Oslo 2022

Material Matters: rethinking the business model of designing & building data centers 

Thomas Rau is a front runner in the international debate on sustainability and the use of renewable energy in architecture.
Examples of Thomas Rau’s innovative ideas include Lighting as a Service  and Madaster; a platform for the use and reuse of building materials, that launched in Norway just months ago. 

In a series of live talk shows throughout the day, journalist & entrepreneur Yrja Oftedahl & leading data center expert Christiane Ulriksen (Head of Datasenter Segment, Eviny) will navigate the audience through the current data center landscape in Norway. Oftedahl will host the talk show, while Ulriksen will invite the major leaders of the Norwegian data center industry to discuss the opportunities and challenges that face the data center industry. 

Data Center Sustainability - Part 1

Green Energy & Climate Change
What is the definition of green energy? How do you measure green energy? How will volatile international energy markets impact the data center industry in the Nordics? How long can Norway stay in the lead, before other regions catch up? We’re taking a closer look at three urgent topics in the field of green energy

• ✅ Looking beyond PPA: datacenter operators & energy suppliers join forces in the development of green energy projects. Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? A closer look at trends and innovations

✅ Nuclear Energy: inevitable or unthinkable? Trends, innovation and the impact of current events on the nuclear energy debate

✅ Special report: Last year Huawei spent 20 billion on data center research and development. Let’s find out what they learned. 

Panelists

🔹 Petter Tømmeraas - CEO AQ Compute

🔹 Jørn Skaane - CEO Lefdal Mine Data Center

🔹 Gisle Eckhoff - Executive Vice President Bulk Data Centers

🔹 Atle Haga - Program Director Statkraft Data Center Sites

Expert opinions

🔹 Hans Petter Kildal - CEO Becour

🔹 Henrik Børling, Business Development Director Huawei 

Data Center Sustainability - Part 2

The Business Case for a circular data center economy: new technologies, new standards, new ideas 

✅ Heat recovery: we want it, we know how to do it, so what’s stopping us? Why is it important to involve local communities & governments? Can heat recovery bring synergy between real estate development and data center investments?

✅ IT hardware suppliers are at a crossroads. A first look at the factors that will ultimately force data center suppliers to rethink products & processes. Talking points include: life cycle assessment, embodied carbon, open standards, redesign, refurbish, re-use, (future) regulations and the EU circular economy action plan. 

✅ Everything being used to build a data center, all materials, all products, generated large amounts of CO2 during production ('embodied carbon'). How will this affect future design and build of data centers?

Panelists
🔹 Tor Kristian Gyland - CEO Green Mountain Data Centre

🔹 Halvor Bjerke - COO STACK Infrastructure

🔹 Stine Bjønnstu Holthe - Head Of Sustainability Bulk Data Centers

 Featuring

🔹 John Laban - Evangelist Open Compute Project Foundation

Sustainable Energy management that makes a difference is complex and requires focused innovation.

Huawei is a leading Company within research and Development, and with leading technologies, it is important that all parties adapt “readiness to change” to implement new technologies such as Blockchain, AI and Energy storage, to have the best possible usage of renewable energies, and make technologies such as Diesel generators in datacenter installations obsolete.

Improving data centre operational efficiency using DCIM, illustrated using customer reviews and case studies

Sunbird Software is changing the way data centres are being managed. With a focus on real user scenarios for real customer problems, we help data centre operators manage tasks and processes faster and more efficiently than ever before, while saving money and improving availability. Come and see how Data Centre Infrastructure Management software with inbuilt powerful monitoring and control, helps to reduce risk and increase efficiencies of people, process and technology.

The remarkable rise of the data center industry in Norway and the threat looming on the horizon

Of all Nordic markets, Norway stands out with its phased capacity which is 1.6 times the size of its current live capacity. In 2021 the Norwegian market has grown by an estimated 114MW of IT power and today is triple the size that it was in Q4 2017. What’s next?

The 3 P’s of a High Performance Datacenter: The Datacenter Trinity

Sharing 25 years of experience: How to build successful data centers in Norway

CTS Nordics is a design and build contractor with a focus on data centre solutions in the Nordics. With 25 years of experience CTS Nordics is one of the most experienced data center contractors in Europe. They are here not just to tell you what they have learned along the way, but to offer their perspective on the future of designing & building data centres.

An eco friendly fire extinguish system, does it exist?

-Why look to Inergen® when sustainability & safety are of the essence.

Data Center Changemakers - Part 3

Data Center Supply Chains: lots of moving parts

Rethinking data center design & build and switching to 100% renewable energy. It's important, but it won't be enough to put a halt to climate change. We need to take a close look at supply chains. And not just because of its negative impact on climate change; the last two years made it abundantly clear that things need to change if suppliers want to keep up with the demand for new data centers. 

✅ Can a change in supply chain management reduce the data center's carbon footprint?

• ✅ Which strategies can you adopt to avoid delays caused by supply chain disruptions?
• ✅ Is vertical integration the next big thing in data center investment?
• ✅ How to make sure not to bring a Trojan horse into the data center when managing supply chains

Panelists

🔹 Halvor Bjerke - COO STACK Infrastructure

🔹 Andreas Myr - Vice President data center services Basefarm

Video introduction
🔹 John Laban - Evangelist Open Compute Project Foundation

Data Center Changemakers - Part 4:

Data Center People: attracting talent & exploring the skills shortage

Great career paths, an innovative industry, above average salaries, a booming market. Yet the influx of new talent in the data center industry is low. What is going on?

✅ Is there a skills shortage and if so, how can we solve it? 

✅ Case Study: Setting the green standard at Green Mountain Datacentre: find the right people to the right job, support and motivate employees, facilitate training and education to keep their skills and knowledge relevant, retain them in the company for a long time, develop young talent and data center skills, create a working culture for everyone to thrive and be healthy and satisfied

Panelists

🔹 Irene Vikingstad, HR Manager Green Mountain Data Centre

🔹 John Booth - Director National Data Center Academy

🔹 Ali Moinuddin - Managing Director Uptime Institute

Video introduction

🔹 John Laban - Evangelist/Alchemist Open Compute Project Foundation

Five Datacenter Predictions for 2022 

The digital infrastructure sector is booming worldwide as the edge buildout progresses and organizations continue to adapt to the effects of the pandemic. But what emerging challenges lie ahead and what trends will define the coming year? This presentation will cover the Uptime Institute’s top five issues for 2022. These include sustainability reporting and the difficulty of achieving zero-carbon emissions, the uneven impacts of processor innovations, supply chain problems and the concentration risk of cloud computing.

How LUMI - the world's most powerful supercomputer, located in Finland - raises the bar for sustainable HPC

LUMI Supercomputer is the world’s fastest computer systems, having theoretical computing power of more than 550 petaflops which means 550 quintillion calculations per second, sevenfold compared to one of Europe’s fastest supercomputer today. 

LUMI’s waste heat will account for about 20 percent of the district heating in the city of Kajaani and will substantially reduce the entire city’s annual carbon footprint: by 12,400 tons – an amount that equals the output from nearly 4000 passenger cars.

Find out more about the possibilities for end-users to use the LUMI supercomputer for research & training. And learn everything there is to know about it's design and build, in this exclusive presentation.

Where to invest next: 5 criteria that play a crucial part in the site selection process for building data centers

Pa$sw0rd1: how to build & maintain a resilient & agile cyber security structure in the age of international turmoil 

Data centres are becoming larger and more complex, current geopolitical events are making the world more dangerous. Basefarm has entered into a strategic partnership with Orange Cyberdefense, Norway's leading provider of IT security services and in this sesssion Esten Hoel, SVP Governance, Risk & Compliance wil talk about CyberSOC, an intelligence-based center that deals with security monitoring, detection and incident management. All working towards the main question: how to build & maintain a resilient & agile cyber security structure in the age of international turmoil.

Microsoft's journey towards zero emissions

Microsoft is on an ambitious journey towards zero emissions, and our data center operations is a key part of this. Christopher Frenning will outline Microsoft’s goals, progress towards the goals, and how Microsoft is working with its customers and partners to make sustainability a #1 priority.

Christopher Frenning is the Data Center Strategy Lead in Microsoft Norway.
 

Data Center Changemakers - End-of-day panel

Building a support base for sustainable data center growth in Norway

The Netherlands is one of the top data center markets in Europe, but new projects are met with protests by local comunities. In the last decade the Dutch governement never openly discussed their 'data center diplomacy' aimed at attracting hyperscale data centers to the Low Countries. The lack of a central strategy put local municipalities in charge of decisions that could seriously impact the entire country. This led to messy procedures, lawsuits, resulting in a series of critical newspaper articles. The avalanche of bad news more or less forced the Dutch government to impose a nine-month moratorium on the building of new (internatational) hyperscale data centres, while new planning regulations are worked out.

The Dutch story inspired the Norwegian Data Center Industry Association to give higher priority to start a dialogue with Norwegian society and the Norwegian government. Chairman of the Association Petter Tømmeraas will tell the story of the data center industry by - figuratively speaking - opening the doors of all data center facilities and invite all Norwegians to join the debate on the future of the data center industry.

Tømmeraas will highlight the success stories, but won't shy away from the challenging issues & dillema's this fast growing industry is facing. The Dutch cautionary tale shows that a scenario for sustainable data center growth can only succeed if it has the support of Norwegian society, backed by the active involvement of the Norwegian government.  

Panelists

🔹Petter Tømmeraas - Chairman Norsk Datasenter Industri

🔹Christopher Frenning - Datacenter Strategy Lead Norway, Microsoft

🔹Gunn Karin Gjul - State Secretary Norwegian Government, Ministry of Local Government & Regional Development

Ms. Gunn Karin Gjul is State Secretary with responsibility in the area of digitalization and electronic communications in the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. She is a lawyer with degree from the University of Oslo. Ms. Gjul has previously been a member of the Norwegian Parliament for 20 years representing The Norwegian Labour Party.

🔹Atle Haga - Project Manager Data Centers Statkraft