To Bolster its Workforce, Data Centers Must Demystify the Cloud

Cool Vector

The data center industry is uniquely positioned to integrate workers from a broad array of backgrounds, which is good news, given the rapid aging of the industry's original workforce.

According to three veterans of the industry, more needs to be done to elevate awareness of careers in data centers among workers in other industries, as well as among young people raised in a digital world, but unaware of the physical infrastructure necessary to keep the data flowing.

This wide-ranging Cool Vector conversation includes Phill Lawson-Shanks of ⁠Aligned Data Centers⁠, Nabeel Mahmood of ⁠Mahmood⁠, and Phillip Koblence of Critical Ventures. All three are helping build a non-profit foundation called ⁠Nomad Futurist⁠, dedicated to demystifying the data center industry.

Mahmood, CEO and co-founder of Nomad Futurist, begins the conversation with an overview of how much more digital the world will become, and the necessity of infrastructure to service this enormously expanded coverage. At the same time, the humans charged with building and managing the infrastructure are leaving the industry. Mahmood estimates that within five years, "there's going to be a retirement party. . . every day of the week."

The demand for workers will not be confined within the walls of data centers themselves. Lawson-Shanks, an advisor to Nomad Futurist, anticipates a proliferation of new businesses around data centers globally, similar to the innovation acceleration that accompanied the advent of the iPhone. "We're at an iPhone moment again," he says. "No one anticipated the ecosystem that would develop around that piece of technology."

There is "an amazing tsumani [of technology] that's coming," Lawson-Shanks says.

Koblence, the other co-founder of Nomad Futurist, details the many types of career paths available within broader digital infrastructure. Koblence stresses the industry needs workers of every background. "People think you need to be a computer geek in order to work in a data center digital infrastructure, and that's simply not the case," he says. "If anything, the majority of the roles are non-computer focused roles, and more involved in the development and deployment of these sites that need to be everywhere."

Koblence adds: "The people that are most successful in our industry tend to be the ones that have come from other industries, that have the ability to articulate and communicate in a way that is not necessarily second nature to someone who has a computer-focused or engineering-focused mindset."

Lawson-Shanks notes his company, Aligned Data Centers, has had success recruiting workers from the US Navy nuclear submarine program, because these veterans are used to "having that methodology of procedures and policies. You don't just do things - there are checks and balances before every change."

Koblence and Mahmood describe their visits to high schools, sometimes with tech executives from well known companies like Netflix and TikTok in tow, to help teenagers understand digital infrastructure. They say these native-digital young people are very engaged, smart, have access to a universe of information, and are concerned about environmental impact.

The three veterans also agree that more needs to be done to educate communities about the positive impacts of data centers beyond direct and indirect job creation, including tax revenue.

Visit the Nomad Futurist website: https://nomadfuturist.org/

Visit the Cool Vector website: https://coolvectormedia.com/