The Data Center Exchange

In this podcast series, Del will be joined by industry leaders to discuss topics such as the culture of a fast-growing business within the sector, sustainability, engineering, construction challenges, diversity & inclusion, and much more.

We are delighted to be joined by Chris Yetman. Chris is the COO of Vantage Data Centers, one of the fastest-growing organizations within the sector. I wanted to discuss how organizational culture impacts the high performance and growth of a business. Particularly a business operating to such high standards expected within the Data Center market. Chris talks us through his personal journey and offers us an insight into the success of Vantage, the mindset and approach to customer engagement. This is a rare opportunity to gain an insight into what is one of the industry's success stories.

With more than 30 years of experience, Yetman approaches strategy and decision-making from the customers’ viewpoint. In partnership with Vantage’s leadership team, he develops the company’s strategy and evangelizes it throughout the organization. Yetman has been instrumental in accelerating Vantage’s growth from a regional data center provider in the United States to a fast-growing global operator.

Prior to joining Vantage, Yetman served as vice president of infrastructure operations for Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he was responsible for managing the operations of the company’s data centers worldwide. At AWS, he achieved 99.9% availability of servers, reduced the data center operations ticket backlog by 76%, decreased the mean time-to-repair by 56%, and enhanced provisioning performance by 50% for 95% of all servers. Before this, Yetman managed the daily operations of one of the largest fiber and TCP/IP networks in the world at Level 3 Communications. Yetman received his Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Northeastern University.

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What is a Data Center? How does it impact our lives? How have they changed the way that we live? How rewarding can a career be within the industry? This episode we ask these questions to Aashna Puri, Director of Strategy and Sustainability at one of the leading Data Centre Developers, CyrusOne. We also look at Aashna’s route in to the industry and her fascinating entrepreneurial background which centers around connecting people.

Aashna has lived in seven countries across three continents and is a natural connector with a focus on diverse and interdisciplinary solutions to drive strategy. As a Senior Project Development and Sustainability Manager at CyrusOne, Aashna is responsible for data-backed strategic planning, new market entry, M&A, and investment analyses while ensuring that the environmental impact is considered at every step.

Aashna is a mission-driven creative problem solver who draws from a variety of experiences to bring innovative and lasting solutions to problems. During her time as a college student, Aashna founded a business that tutored and mentored Tanzanian youth to access university education on scholarships in the US. While working full-time in South Africa, Aashna founded Sogather, a business that enabled passionate home cooks to host diners in their homes and encouraged a post-apartheid South Africa to intermingle in an intimate setting. Currently, Aashna is working on WishLiner, an international parcel delivery service that uses spare luggage space in a traveler's journey.

To get in touch with host, Del Connolly, Please email him at:

[email protected]

This episode looks at how much of a challenge the skills gap is for the Digital Infrastructure world and looks at how the industry can engage “grass roots” talent to ensure the industry is one of choice when people begin their careers.

Our guest this week is Bill Kleyman, an award-winning data center, cloud, and digital infrastructure leader. He was ranked globally by an Onalytica Study as one of the leading executives in cloud computing and data security. He has spent more than 15 years specializing in the cybersecurity, virtualization, cloud, and data center industry. As an award-winning technologist, his most recent efforts with the Infrastructure Masons were recognized when he received the 2020 IM100 Award and the 2021 iMasons Education Champion Award for his work with numerous HBCUs and for helping diversify the digital infrastructure talent pool.

As an industry analyst, speaker, and author, Bill helps the digital infrastructure teams develop new ways to impact data center design, cloud architecture, security models (both physical and software), and how to work with new and emerging technologies. You can read more of Bill’s contributions as a contributing editor in Data Center Frontier, Data Center Knowledge, InformationWeek, ITPro Today, and others.

To get in touch with host, Del Connolly, Please email him at:

[email protected]