherent optics, and more in this episode. 
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  Episode 107 - Telehouse talks EMEA with Paul Lewis and Mark Pestridge 16.07.2026 30min

  In this episode, DCD sits down with Mark Pestridge and Paul Lewis to talk about Telehouse's EMEA strategy following the company's senior leadership reshuffle. We discuss expansion plans, the company's relationship with the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, and how customer demands are changing.
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  Episode 106 - Rewiring the grid with Marissa Hummon, Utilidata 02.07.2026 26min

  DCD speaks to Marissa Hummon, CTO of Utilidata, about the company's Karman platform and its potential implications for the data center market.
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  Bonus episode - What should the data center industry expect from the next UK Prime Minister? With Kao Data CEO Spencer Lamb 22.06.2026 35min

  With today's announcement that he is resigning, we look at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's data center legacy. Talking to Kao Data CEO Spencer Lamb, we look at the impact (or lack of) AI Growth Zones, why UK energy prices are so high, if copyright is a challenge, and more. Plus, we learn about prospective national leader Andy Burnham's data center visits, and what the data center industry should look for in a new PM.
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  Episode 105 - Using AI to build AI, with James Stirrat-Ellis of Build 18.06.2026 37min

  Data center site selection is a crucial step in the construction process, and picking the right piece of land can be the difference between a project succeeding and failing.For AI data center developers with money burning a hole in their corporate back pockets, separating the promising propositions from duds is a time-consuming business.Build thinks it can help with an AI-powered system that it says can help sift through potential sites to identify the best parcels of land.In this podcast, CEO James Stirrat-Ellis explains how his company's system combines artificial and human intelligence to speed up projects, and how it has worked with the UK government on its much-vaunted AI Growth Zones.
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  Episode 104 - Re-introducing SDx, with senior editor Ben Wodecki 04.06.2026 38min

  Did you know that DCD has a sister publication? In April 2025, DCD acquired networking publication SDx, and with it now having been part of the InfraX family for a year, we thought it was about time we sat down with senior editor Ben Wodecki to give the publication a proper introduction. Tune into the episode to meet Ben and hear about what SDx covers, as well as a bit of a discussion on the key upcoming topics you can expect to see on the website.
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  Episode 103 - Networking at hyperscale with Pradeep Vincent, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 14.05.2026 29min

  It can seem like GPUs get all the headlines when it comes to AI workloads, but there are a lot more challenges when it comes to handling massive training jobs. We talk to Pradeep Vincent, Oracle’s Executive Vice President & Chief Technical Architect of OCI, about the importance of power and the oft-overlooked networking in large-scale AI clusters, particularly as we approach multibuilding scale, and potentially multi-campus. 
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  Bonus episode - The telco build out with Patrick Halley, Wireless Infrastructure Association 07.05.2026 36min

  DCD catches up with Patrick Halley, president and CEO, Wireless Infrastructure Association, to discuss the requirements of the telecommunications industry’s infrastructure build-out. Halley outlines how AI, fiber, and spectrum are essential for meeting the demands to support these networks, as he examines the opportunities for the mobile carriers, fiber providers, and tower companies. 
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  Episode 102 - The training to inference passageway with Sumti Jairath, SambaNova 30.04.2026 42min

  With the AI industry fueling a shift away from training and towards inference, and claiming agentic AI as its next frontier, the need for hardware to support workloads that require high-compute and low-latency performance has never been greater.On this episode of Zero Downtime, DCD talks to Sumti Jairath, chief architect at SambaNova, about some of these driving forces, how the semiconductor industry has changed over the last decade, and what some of the biggest challenges facing chip companies right now are
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  Episode 101 - Unpacking clean energy procurement with Nayel Brihi, BloombergNEF 16.04.2026 30min

  DCD speaks to Nayel Brihi, corporate energy analyst at BloombergNEF, about the state of energy procurement over the past year.
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  Episode 100 - It's good being Mr Wonderful, with Kevin O'Leary 02.04.2026 31min

  It is the 100th episode of Zero Downtime! Before we get into the episode, a huge thank you to all of our listeners - new and those who have been with us since the beginning. In this episode, we are joined by Kevin O'Leary, AKA Mr Wonderful, best known for being on Dragons' Den/Shark Tank, with a recent debut in the Marty Supreme movie. Lesser known is O'Leary's involvement in the data center sector. We talk about his investment in Bitzero, plans for the "Wonder Valley" data center campuses, and his thoughts on the data center market in North America as a whole.
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  Episode 99 - A hyperscale competition with Damien Lucas, Scaleway 19.03.2026 28min

  In this episode of Zero Downtime, we talk with Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway, about the European cloud computing market and whether it is possible to compete with the US hyperscalers.
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  Bonus episode - Can enhanced geothermal power the AI boom? With Cindy Taff, Sage Geosystems 12.03.2026 27min

  DCD sits down with the CEO of Sage Geosystems, Cindy Taff, to talk all things enhanced geothermal, and how the technology could power the data centers of tomorrow.
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  Episode 98 - Insuring uptime with Jonathon Hatzor, Parametrix 05.03.2026 32min

  That data centers need insurance goes without saying. Any commercial building will typically be insured against standard damages and risks, but data centers are far more complicated than an average warehouse or office. One area that has emerged of late is the idea of “SLA” insurance, or Service Level Agreement insurance. Parametrix is one of the pioneering companies in this realm, and we discuss where the idea came from and why it is growing drastically in popularity.
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  Bonus episode - Dangerous liaisons with Tommy Schuch, Climber Protection Group 26.02.2026 34min

  Mobile devices require networks to make them function, and these networks are often deployed in places most people wouldn’t dare to visit, such as telecom towers.Some can be found thousands of miles high, but for tower contractors, it’s their everyday job, and across all sorts of weather conditions. Tommy Schuch, a former tower contractor and now documentary maker and founder of Climber Protection Group, explains the risks of the job to DCD, and why the sector needs a shake-up to protect those risking their lives. Is this the most dangerous job in the world?
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  Episode 97 with David Bacino, Symphony Towers Infrastructure 19.02.2026 21min

  With the deployment of 4G and 5G services still an important focus for US carriers, the need for telecoms infrastructure to house this equipment couldn’t be greater, which presents an opportunity for infrastructure companies such as Palistar Capital-backed Symphony Towers Infrastructure. DCD caught up with David Bacino, CEO, Symphony Towers Infrastructure, to discuss his first few months in the role, opportunities in the market, and plans for 2026.  Update: After this episode was published, Bacino announced he is set to transition from his role as CEO to that of vice chairman.
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  Episode 96 - Reinventing the rack, with Iggy Kogan of Air2O 05.02.2026 36min

  Anyone who has entered a data center will be familiar with the upright rack design that has become standard in data halls around the world.But while piling up the “pizza boxes” has served the industry well for decades, the advent of liquid cooling systems, developed to meet the thermal needs of advanced chips, means a new approach may be needed.Cooling firm Air2O is thinking outside the (pizza) box, and has come up with a modular, stackable design for data center racks, which it says can improve cooling efficiency.On this episode, DCD speaks to Air2O’s Iggy Kogan about the new design, dubbed the High Thermal Density Air-Cooled Rack Assembly.
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  Episode 95 - The copper collapse and telephone exchanges with Lisa Kinch, Historic England 22.01.2026 47min

  The UK is calling time on its copper networks, and thousands of telephone exchanges across the UK are set to be closed in the coming years.The end of an era, some of these buildings date back around 100 years or more. If recent history is anything to go by, many will be turned into residential buildings.Lisa Kinch, a historic places adviser for Historic England and associate lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture, did her PhD research on telephone exchanges in the UK, giving her a unique view on these buildings and their historical context.We discuss her research and the unique place the UK's telephone exchanges have in the country's architectural history.
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  Episode 94 - Your next job could be in critical infrastructure (you just don’t know it yet) – with Kao Data 08.01.2026 27min

  While critical infrastructure has always been the backbone of the digital landscape, the recent data center boom has caused more people than ever before to become aware of the industry and consider the career opportunities it might have to offer.However, like the tech industry writ large, there’s a perception amongst some outside of the critical infrastructure sector that its workforce lacks diversity and therefore isn't an industry in which they could excel professionally.In this episode, Lizzy McDowell, director of marketing, Kao Data, tries to dispel some of the myths about the industry and discusses the importance of promoting diversity within the data center sector and why there’s never been a better time to consider a career in critical infrastructure.