Co-authored by Andrej Danis, Christian Luetkhoff, and Kanishk Raghuvanshi We recently got back from Data Center World in Washington D.C., and it's clear that the data center industry is booming—by next year, the crowd may outgrow the current conference space. But what struck me most, beyond the exponential growth, was the palpable concern among operators and integrators around a lack of qualified resources, standards, and scalable solutions across the industry.
Standing up a data center takes much more than pouring concrete and racking servers—it necessitates a highly skilled labor force that can manage complex, multi-vendor ecosystems. Every watt of power matters, and inefficient design or improper cabling can quickly exacerbate cooling demands and hurt revenues. Success will come to companies that create standardized, industrialized, and scalable solutions. If we are to meet demand that is doubling every 3-5 years, companies must reduce product deviation and suppliers must improve scalability—otherwise, each wrong decision could have 10x the impact on efficiency or time to market.
3 key takeaways:
- Design to deliver, not to impress: Innovation does not matter if tech isn't easily scalable or deployable. Companies that know when to innovate and when to simplify will beat those focused on having the most technologically advanced solution.
- Think "plug and play" for hardware: Open-source codes are table stakes in software, but hardware is still years behind. Facilities that can seamlessly connect, integrate, and adapt—imagine APIs for cooling units, for example—will transform the industry.
- Build factories for the future: Companies need production facilities designed for modern needs, not adapted from old standards. If facilities don't evolve, they'll become the next bottleneck.
Modular designs are critical to this last point—prefabricated modules that are constructed separately and then put together to form a complete data center will become the norm. Bill Kleyman 🇺🇦's slide at the conference caught my attention—53% of planned new data center builds will be either via prefabricated modules or a hybrid of prefabricated and traditional builds.
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But the supply chain hasn't caught up yet—many are planning custom builds from scratch. That needs to change.
The data center space is quickly turning into Silicon Valley 2.0, with more steel and less code. Some vendors will fail, but the opportunity is enormous for those who standardize, industrialize, and scale with purpose.
The data center industry isn't just growing—it's transforming. I can't wait to see where it stands at Data Center World 2026.
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