The Digital Foundation Podcast

The pressures on those working in the Digital Infrastructure sector are beginning to weigh heavily on people having to cope with dramatically increasing demand and tightening supply chains. Whilst work-related stress and anxiety are nothing new - no industry or sector has expanded as quickly in history.

We're joined by 3 subject matter experts - Dr. Eva Ritvo (Speaker, Author, and Psychiatrist & A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association) Professor Laura Baker (Professor of Psychology at the Centre for Mindfulness Science at USC), and Dr Julie Albright (iMason Board member, Digital Sociologist, Doctorate in Marriage and Family therapy)

The ladies discuss practical steps that can be taken and share their "Wellness Tool Kit" - a simple and effective list of "Tips and Tricks" you can dive into when feeling stretched.

Hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, as well as many of 40+ iMasons Partner Companies, have made bold commitments to Sustainability and are applauded for their leadership. But, the big question remains - is this enough to save the planet? 

Many say we need to do much more and start thinking differently, including Christian Belady (VP Microsoft) and Eddie Schutter (CTO Switch) who met with Dean Nelson (iMason Founder and Chairman) to discuss the role Digital Infrastructure should play in a global holistic industrial solution to sustainability?

Eddie is also an iMasons Board Member and also the Executive Sponsor for the new iMasons Technology Committee. Christian is also a Founding Member of iMasons and has agreed to help launch and guide the new Technology Committee, as the Vice-Chair. The vision is that iMasons will recruit a new, fresh face for the key Chair role to help lead the committee along with Christian and Eddie. Let us know if you have any recommendations.

Carrie and Simon are joined by Bill Kleyman - EVP of Digital Solutions at Switch, Chairperson of the iMason Millennials/GenZ member resource group, and Cyber security expert.

Stories in the press about serious cyber attacks are appearing with alarming and seemingly increasing regularity. We ask Bill, how can an industry that takes security so seriously be vulnerable to cyber attack, and what can we do to protect ourselves?

Carrie and Simon are joined by Peter Gross (Industry Legend and sitting on multiple industry Boards including DCiRN) and Dennis Cronin (CEO DCiRN). 

Data Centers are the beating heart of the global digital infrastructure that the world is now completely dependent upon. Yet unlike other critical industries such as aviation and nuclear - data centre failures, and how they were fixed, just aren’t reported. DCiRN - The non-profit, anonymous Data Center Incident Reporting Network means we could all learn from the experiences of others which will make data centres safer and more reliable. Spotlight on the OVH fire - could DCiRN have prevented this incident.

Lockdown strategies prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic actually increased digital inequality and its consequences are even more severe now that the world is heavily relying on digital infrastructure.

Of urgent concern is the impact of the pandemic on children being homeschooled in households often sharing one device, often a mobile phone, for the whole family, or worse – no available technology at all - and this issue will remain after lockdown as children and parents battle to catch up.

Liz Raven, Head of Quality at Yondr and EMEA Lead for iMasons Millennials / Gen Z MRG (Member Resource Group), is taking action.

We’re joined today by Liz Raven and Collette Nabyonga, Co-Founder of TechInclusionUK who have developed A Circular Solution to Address Digital Exclusion and Tackle e-waste - actively helping children on the wrong side of digital inequality 

Meet Richard Tang, the Founder and Chairman of Zen Internet, a successful business that's grown every year in it's 25 year history to become the biggest independent ISP in the UK employing over 500 people. 

Richard believes in driving goodness in society and has a unique business philosophy of always putting people first and that money should always be secondary and subservient - a philosophy that is contributing to successful growth and a more sustainable future.  

Richard talks about his humble beginnings and his desire from an early age to set up a company to provide the resources to enable him to help others.

Data Centers have been called the ‘Factories of the Future’, yet there’ve been few attempts to double click on what this means in terms of possibilities and opportunities. Are there synergies that can be exploited between what data centers do and what is done in ‘industry’?
 
Carrie and Simon meet two people from ABB who have the answers - Kevin Starr is the Global Program Manager for ABB’s Oil, Gas, and Chemical Division and Richard Ungar is the Head of Data Center Automation.

Carrie and Simon are joined by Charisse Richards, Chief Information Officer at Judicial Branch of Arizona, Maricopa County and Nancy Novak, Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Data Centers to discuss the difference between Equity & Equality and share their thoughts and experiences on ways to make a change and take a look at what’s worked in the past and examine solutions.

Laurie talks about the meeting with an iM scholarship recipient that solidified her, and Vertiv’s, personal commitment to support the iM Scholarship fund and the importance of encouraging the next generation of talent into our industry.

Vertiv are also aligned to iMasons strategic priorities of inspiring Sustainability and championing Diversity and Inclusion and Laurie shares how Vertiv are developing technology and solutions to support the changing architectural needs of their customers and how important remote monitoring and management will be to support the proliferation of Edge.

Carrie and Simon are joined by Hannah Ormondroyd Chair of the iMasons D&I Committee and Head of People, Data Centre Solutions at CBRE who led the team producing the Digital Infrastructure Industry’s 1st ever Diversity and Inclusion Best Practice Guide and by Inge Woudstra CEO of the Big Fish Academy who was commissioned to conduct interviews and gather the content for the Guide.

Do you think achieving workforce diversity is beyond you? This Guide is based entirely on stories from people who have been on this journey and can help by sharing experiences and providing helpful insights and tips.