December 3, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, Bruno Berti, Senior Vice President of Global Product Management at NTT Global Data Centers, shares how a career rooted in telecom and community-first values has evolved into leading global strategy for one of the world’s largest digital infrastructure providers. From his early days in Canadian telecom labs to shaping data center innovation at scale, Bruno offers a compelling look at how NTT blends global reach with local connection.
Today’s guest, Bruno Berti, is the SVP of Global Product Management at NTT Global Data Centers, one of the most expansive and community-driven data center platforms on the planet.
Bruno’s journey from operator to global leader is powered by deep customer empathy, relentless curiosity, and a commitment to designing infrastructure that scales with purpose.
He explains how NTT’s unique growth playbook—rooted in local market expertise and global alignment—has enabled it to anticipate customer needs, deliver consistent service worldwide, and build lasting relationships across borders. Bruno also takes us inside the data center to demystify its role in powering everyday life—from autonomous vehicles and medical research to government services and AI.
With a strong focus on sustainability, Bruno details how NTT is turning heat into community energy, integrating AI into operations, and driving toward net-zero goals. His client-first mindset, combined with a flexible, future-ready product strategy, reveals the mindset behind NTT’s continued success in a fast-changing industry.
From real-world use cases to product leadership lessons, this episode is packed with insight for anyone building, buying, or just curious about the infrastructure shaping our digital future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Let's Get Digital podcast.
I'm Keri Charles and I am so happy that you are with me today.
I got a great guest on the show, Bruno Berti.
He is the Senior Vice President of Global Product Management for NTT Global Data Centers.
Bruno, thanks for joining me today.
I just met you what, three weeks ago?
(00:22):
Three weeks ago, yes, it was a great meeting and thanks for having me on the show.
really appreciate it, Kara.
Good to see you today.
Yes, I'm so excited.
had a great conversation, I believe, at the Infrastructure Summit, Structure Research inLas Vegas.
And I just noticed that there were just some very unique things that you had to say.
(00:45):
And so I'm excited to talk about them um and share them with the audience.
But first, we want to talk about you, Bruno.
How did you get to where you are today?
Tell me about what's your story?
My story, so it's uh an interesting one.
So I started my career, I grew up in Canada.
um So I graduated uh school and took computer engineering and quickly entered thetelecommunications world.
(01:13):
And that's kind of where I really started getting experience around data centers andnetwork connectivity and sort of what it takes to really connect the world and have
applications work together.
I was really fortunate.
early in my career that I got to work in a technology group.
So we had a lab and I got to go inside that lab and test different equipment, play withstuff, and just really kind of learn from all the people that I got to work with and some
(01:43):
of the suppliers that were providing equipment.
And as part of that, we selected a piece of technology to roll into the company.
And I got to work with the operations team to roll it out and make sure they hadeverything they needed in order to properly operate that equipment.
And I got to spend uh months inside of our data center at the time.
(02:08):
And that's kind of where I got the appreciation of what it really takes to deliverservices for consumers, businesses, and really kind of got infatuated with just.
technology at that point.
So very early on in my career, I got exposure to data centers and, you know, I won't gothrough all the little bits and pieces, but basically 13 years ago, I ended up at a small
(02:35):
company called Raging Wire, which was a data center provider in the Americas.
And at the time we were based out of Sacramento, but we had a expansion.
just started in Virginia and we can talk a little bit about the strategic significance ofVirginia.
in the data center world, but we had those two locations.
(02:57):
And I was sort of early on in the process of where we really had this aggressive expansionplan.
So we started expanding in different parts of the US, in all kind of the strategic coredata center markets in the US.
I really kind of got to see and learn a lot about the data center industry and our clientsat that perspective.
(03:19):
And what I do at
NTT or kind of what I've done most of my career is I'm in product management.
So it's a big word, but what that really means for me and just in simple terms is I get totalk to customers, I get to talk to the market, I get to talk to industry experts, I get
to talk to suppliers and hopefully steer our company in the direction that we need to goin order to support those, those, those, you know, different stakeholders as we call them.
(03:49):
So I really kind of got the opportunity to learn and steer our company in the direction umthat we are now.
And during that process, Raging Wire got acquired by NTT.
So that really gave us access to capital and kind of more put a global view into what wedo.
So, and I was a long short version of my story, but it was kind of sort of how it got intodata centers and it's been an amazing.
(04:16):
uh
career I've learned so much and actually still having fun this long into the industry.
It is fun, isn't it?
There's a lot going on right now.
telling you, Kerry, yeah, and you saw it at the conference where we met.
the conference was bigger than it's ever been.
There were people in there that we've never seen before.
And you're right, we're at a point in the industry and data center specifically that, youknow, the rate of change and innovation is nothing like I've ever seen in my career.
(04:46):
Yes, so true.
So let's talk about NTT global data centers and uh just a little bit about everything.
um Again, how the company started, where it operates today, and also how it's grown into aglobal leader.
Yeah, and I think this is one of the unique stories that we have as NTT.
(05:07):
Because I think I mentioned, I started with Raging Wire that got bought by NTT.
So 13, 14 years ago, NTT, which is a Japanese telecommunications company, they really havebig visions in sort of providing a global footprint and kind of expanding their presence
outside of Japan.
(05:27):
So they saw the need.
for infrastructure back then.
So what they did was they looked across the markets and they wanted to get into the datacenter business.
So they looked in the Americas, they looked in Europe, they looked in India and the restof Asia Pacific, which were the core global markets out there for data centers and
infrastructure in general.
(05:49):
And they ended up purchasing the best of breed, as we call them, local companies.
So they bought Raging Wire, which was just in the Americas.
They bought eShelter in Jyron, which was based out of Europe, and they bought Netmagic inIndia, and they had their own data center assets in Japan and APAC.
(06:09):
So what they did 13 years ago is they brought those five, four companies together to kindof operate as NTT global data centers.
And for a number of years, they had let us operate.
uh independently in those local regions with sort of the NTT kind of parent company as thefunder and the ability for each of those different regions to expand locally.
(06:34):
So that gives us a bit of a unique uh market presence since we started as a local companyin those key regions.
We started as a local company.
So we had the relationships, we had the, um you know, the presence and sort of theunderstanding of what it took to be
local.
So, and then what we've done over the last 13 years is kind of brought those companiestogether to really leverage our global strategy.
(07:03):
So now we're a global company, but we've got that local expertise.
So we tend to have, you know, a bit of a different perspective in the market because we,you know, kind of grew up in each of those individual markets, but now we have the ability
to leverage.
what we've learned in each of those markets in other markets as well.
So we can take some of the things that we've done in the Americas, for example, andleverage it in Europe.
(07:28):
And one of the things that's changed in this industry is we kind of talked about isthere's no such thing anymore as a local company, right?
Most of the customers that we service are global in nature or have global requirements innature.
So that really gives us a bit of a unique perspective because we have a company or acustomer in Germany
(07:49):
that need some capacity in Japan or a customer in Malaysia that needs some capacity inSouth Africa.
So with that kind of relationship and the fact that we have those local relationships,we're able to leverage that globally and service them globally and let them buy what they
get in Japan is gonna be the same product and the same service that they get in Germany.
(08:10):
So it's actually really, um I feel it's one of the unique things we offer as NTT.
So let's talk a little bit more about that local first approach and growing in the regionsbecause it's a hot topic right now with data centers and communities.
And there's certain communities that are rejecting new data center builds and there's justa lot of chatter around it.
(08:38):
So how would you say that NTT has approached because they've grown up in thesecommunities, how have they approached the partnership with the community?
and working together and uh I guess creating a happy community that the data centers arethere.
Yeah, no, and I think that's one of the changes that we've seen in the industry.
(08:59):
I think with that local approach from an NTT, GDC perspective, we've always been involvedin the community.
knew, or we know, we understand, in order to get a data center into a community, it reallydoes require a lot of outreach, a lot of education, a lot of local support.
So what I'm pretty excited about in most of our developments.
(09:22):
there's always some community engagement that we include.
We've got parks that are part of our facilities in Phoenix.
We've got um community outreach that's done in Germany quite a bit.
And we can talk a little bit about some of those community projects in which we actuallyintegrate some of our um systems into the rest of the community to provide some benefits.
(09:45):
But that community outreach is critical.
And I think...
not to understate again the value of we grew up in those communities, right?
We started in Germany with E-Shelter.
We started in London with Jyron.
We started in Sacramento with Raging Wire in India with Netmagic in Mumbai.
we had a lot of that local presence.
(10:05):
We live in those communities.
So we know what it takes to be a good steward of the community.
And I think that's one of the things that, you know, in the...
conversations with data centers.
Five years ago, data centers weren't a topic.
Now they are.
So part of our job is to be more engaged with the community.
I think one of the things I'm even excited about is we built a data center in Texas, umyou know, back in 2013 or 15, I believe.
(10:33):
And one of the things that we did was we put in a conference center um into that facilityand we allowed community um
know, groups to actually use that facility.
So we had, you know, local bodies come in and use that conference facility for 150 peoplethat they could actually leverage.
Because we know bringing people inside the data center is the best way to educate them on,you know, what the data center is.
(11:01):
And in Virginia, we've always been a part of the local school systems.
And we bring students in during.
certain parts of the year where we actually let them see what our operations staffactually do inside the data center because we want to make sure that we're creating a
place where people want to work as well.
So we work with universities and that and those are the community things that I think arevery critical for us to educate what the data centers, the data centers really are versus
(11:28):
what they are not.
Take me inside of a data center.
Let's step inside.
What actually happens day to day behind the walls?
How are your teams using innovation, research to really deliver for customers?
So that's my favorite part, And I think anytime I walk into one of our data centers, Ihave the biggest smile on my face, because that's where I really, excuse the expression,
(11:54):
but that's where I geek out, right?
So I want to separate the inside of the data center in two big pieces, right?
There's what we do inside the data center, which is exciting.
But then for me, it's what our customers do inside the data center, which is probably whatmost people are aware of.
But I'll start with what we do.
(12:15):
um If you look inside a data center, I always try to simplify it.
From an NTT Global Data Centers perspective, we really do five things.
We do them very well, but we do five things.
We provide power to the equipment that our customers install.
And we do that in a very important way, right?
We provide power redundantly.
(12:37):
We provide power that never goes down.
We provide power in a way
that really optimizes the equipment that our customers install inside the data center.
So that's kind of the key thing we do.
The second thing we do is we cool that um power, that data center, because basically whenyou're powering equipment and equipment is running, that equipment gets hot and it gets
(13:02):
hot pretty fast and it gets hot directly based on the amount of power that is consumed.
So we got to get that heat out of the building.
Some people call it cooling, it's really, we got to get the heat out of the building.
So we do that for most of our customers.
And that's probably some of the innovation that's happened recently is, you know, we usedto just push cold air over these servers and then the cold air would turn into hot air.
(13:28):
And then we would basically get that hot air out of the building.
So there's been a lot of innovation in cooling and sort of being more efficient, but alsosome of the projects we've done is we take that excess heat.
And we actually deliver that excess heat to the community so we can heat office buildings,we can heat homes, we can heat swimming pools.
And we're doing that at a large scale in our Germany facilities.
(13:52):
So we're really excited about that.
We want to deploy that a lot more.
We can talk about that some more when we do talk about sustainability, because that'scritical.
So power, cooling, obviously space.
provide space for the customers to put their equipment in.
physical security because it's really important.
You know, one of the statistics I throw out there is um for every megawatt, and that's apower unit that we sell to our customers, they spend $50 million to use that megawatt.
(14:26):
So they're buying equipment, they're buying racks, they're buying infrastructure.
So they make a significant investment of equipment to put into our data center.
So we need to make sure
that we've got physical security that nobody that's not authorized goes into that datacenter.
(14:46):
So physical security is an important aspect.
And then the one that a lot of people forget is connectivity.
We need to be able to provide connectivity to that equipment so they can get data in andout of that data center.
So connectivity is also a very critical service.
and component that we provide to our customers and give them options to.
(15:06):
So that's simply what we do inside the data center.
So we have a staff, we've got significant staff inside of those data centers that work forNTT Global Data Centers.
We were happy to share that, you know, all that staff, you know, wears NTT GDC shirts andare proud to be part of the company, but they are basically responsible for making sure
(15:28):
that that equipment, the power, the space, the cooling, the connectivity,
is available to our customers 24-7, uh 100 % of the time.
We do not allow those systems and those servers and that power to ever go down.
That's one of the things that the staff is really focused on making sure that those piecesinside the data center are there all the time.
(15:51):
So that's what we do.
But then I geek out a lot because then there's what our customers are doing, right?
So they're installing, they're
buying equipment, they're installing that equipment, they're putting it in the datacenter.
But always impresses me.
Cary is kind of the applications or sort of what's actually happening on their side,right?
(16:12):
Everyone's aware of the typical things that we all do, right?
We all have phones, we're all accessing applications on our phones, we're texting, we'reemailing, we're taking pictures, we're doing mobile banking.
So that stuff all happens inside the data center.
And I walk through our...
customers in areas and I get to see where that happens, right?
(16:35):
Social media, there's a lot of things that we understand as users that we do every day onthe data center side.
But there's also things that are a little bit less known that happen inside the datacenter, especially in today's day and age, right?
Where everything is digitized, everything is automated.
Cars.
um
(16:55):
People don't probably understand how much telemetry and how much information is beingstored and collected when you're driving your vehicle.
EV vehicles are one thing, but even non-EV vehicles are storing and collecting a lot ofdata.
That data gets uploaded and stored into data centers.
That then that information can be used to improve the cars.
(17:17):
That information can be used to design and build better cars or even for insurancepurposes.
But all this automated driving, ah know, everyone, hopefully everyone's gotten into aWaymo or one of these self-driving um taxis, but all that automation and self-driving
technology lives inside a data center.
(17:40):
The other piece that, you know, people probably forget is that, you know, the government,a lot of the intelligence, a lot of the research that's being done in the government, that
happens inside of a data center.
Education.
all the online learning, all the courses, that's all inside of a data center.
And the part that excites me, and I know we're going to probably touch on AI, but evenmedical and financial, right?
(18:05):
You look at all the research, all of the data points that is being collected for any kindof research that's going on, be it cancer, be it heart, all that research and data lives
inside of a data center is being processed inside of a data center.
I know there's those applications that we all understand, but then there's also all theother things that we rely on as a community that we probably don't know that it is
(18:32):
happening inside of a data center.
Wow, that was the best explanation of what goes on inside of a data center I've everheard.
oh No, that's great.
And I was just sitting here thinking, anyone who is listening that wants to educate theirteam or new people or young people or anyone on that topic, have them listen to this
(18:59):
episode for sure.
By the way, this episode is being recorded and stored in a data center as well.
It sure is, isn't it?
Our whole lives are being recorded and stored in a data center.
The sustainability, let's go there.
And it's definitely a major focus right now.
So what is NTT doing to benefit both uh customers, communities, everything when it comesto sustainability?
(19:27):
Yeah, and I want to break sustainability up because the one thing that data centers havealways been, you know, I've been on the design side or working on the product side of data
centers.
We've been designing the most efficient data centers that we can since we've built thembecause for us, efficiency and sustainability actually does result in a bottom line
(19:48):
savings, right?
So most people think sustainability, they think power.
renewable energy, renewable uh green power, be it from solar, wind, nuclear, differentoptions.
And that is a critical aspect of sustainability.
And that's something that obviously I'm excited about because there's so many innovationshappening right now on the power and renewable energy side, because obviously this
(20:15):
industry right now has a great demand for additional power.
The one thing that I'm excited about is if you look at some of those new sources of power,you know, we are investing, we are focusing, and we are kind of innovating in that whole
green and renewable um power um piece of it, which is exciting for me.
(20:36):
But sustainability goes beyond power carry.
And I think that's one of the things that, you know, I love to talk about.
So NTT has made uh a commitment globally to focus on sustainability.
So we have a net
um 2030 goal where everything we do and we control is going to be net zero carbon free byum net zero emissions by 2030 and then extended to our customers and supply chain by 2040.
(21:06):
So we're pretty excited about that goal and we've been making significant progress.
I think we have a green report that we submit every year.
So if anyone wants to see those specific statistics, um
I'd love to direct people to read that report because it's exciting when we write thatreport because we get to see all the commitments that we've made through the years or
(21:29):
through the year, we get to put all the results in that report.
And we're ahead of the game in getting to that 2030 with our carbon emissions and theother programs that we're running towards.
But that's the easy side of sustainability.
Then there's the other piece.
sort of the sustainability projects that we're doing.
(21:50):
we're continually looking at ways to build our data centers more efficient.
um know, AI has actually allowed us to innovate in the cooling side and do some moreefficient cooling technologies and deploy them, which is actually improving the ratio of
power being used versus power required to deliver.
(22:12):
So that's a term we use in the industry called
PUE or power usage effectiveness.
What that really means is for every electron or kilowatt I deliver to my client, how manymore electrons or kilowatts do I need to support that?
So that's lighting, cooling, everything else that supports that.
The lower that number is or the less I have to do outside of that one kilowatt, thebetter.
(22:37):
So liquid cooling is allowing us to really improve that ratio.
But the other thing, and I touched on it,
earlier, it's how do we take what we do and leverage it outside the community?
So we talked about, you know, one of the core things inside the data center is to get theheat out of the data center.
We're doing projects in Berlin where we're taking that excess heat and we're actuallybringing it into a heat recovery system that's part of the community and we're able to
(23:09):
take that heat and distribute it through a
cooling system or a water system that gets delivered to office buildings and communities.
So we're delivering free heating or call it free heating, but it's basically being able toleverage a waste product from our data center and drive it to the community.
(23:30):
And those to me are the types of projects that we need to do more of and set upinfrastructure more of, because that's actually where one plus one equals three, not to...
Sound cliche, but now what we do is actually improving and providing more benefit tocommunities.
And there's a lot of these little projects that are going out there that are really headedtowards that sustainability world.
(23:54):
So just when you think sustainability, it's more than just power, it is how do we takewhat we do and do it better?
How do we make it more efficient?
And then how do we actually um invest in technologies that are going to improve?
um
know, life and communities going forward.
So you are with customers a lot.
(24:15):
And how are you working with these customers to meet their changing needs?
mean, AI is, gosh, it's changing.
It's changing our lives every second, right?
Business, personal lives, every single thing we do, everything that we touch.
So edge computing, cloud, it's driving the demand for smarter, faster, more efficient datacenters.
(24:38):
So tell me how you're working with those customers as things are just moving as fast as afreight train.
Yeah, freight trains, that's a good example, or a good analogy.
um Yeah, the interesting thing um as NTT, we really have the top of the top customersinside of our portfolio.
(24:58):
So we spend a lot of time talking to them, um strategically, also during times when theyhave needs.
So we get a lot of time to learn from them.
And the one thing that's interesting is our
Most of our business now globally is from our existing client base.
uh So we get to learn and work with them a lot to make sure that what we're doing in newdata centers as well as globally kind of aligns with their needs.
(25:28):
So we learn a lot from our existing clients.
And I think you touched something that is interesting is that the data center industry hasbeen uh pretty consistent over the last, say 10, 20 years.
with, you we build that data center, customers look at it afterwards and bring in theirequipment and we've been able to meet their needs.
(25:49):
But if you look at what's happening with the equipment that they're buying, em anyonethat's following NVIDIA and listening to Jensen's em keynote speakers, you see all the
innovation that is currently happening in that side.
So we are actually talking to clients.
before they even buy that equipment.
Now we're talking to the NVIDIAs, the AMDs, before they release that equipment, becausenow the data center, as opposed to afterthought, the data center now is becoming a
(26:19):
forethought, or uh part of the conversation, because we need to make sure that as theyinnovate their equipment, as our customers innovate the applications that they're
deploying, we have to make sure that data centers can support them, because there has beenso much change.
The amount of power
The amount of equipment, the amount of technology that they're deploying is nothing likewe've ever seen.
(26:41):
So to answer your question, we're having conversations with the customers before they buydata centers.
We're having conversations with the manufacturers a lot earlier in the process.
So now the data center is part of the conversation as opposed to, know, where do I putthis equipment after I've bought it?
Which is actually giving us that ability to be a little more innovative and look at thingsa lot differently.
(27:06):
The interesting thing for us is everyone's talking about AI and our customers aredeploying AI.
We actually get to use AI to help us design our data centers as well and test thingsbefore we actually construct them.
um So we're using AI to help us in the construction and even during the constructionprocess because we have all of our designs digitally done in what we call a BIM model.
(27:33):
we can actually start using some AI now to take a look at what's happening during theconstruction process and make sure we're not making any mistakes or we're not missing
things.
So we're able to get real time information during the construction process.
And then obviously we're able to use AI during the operation process to maybe see sometrends that we normally wouldn't see a lot sooner.
(27:58):
So it is a...
I know you asked about the clients, but it's kind of all integrated now with what theclients are doing and sort of being able to adapt.
And I don't think we know yet um what's going to happen in the next three, four years withequipment.
So one of the things that we hear clearly from our customers is that we need to maintainsome level of flexibility and adaptability in our designs so that the next generation of
(28:26):
uh
GPUs that are going to come from Nvidia, which is probably only six months or a year away,is probably going to be a little different than what they're looking like today.
So we need to make sure that our data center can adapt.
So we've built some flexibility into our design so we can modify and adapt the existingdata centers and not have to start from scratch.
(28:48):
So those are the things that we're hearing from them and some of the ways that we've beenable to adapt to adhere to what our customers are doing.
I think that's applicable for every single business.
Anyone who's listening right now is listen to your customers and be involved in everystage, not just that little piece of what you do.
(29:10):
And I think that's brilliant advice.
more critical now than ever.
And I think that's kind of one of the things that, you our CEO always tells us that wehave to have a client first mentality.
And that doesn't mean do everything the client wants.
It really means listen to the client, hear what they're saying and make sure that we areanticipating and sharing all that information internally.
(29:31):
There's nothing better.
I got the chance to meet a client this week and they shared some information that I wasn'taware of and
I distributed that through the whole organization because I thought it was importantenough for us to know.
So the more you talk to clients, to your point, having that client first mentality isreally critical to stay on top of things.
Yes, for sure.
(29:52):
You said this earlier about how the data center industry has just changed at lightningspeed really in the last decade or so.
It's just mind blowing.
So what is the next generation of NTT look like?
That's something we think about um quite often.
(30:13):
I think we're trying our best to address the needs that our clients have today.
um So we're trying to build faster, we're trying to build more flexibility, we're tryingto stay ahead of where the demand curves are.
So it's causing us to...
have different conversations.
(30:34):
We're working a lot closer with power companies.
We're talking to different suppliers.
We're trying to stay ahead of the supply chain and ordering equipment, anticipating someof that need.
it's a lot more, you know, it's a lot less of, let's just build it and sell it.
It is now a lot more of, you know, planning and talking and trying to stay ahead of thingsa lot sooner and having conversations with people we never used to have conversations
(31:02):
with.
So I think what you've seen even with us, we're building bigger data centers.
um We've traditionally stayed in locations where there is existing data center demand andexisting data center capacity globally.
So we're in, we've got about 170 data centers across 20 countries and five major regionsof the globe.
(31:24):
So we try to make sure that we are...
um
building the right capacity and building the right products in those markets.
So we've stayed in those traditional data center markets.
We've not necessarily built um in remote locations just to try and get some power.
So we're trying to stay ahead of those and maintain that flexibility.
(31:45):
But if you look at sort of what the data center of the future is gonna look like, which wedon't know yet, and we're trying to stay ahead of them, but flexibility is critical.
I think size and scale is critical.
I think location.
is critical as well.
So you're going to see more data centers in locations where the, you know, some of thoseapplications I talked about are going to be required.
(32:07):
I think the infrastructure, meaning what our customers are putting into the data centerare going to be a lot more integrated with the data center as opposed to separate.
um So you're going to see a little more of those in different type locations.
And I'm very optimistic as well, Kerry, that you're going to see
data centers become more part of the community.
(32:31):
they're going to look a lot better than some data centers look today.
We've always focused on making sure there's some aesthetics to our data center, but makingit part of the community, making it part of the architecture is something I think you're
going to see not only from us, but from a lot of other companies as well.
I can't wait to see that.
Hahaha.
gonna be interesting.
(32:51):
So Bruno, I wanna ask you, I guess more of a personal professional question.
You've led product development, I saw, isn't it over 30 years I saw on your LinkedIn?
Is that a long time?
I mean, you look so young, how did you do that?
Did you start when you were four?
um But I'm just curious, so what's the formula for success when it comes to designingproducts that actually solve those real world problems for customers?
(33:18):
Yeah, so I'm glad you asked that because I think that's one of the things that I loveabout my job.
I've if you've looked at my LinkedIn, I've been a product manager pretty much since uh Igraduated uh university just a couple of years ago.
um But the the the one thing that I learned and I always tell this story um because it wasa bit of an eye opener for me.
(33:40):
So I told you I started telecommunication and I was a user of systems and technology and Igot hired.
um by one of the systems that we were actually using inside the data center to manage theproduct.
And I thought, you know, I was a user, I was the smartest person, I deployed it, I knewexactly what was wrong with the product and what was not wrong with the product.
(34:02):
So I worked with the development team, you know, as the product manager, because I kneweverything.
And I basically, you know, said, build this and do that, add this feature, take thisfeature away.
So we worked on a development project for about six months.
And at the end of the six months, we were happy to release it and it fell flat.
(34:23):
I honestly admit that I made a mistake.
I actually released the wrong product.
Customers didn't like it, so a lot of customers didn't buy it.
And I think that's kind of where I learned, Kerry, that what I know, what I think isirrelevant, honestly.
And I think it's really the more customers we speak with, the more suppliers we speakwith, the more industry we speak with.
(34:47):
personally as a product person, the better I can understand the real pervasive problemsthat exist, not just my problems, but it's the pervasive problems.
for me, the one secret, or it's not even a secret, but the one tact I've always taken isspeak with as many customers as possible, stay on top of what their problems are, because
(35:09):
if we can solve what they're looking for, that's the key.
And I think
The more customers you speak with, especially in our industry, there's common threads inwhat they're looking for.
There's common threads in what they're deploying.
there's common, even though everyone's a little unique, ah I think the value we provide isreally having that customer centricity.
(35:30):
So that's always been my favorite part of the job.
You put me in front of a customer and my face is beaming.
You put me in meetings all day, I start to hunch over, but.
speak with as many clients as possible and then just be passionate.
And I've always taken that approach to be open to different options and ideas.
There isn't always one best idea.
(35:52):
It's kind of coming through with many, but then test them.
And I think this is what I love about AI.
We can test ideas, we can test solutions, we can talk to clients.
Clients are gonna give you their thoughts and opinions.
So you can kind of get that instant feedback.
And with AI, you can test and fail a lot quicker than
know in the past where you just you know build something for six months and then realizeoops made a mistake.
(36:18):
That is gold right there, Bruno.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
uh How do we learn more about NTT, Global Data Centers?
Yeah, our website, ah LinkedIn, reach out to all of us, go to our website, uh and I thinkwe'll post the website here, but we have a lot of information, but you're going to notice
anyone at NTT Global Data Centers, we love to speak with clients, speak with prospects,educate the community, so reach out, some of us will, or someone will reach back out um
(36:49):
and speak with you.
yeah, our website, LinkedIn, reach out to anyone you know that's within the GDC.
We're happy to speak to anybody.
Bruno, this has been a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
I'm just thrilled that you came on.
I know I learn a lot in every episode, but I think I definitely learn more than usual inthis one.
So I sure appreciate you.
(37:11):
thanks, Kerry.
Anytime.
I appreciate it.
Take care.
Okay, don't move.
Don't move because it's got a download.
Welcome to Let's Get Digital podcast.
I'm Keri Charles and I am so happy that you are with me today.
I got a great guest on the show, Bruno Berti.
He is the Senior Vice President of Global Product Management for NTT Global Data Centers.
Bruno, thanks for joining me today.
I just met you what, three weeks ago?
(00:22):
Three weeks ago, yes, it was a great meeting and thanks for having me on the show.
really appreciate it, Kara.
Good to see you today.
Yes, I'm so excited.
had a great conversation, I believe, at the Infrastructure Summit, Structure Research inLas Vegas.
And I just noticed that there were just some very unique things that you had to say.
(00:45):
And so I'm excited to talk about them um and share them with the audience.
But first, we want to talk about you, Bruno.
How did you get to where you are today?
Tell me about what's your story?
My story, so it's uh an interesting one.
So I started my career, I grew up in Canada.
um So I graduated uh school and took computer engineering and quickly entered thetelecommunications world.
(01:13):
And that's kind of where I really started getting experience around data centers andnetwork connectivity and sort of what it takes to really connect the world and have
applications work together.
I was really fortunate.
early in my career that I got to work in a technology group.
So we had a lab and I got to go inside that lab and test different equipment, play withstuff, and just really kind of learn from all the people that I got to work with and some
(01:43):
of the suppliers that were providing equipment.
And as part of that, we selected a piece of technology to roll into the company.
And I got to work with the operations team to roll it out and make sure they hadeverything they needed in order to properly operate that equipment.
And I got to spend uh months inside of our data center at the time.
(02:08):
And that's kind of where I got the appreciation of what it really takes to deliverservices for consumers, businesses, and really kind of got infatuated with just.
technology at that point.
So very early on in my career, I got exposure to data centers and, you know, I won't gothrough all the little bits and pieces, but basically 13 years ago, I ended up at a small
(02:35):
company called Raging Wire, which was a data center provider in the Americas.
And at the time we were based out of Sacramento, but we had a expansion.
just started in Virginia and we can talk a little bit about the strategic significance ofVirginia.
in the data center world, but we had those two locations.
(02:57):
And I was sort of early on in the process of where we really had this aggressive expansionplan.
So we started expanding in different parts of the US, in all kind of the strategic coredata center markets in the US.
I really kind of got to see and learn a lot about the data center industry and our clientsat that perspective.
(03:19):
And what I do at
NTT or kind of what I've done most of my career is I'm in product management.
So it's a big word, but what that really means for me and just in simple terms is I get totalk to customers, I get to talk to the market, I get to talk to industry experts, I get
to talk to suppliers and hopefully steer our company in the direction that we need to goin order to support those, those, those, you know, different stakeholders as we call them.
(03:49):
So I really kind of got the opportunity to learn and steer our company in the direction umthat we are now.
And during that process, Raging Wire got acquired by NTT.
So that really gave us access to capital and kind of more put a global view into what wedo.
So, and I was a long short version of my story, but it was kind of sort of how it got intodata centers and it's been an amazing.
(04:16):
uh
career I've learned so much and actually still having fun this long into the industry.
It is fun, isn't it?
There's a lot going on right now.
telling you, Kerry, yeah, and you saw it at the conference where we met.
the conference was bigger than it's ever been.
There were people in there that we've never seen before.
And you're right, we're at a point in the industry and data center specifically that, youknow, the rate of change and innovation is nothing like I've ever seen in my career.
(04:46):
Yes, so true.
So let's talk about NTT global data centers and uh just a little bit about everything.
um Again, how the company started, where it operates today, and also how it's grown into aglobal leader.
Yeah, and I think this is one of the unique stories that we have as NTT.
(05:07):
Because I think I mentioned, I started with Raging Wire that got bought by NTT.
So 13, 14 years ago, NTT, which is a Japanese telecommunications company, they really havebig visions in sort of providing a global footprint and kind of expanding their presence
outside of Japan.
(05:27):
So they saw the need.
for infrastructure back then.
So what they did was they looked across the markets and they wanted to get into the datacenter business.
So they looked in the Americas, they looked in Europe, they looked in India and the restof Asia Pacific, which were the core global markets out there for data centers and
infrastructure in general.
(05:49):
And they ended up purchasing the best of breed, as we call them, local companies.
So they bought Raging Wire, which was just in the Americas.
They bought eShelter in Jyron, which was based out of Europe, and they bought Netmagic inIndia, and they had their own data center assets in Japan and APAC.
(06:09):
So what they did 13 years ago is they brought those five, four companies together to kindof operate as NTT global data centers.
And for a number of years, they had let us operate.
uh independently in those local regions with sort of the NTT kind of parent company as thefunder and the ability for each of those different regions to expand locally.
(06:34):
So that gives us a bit of a unique uh market presence since we started as a local companyin those key regions.
We started as a local company.
So we had the relationships, we had the, um you know, the presence and sort of theunderstanding of what it took to be
local.
So, and then what we've done over the last 13 years is kind of brought those companiestogether to really leverage our global strategy.
(07:03):
So now we're a global company, but we've got that local expertise.
So we tend to have, you know, a bit of a different perspective in the market because we,you know, kind of grew up in each of those individual markets, but now we have the ability
to leverage.
what we've learned in each of those markets in other markets as well.
So we can take some of the things that we've done in the Americas, for example, andleverage it in Europe.
(07:28):
And one of the things that's changed in this industry is we kind of talked about isthere's no such thing anymore as a local company, right?
Most of the customers that we service are global in nature or have global requirements innature.
So that really gives us a bit of a unique perspective because we have a company or acustomer in Germany
(07:49):
that need some capacity in Japan or a customer in Malaysia that needs some capacity inSouth Africa.
So with that kind of relationship and the fact that we have those local relationships,we're able to leverage that globally and service them globally and let them buy what they
get in Japan is gonna be the same product and the same service that they get in Germany.
(08:10):
So it's actually really, um I feel it's one of the unique things we offer as NTT.
So let's talk a little bit more about that local first approach and growing in the regionsbecause it's a hot topic right now with data centers and communities.
And there's certain communities that are rejecting new data center builds and there's justa lot of chatter around it.
(08:38):
So how would you say that NTT has approached because they've grown up in thesecommunities, how have they approached the partnership with the community?
and working together and uh I guess creating a happy community that the data centers arethere.
Yeah, no, and I think that's one of the changes that we've seen in the industry.
(08:59):
I think with that local approach from an NTT, GDC perspective, we've always been involvedin the community.
knew, or we know, we understand, in order to get a data center into a community, it reallydoes require a lot of outreach, a lot of education, a lot of local support.
So what I'm pretty excited about in most of our developments.
(09:22):
there's always some community engagement that we include.
We've got parks that are part of our facilities in Phoenix.
We've got um community outreach that's done in Germany quite a bit.
And we can talk a little bit about some of those community projects in which we actuallyintegrate some of our um systems into the rest of the community to provide some benefits.
(09:45):
But that community outreach is critical.
And I think...
not to understate again the value of we grew up in those communities, right?
We started in Germany with E-Shelter.
We started in London with Jyron.
We started in Sacramento with Raging Wire in India with Netmagic in Mumbai.
we had a lot of that local presence.
(10:05):
We live in those communities.
So we know what it takes to be a good steward of the community.
And I think that's one of the things that, you know, in the...
conversations with data centers.
Five years ago, data centers weren't a topic.
Now they are.
So part of our job is to be more engaged with the community.
I think one of the things I'm even excited about is we built a data center in Texas, umyou know, back in 2013 or 15, I believe.
(10:33):
And one of the things that we did was we put in a conference center um into that facilityand we allowed community um
know, groups to actually use that facility.
So we had, you know, local bodies come in and use that conference facility for 150 peoplethat they could actually leverage.
Because we know bringing people inside the data center is the best way to educate them on,you know, what the data center is.
(11:01):
And in Virginia, we've always been a part of the local school systems.
And we bring students in during.
certain parts of the year where we actually let them see what our operations staffactually do inside the data center because we want to make sure that we're creating a
place where people want to work as well.
So we work with universities and that and those are the community things that I think arevery critical for us to educate what the data centers, the data centers really are versus
(11:28):
what they are not.
Take me inside of a data center.
Let's step inside.
What actually happens day to day behind the walls?
How are your teams using innovation, research to really deliver for customers?
So that's my favorite part, And I think anytime I walk into one of our data centers, Ihave the biggest smile on my face, because that's where I really, excuse the expression,
(11:54):
but that's where I geek out, right?
So I want to separate the inside of the data center in two big pieces, right?
There's what we do inside the data center, which is exciting.
But then for me, it's what our customers do inside the data center, which is probably whatmost people are aware of.
But I'll start with what we do.
(12:15):
um If you look inside a data center, I always try to simplify it.
From an NTT Global Data Centers perspective, we really do five things.
We do them very well, but we do five things.
We provide power to the equipment that our customers install.
And we do that in a very important way, right?
We provide power redundantly.
(12:37):
We provide power that never goes down.
We provide power in a way
that really optimizes the equipment that our customers install inside the data center.
So that's kind of the key thing we do.
The second thing we do is we cool that um power, that data center, because basically whenyou're powering equipment and equipment is running, that equipment gets hot and it gets
(13:02):
hot pretty fast and it gets hot directly based on the amount of power that is consumed.
So we got to get that heat out of the building.
Some people call it cooling, it's really, we got to get the heat out of the building.
So we do that for most of our customers.
And that's probably some of the innovation that's happened recently is, you know, we usedto just push cold air over these servers and then the cold air would turn into hot air.
(13:28):
And then we would basically get that hot air out of the building.
So there's been a lot of innovation in cooling and sort of being more efficient, but alsosome of the projects we've done is we take that excess heat.
And we actually deliver that excess heat to the community so we can heat office buildings,we can heat homes, we can heat swimming pools.
And we're doing that at a large scale in our Germany facilities.
(13:52):
So we're really excited about that.
We want to deploy that a lot more.
We can talk about that some more when we do talk about sustainability, because that'scritical.
So power, cooling, obviously space.
provide space for the customers to put their equipment in.
physical security because it's really important.
You know, one of the statistics I throw out there is um for every megawatt, and that's apower unit that we sell to our customers, they spend $50 million to use that megawatt.
(14:26):
So they're buying equipment, they're buying racks, they're buying infrastructure.
So they make a significant investment of equipment to put into our data center.
So we need to make sure
that we've got physical security that nobody that's not authorized goes into that datacenter.
(14:46):
So physical security is an important aspect.
And then the one that a lot of people forget is connectivity.
We need to be able to provide connectivity to that equipment so they can get data in andout of that data center.
So connectivity is also a very critical service.
and component that we provide to our customers and give them options to.
(15:06):
So that's simply what we do inside the data center.
So we have a staff, we've got significant staff inside of those data centers that work forNTT Global Data Centers.
We were happy to share that, you know, all that staff, you know, wears NTT GDC shirts andare proud to be part of the company, but they are basically responsible for making sure
(15:28):
that that equipment, the power, the space, the cooling, the connectivity,
is available to our customers 24-7, uh 100 % of the time.
We do not allow those systems and those servers and that power to ever go down.
That's one of the things that the staff is really focused on making sure that those piecesinside the data center are there all the time.
(15:51):
So that's what we do.
But then I geek out a lot because then there's what our customers are doing, right?
So they're installing, they're
buying equipment, they're installing that equipment, they're putting it in the datacenter.
But always impresses me.
Cary is kind of the applications or sort of what's actually happening on their side,right?
(16:12):
Everyone's aware of the typical things that we all do, right?
We all have phones, we're all accessing applications on our phones, we're texting, we'reemailing, we're taking pictures, we're doing mobile banking.
So that stuff all happens inside the data center.
And I walk through our...
customers in areas and I get to see where that happens, right?
(16:35):
Social media, there's a lot of things that we understand as users that we do every day onthe data center side.
But there's also things that are a little bit less known that happen inside the datacenter, especially in today's day and age, right?
Where everything is digitized, everything is automated.
Cars.
um
(16:55):
People don't probably understand how much telemetry and how much information is beingstored and collected when you're driving your vehicle.
EV vehicles are one thing, but even non-EV vehicles are storing and collecting a lot ofdata.
That data gets uploaded and stored into data centers.
That then that information can be used to improve the cars.
(17:17):
That information can be used to design and build better cars or even for insurancepurposes.
But all this automated driving, ah know, everyone, hopefully everyone's gotten into aWaymo or one of these self-driving um taxis, but all that automation and self-driving
technology lives inside a data center.
(17:40):
The other piece that, you know, people probably forget is that, you know, the government,a lot of the intelligence, a lot of the research that's being done in the government, that
happens inside of a data center.
Education.
all the online learning, all the courses, that's all inside of a data center.
And the part that excites me, and I know we're going to probably touch on AI, but evenmedical and financial, right?
(18:05):
You look at all the research, all of the data points that is being collected for any kindof research that's going on, be it cancer, be it heart, all that research and data lives
inside of a data center is being processed inside of a data center.
I know there's those applications that we all understand, but then there's also all theother things that we rely on as a community that we probably don't know that it is
(18:32):
happening inside of a data center.
Wow, that was the best explanation of what goes on inside of a data center I've everheard.
oh No, that's great.
And I was just sitting here thinking, anyone who is listening that wants to educate theirteam or new people or young people or anyone on that topic, have them listen to this
(18:59):
episode for sure.
By the way, this episode is being recorded and stored in a data center as well.
It sure is, isn't it?
Our whole lives are being recorded and stored in a data center.
The sustainability, let's go there.
And it's definitely a major focus right now.
So what is NTT doing to benefit both uh customers, communities, everything when it comesto sustainability?
(19:27):
Yeah, and I want to break sustainability up because the one thing that data centers havealways been, you know, I've been on the design side or working on the product side of data
centers.
We've been designing the most efficient data centers that we can since we've built thembecause for us, efficiency and sustainability actually does result in a bottom line
(19:48):
savings, right?
So most people think sustainability, they think power.
renewable energy, renewable uh green power, be it from solar, wind, nuclear, differentoptions.
And that is a critical aspect of sustainability.
And that's something that obviously I'm excited about because there's so many innovationshappening right now on the power and renewable energy side, because obviously this
(20:15):
industry right now has a great demand for additional power.
The one thing that I'm excited about is if you look at some of those new sources of power,you know, we are investing, we are focusing, and we are kind of innovating in that whole
green and renewable um power um piece of it, which is exciting for me.
(20:36):
But sustainability goes beyond power carry.
And I think that's one of the things that, you know, I love to talk about.
So NTT has made uh a commitment globally to focus on sustainability.
So we have a net
um 2030 goal where everything we do and we control is going to be net zero carbon free byum net zero emissions by 2030 and then extended to our customers and supply chain by 2040.
(21:06):
So we're pretty excited about that goal and we've been making significant progress.
I think we have a green report that we submit every year.
So if anyone wants to see those specific statistics, um
I'd love to direct people to read that report because it's exciting when we write thatreport because we get to see all the commitments that we've made through the years or
(21:29):
through the year, we get to put all the results in that report.
And we're ahead of the game in getting to that 2030 with our carbon emissions and theother programs that we're running towards.
But that's the easy side of sustainability.
Then there's the other piece.
sort of the sustainability projects that we're doing.
(21:50):
we're continually looking at ways to build our data centers more efficient.
um know, AI has actually allowed us to innovate in the cooling side and do some moreefficient cooling technologies and deploy them, which is actually improving the ratio of
power being used versus power required to deliver.
(22:12):
So that's a term we use in the industry called
PUE or power usage effectiveness.
What that really means is for every electron or kilowatt I deliver to my client, how manymore electrons or kilowatts do I need to support that?
So that's lighting, cooling, everything else that supports that.
The lower that number is or the less I have to do outside of that one kilowatt, thebetter.
(22:37):
So liquid cooling is allowing us to really improve that ratio.
But the other thing, and I touched on it,
earlier, it's how do we take what we do and leverage it outside the community?
So we talked about, you know, one of the core things inside the data center is to get theheat out of the data center.
We're doing projects in Berlin where we're taking that excess heat and we're actuallybringing it into a heat recovery system that's part of the community and we're able to
(23:09):
take that heat and distribute it through a
cooling system or a water system that gets delivered to office buildings and communities.
So we're delivering free heating or call it free heating, but it's basically being able toleverage a waste product from our data center and drive it to the community.
(23:30):
And those to me are the types of projects that we need to do more of and set upinfrastructure more of, because that's actually where one plus one equals three, not to...
Sound cliche, but now what we do is actually improving and providing more benefit tocommunities.
And there's a lot of these little projects that are going out there that are really headedtowards that sustainability world.
(23:54):
So just when you think sustainability, it's more than just power, it is how do we takewhat we do and do it better?
How do we make it more efficient?
And then how do we actually um invest in technologies that are going to improve?
um
know, life and communities going forward.
So you are with customers a lot.
(24:15):
And how are you working with these customers to meet their changing needs?
mean, AI is, gosh, it's changing.
It's changing our lives every second, right?
Business, personal lives, every single thing we do, everything that we touch.
So edge computing, cloud, it's driving the demand for smarter, faster, more efficient datacenters.
(24:38):
So tell me how you're working with those customers as things are just moving as fast as afreight train.
Yeah, freight trains, that's a good example, or a good analogy.
um Yeah, the interesting thing um as NTT, we really have the top of the top customersinside of our portfolio.
(24:58):
So we spend a lot of time talking to them, um strategically, also during times when theyhave needs.
So we get a lot of time to learn from them.
And the one thing that's interesting is our
Most of our business now globally is from our existing client base.
uh So we get to learn and work with them a lot to make sure that what we're doing in newdata centers as well as globally kind of aligns with their needs.
(25:28):
So we learn a lot from our existing clients.
And I think you touched something that is interesting is that the data center industry hasbeen uh pretty consistent over the last, say 10, 20 years.
with, you we build that data center, customers look at it afterwards and bring in theirequipment and we've been able to meet their needs.
(25:49):
But if you look at what's happening with the equipment that they're buying, em anyonethat's following NVIDIA and listening to Jensen's em keynote speakers, you see all the
innovation that is currently happening in that side.
So we are actually talking to clients.
before they even buy that equipment.
Now we're talking to the NVIDIAs, the AMDs, before they release that equipment, becausenow the data center, as opposed to afterthought, the data center now is becoming a
(26:19):
forethought, or uh part of the conversation, because we need to make sure that as theyinnovate their equipment, as our customers innovate the applications that they're
deploying, we have to make sure that data centers can support them, because there has beenso much change.
The amount of power
The amount of equipment, the amount of technology that they're deploying is nothing likewe've ever seen.
(26:41):
So to answer your question, we're having conversations with the customers before they buydata centers.
We're having conversations with the manufacturers a lot earlier in the process.
So now the data center is part of the conversation as opposed to, know, where do I putthis equipment after I've bought it?
Which is actually giving us that ability to be a little more innovative and look at thingsa lot differently.
(27:06):
The interesting thing for us is everyone's talking about AI and our customers aredeploying AI.
We actually get to use AI to help us design our data centers as well and test thingsbefore we actually construct them.
um So we're using AI to help us in the construction and even during the constructionprocess because we have all of our designs digitally done in what we call a BIM model.
(27:33):
we can actually start using some AI now to take a look at what's happening during theconstruction process and make sure we're not making any mistakes or we're not missing
things.
So we're able to get real time information during the construction process.
And then obviously we're able to use AI during the operation process to maybe see sometrends that we normally wouldn't see a lot sooner.
(27:58):
So it is a...
I know you asked about the clients, but it's kind of all integrated now with what theclients are doing and sort of being able to adapt.
And I don't think we know yet um what's going to happen in the next three, four years withequipment.
So one of the things that we hear clearly from our customers is that we need to maintainsome level of flexibility and adaptability in our designs so that the next generation of
(28:26):
uh
GPUs that are going to come from Nvidia, which is probably only six months or a year away,is probably going to be a little different than what they're looking like today.
So we need to make sure that our data center can adapt.
So we've built some flexibility into our design so we can modify and adapt the existingdata centers and not have to start from scratch.
(28:48):
So those are the things that we're hearing from them and some of the ways that we've beenable to adapt to adhere to what our customers are doing.
I think that's applicable for every single business.
Anyone who's listening right now is listen to your customers and be involved in everystage, not just that little piece of what you do.
(29:10):
And I think that's brilliant advice.
more critical now than ever.
And I think that's kind of one of the things that, you our CEO always tells us that wehave to have a client first mentality.
And that doesn't mean do everything the client wants.
It really means listen to the client, hear what they're saying and make sure that we areanticipating and sharing all that information internally.
(29:31):
There's nothing better.
I got the chance to meet a client this week and they shared some information that I wasn'taware of and
I distributed that through the whole organization because I thought it was importantenough for us to know.
So the more you talk to clients, to your point, having that client first mentality isreally critical to stay on top of things.
Yes, for sure.
(29:52):
You said this earlier about how the data center industry has just changed at lightningspeed really in the last decade or so.
It's just mind blowing.
So what is the next generation of NTT look like?
That's something we think about um quite often.
(30:13):
I think we're trying our best to address the needs that our clients have today.
um So we're trying to build faster, we're trying to build more flexibility, we're tryingto stay ahead of where the demand curves are.
So it's causing us to...
have different conversations.
(30:34):
We're working a lot closer with power companies.
We're talking to different suppliers.
We're trying to stay ahead of the supply chain and ordering equipment, anticipating someof that need.
it's a lot more, you know, it's a lot less of, let's just build it and sell it.
It is now a lot more of, you know, planning and talking and trying to stay ahead of thingsa lot sooner and having conversations with people we never used to have conversations
(31:02):
with.
So I think what you've seen even with us, we're building bigger data centers.
um We've traditionally stayed in locations where there is existing data center demand andexisting data center capacity globally.
So we're in, we've got about 170 data centers across 20 countries and five major regionsof the globe.
(31:24):
So we try to make sure that we are...
um
building the right capacity and building the right products in those markets.
So we've stayed in those traditional data center markets.
We've not necessarily built um in remote locations just to try and get some power.
So we're trying to stay ahead of those and maintain that flexibility.
(31:45):
But if you look at sort of what the data center of the future is gonna look like, which wedon't know yet, and we're trying to stay ahead of them, but flexibility is critical.
I think size and scale is critical.
I think location.
is critical as well.
So you're going to see more data centers in locations where the, you know, some of thoseapplications I talked about are going to be required.
(32:07):
I think the infrastructure, meaning what our customers are putting into the data centerare going to be a lot more integrated with the data center as opposed to separate.
um So you're going to see a little more of those in different type locations.
And I'm very optimistic as well, Kerry, that you're going to see
data centers become more part of the community.
(32:31):
they're going to look a lot better than some data centers look today.
We've always focused on making sure there's some aesthetics to our data center, but makingit part of the community, making it part of the architecture is something I think you're
going to see not only from us, but from a lot of other companies as well.
I can't wait to see that.
Hahaha.
gonna be interesting.
(32:51):
So Bruno, I wanna ask you, I guess more of a personal professional question.
You've led product development, I saw, isn't it over 30 years I saw on your LinkedIn?
Is that a long time?
I mean, you look so young, how did you do that?
Did you start when you were four?
um But I'm just curious, so what's the formula for success when it comes to designingproducts that actually solve those real world problems for customers?
(33:18):
Yeah, so I'm glad you asked that because I think that's one of the things that I loveabout my job.
I've if you've looked at my LinkedIn, I've been a product manager pretty much since uh Igraduated uh university just a couple of years ago.
um But the the the one thing that I learned and I always tell this story um because it wasa bit of an eye opener for me.
(33:40):
So I told you I started telecommunication and I was a user of systems and technology and Igot hired.
um by one of the systems that we were actually using inside the data center to manage theproduct.
And I thought, you know, I was a user, I was the smartest person, I deployed it, I knewexactly what was wrong with the product and what was not wrong with the product.
(34:02):
So I worked with the development team, you know, as the product manager, because I kneweverything.
And I basically, you know, said, build this and do that, add this feature, take thisfeature away.
So we worked on a development project for about six months.
And at the end of the six months, we were happy to release it and it fell flat.
(34:23):
I honestly admit that I made a mistake.
I actually released the wrong product.
Customers didn't like it, so a lot of customers didn't buy it.
And I think that's kind of where I learned, Kerry, that what I know, what I think isirrelevant, honestly.
And I think it's really the more customers we speak with, the more suppliers we speakwith, the more industry we speak with.
(34:47):
personally as a product person, the better I can understand the real pervasive problemsthat exist, not just my problems, but it's the pervasive problems.
for me, the one secret, or it's not even a secret, but the one tact I've always taken isspeak with as many customers as possible, stay on top of what their problems are, because
(35:09):
if we can solve what they're looking for, that's the key.
And I think
The more customers you speak with, especially in our industry, there's common threads inwhat they're looking for.
There's common threads in what they're deploying.
there's common, even though everyone's a little unique, ah I think the value we provide isreally having that customer centricity.
(35:30):
So that's always been my favorite part of the job.
You put me in front of a customer and my face is beaming.
You put me in meetings all day, I start to hunch over, but.
speak with as many clients as possible and then just be passionate.
And I've always taken that approach to be open to different options and ideas.
There isn't always one best idea.
(35:52):
It's kind of coming through with many, but then test them.
And I think this is what I love about AI.
We can test ideas, we can test solutions, we can talk to clients.
Clients are gonna give you their thoughts and opinions.
So you can kind of get that instant feedback.
And with AI, you can test and fail a lot quicker than
know in the past where you just you know build something for six months and then realizeoops made a mistake.
(36:18):
That is gold right there, Bruno.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
uh How do we learn more about NTT, Global Data Centers?
Yeah, our website, ah LinkedIn, reach out to all of us, go to our website, uh and I thinkwe'll post the website here, but we have a lot of information, but you're going to notice
anyone at NTT Global Data Centers, we love to speak with clients, speak with prospects,educate the community, so reach out, some of us will, or someone will reach back out um
(36:49):
and speak with you.
yeah, our website, LinkedIn, reach out to anyone you know that's within the GDC.
We're happy to speak to anybody.
Bruno, this has been a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
I'm just thrilled that you came on.
I know I learn a lot in every episode, but I think I definitely learn more than usual inthis one.
So I sure appreciate you.
(37:11):
thanks, Kerry.
Anytime.
I appreciate it.
Take care.
Okay, don't move.
Don't move because it's got a download.
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