30572_Kao Data Critical Careers_Pages - Flipbook - Page 92
Can you share your journey into the data
centre industry?
was with Microsoft for 24 years. In the last ten years, the cloud and
data centres became a huge part of the journey we were taking as
a company—similar to the other giants in the industry. Data centres
were not a new thing, but what they were and what they offered has
changed tremendously. It used to be more about computer rooms and
halls rather than what we think of as data centres today. With AWS,
Google, and Microsoft leading the charge, the transformation in the
market has been clear.
I
Being a part of Microsoft, and particularly leading Microsoft Israel for
many years, I was deeply involved in this shift. I think the 昀椀rst time I really
thought deeply about it was when I found myself wondering why we
didn’t have a data centre in Israel. Microsoft was there, but the country
wasn’t pushing for any data centre initiatives at the time. I had the
opportunity to ask the Prime Minister at the time “Why don’t we initiate a
data centre tender?” I felt it was crucial for the foundation of what Israel is
built on, especially given the vast amount of technology developed here.
Shelly
Landsman
Board Member,
NED Data Centres
92
It was a good reminder that the education needed for the government
to help them understand the criticality of the data centre is an ongoing,
arduous process. I remember I told him about the UK having national
and government data centres, and Germany and Japan had them
too—I gave him good examples of countries that had already done this.
Eventually they did understand the importance, put a bid out to tender
and today it is open and operating in the country.
