IT Infra event 2021: current themes and hot topics

Data centers play a key role in today's times, as the corona crisis once again shows. During the IT Infra event, which could take place physically in the 1931 conference center 's-Hertogenbosch, the latest developments in this dynamic market were discussed in detail.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

Daan Terpstra from the SDIA Foundation opened the day. In his lecture he pointed out the importance of European investments in its own cloud infrastructure. Because by developing a European counterbalance, you can make a stand against tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. FHI spoke to Terpstra already about this problem.

Traditionally, a large part of the lecture program was then completed in different sessions. For example, Pieter Bikker (Wagner) spoke about the challenges involved in providing advanced fire protection in the data center, while Geert Bakker (CN Rood) explained the latest techniques for testing MPO connectors. Michael Diks (Intronics) also gave the audience new insights into the latest MPO cabling.

Data centers will also have different revenue models in the future. Eaton gave a talk highlighting the potential of UPSs as a new revenue stream, connecting a UPS to the grid for stabilization purposes. With a UPS installation of 1MWh you can earn 50,000 euros per year.

The theme of branch boxes was also discussed during a webinar by Jeroen van der Linden of AP-Nederland. He provided a useful series of tips, such as sharing the delivery documents via SharePoint and taking failure into account during assembly.

Sustainability

In the afternoon, an interesting panel discussion followed, led by Robbert Hoeffnagel, with Arno van Gennip (Equinix), Eric Lisica (Iron Mountain) and Rob Stevens (Interconnect). They discussed the state of affairs regarding the sustainability of data centers in the Netherlands and all concluded that a lot has already happened in the Netherlands in this area. However, further improvements will have to be made in the coming years.

The lectures concluded with a keynote by Freya Macke from Arcadis. Climate change affects us all, including the data center world. In a clear explanation, Macke indicated where the pain points may lie and how to respond to them, as she previously indicated in a interview with FHI.

The IT Infra event 2021 was a successful edition, during which numerous technological developments were discussed. The information and cozy exhibition floor also ensured this.