In the latest episode of the Data Center Frontier Show podcast, Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent sits down with Jay Dietrich, Research Director of Sustainability at Uptime Institute, to examine what real sustainability looks like inside the data center, and why popular narratives around net zero, offsets, and carbon neutrality often obscure more than they reveal. Over the course of our conversation, Dietrich walks listeners through Uptime’s expanding role in guiding data center operators toward measurable sustainability outcomes; not just certifications, but operational performance improvements at the facility level. “Window Dressing” vs. Real Progress Dietrich is candid about the challenges operators face in navigating the current landscape of sustainability reporting. Despite high-level claims of carbon neutrality, many facilities still operate inefficiently, relying heavily on carbon offsets or energy attribute certificates to hit corporate goals. “An EU survey found that 80% of data centers report carbon-free operations based on market calculations, while their national grids run at only 55% renewable,” Dietrich says. “The only thing that truly matters is the performance of the actual facility.” To close this gap, Uptime offers a Sustainability Gap Analysis and a Sustainable Operations Certification, helping data center operators minimize energy and water use, improve cooling efficiency, and increase the useful work delivered per megawatt hour. Redefining the Sustainable Data Center One of the discussion’s core messages: a net zero data center is not necessarily a sustainable one. Dietrich stresses the need to shift focus from corporate carbon accounting toward IT utilization, emphasizing metrics like: Work delivered per unit of energy consumed. Work delivered per metric ton of CO₂ emitted (location-based). Actual IT infrastructure utilization rates. Underutilized IT infrastructure — still common across the industry — is one of the biggest sustainability blind spots. “Running IT at 10% utilization wastes capacity, space, and energy,” says Dietrich. “Increasing that

Each month Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza, posts some of the hottest data center career opportunities in the market. Here’s a look at some of the latest data center jobs posted on the Data Center Frontier jobs board, powered by Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting. Peter Kazella of Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting provides tips for building a healthy applicant pool. Switchgear Field Service Technician – Critical Facilities Nationwide Travel  This position is also available in any major data center region: Ashburn, VA; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Las Vegas, NV; or Phoenix, AZ. Multiple opportunities for both senior and mid-level switchgear field service technicians. These openings are with a nationwide market leader of power distribution solutions, specializing in switchgear and controls for mission-critical environments. This company provides customized solutions for enterprise, colocation, and hyperscale data centers, ensuring reliability and uptime through controls integration, power distribution solutions, and switchgear installations. Their services include installations, retrofits, upgrades, turnkey electrical solutions, and preventive & corrective maintenance of UPS, switchgear, generators, and PLC systems. This is an excellent career-growth opportunity to work on exciting projects with leading-edge technology and competitive compensation. Electrical Commissioning Engineer New Albany, OH This traveling position is also available in: Richmond, VA; Ashburn, VA; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, GA; Hampton, GA; Fayetteville, GA; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; or Chicago, IL. *** ALSO looking for a LEAD EE and ME CxA agents and CxA PMs *** Our client is an engineering design and commissioning company that has a national footprint and specializes in MEP critical facilities design. They provide design, commissioning, consulting and management expertise in the critical facilities space. They have a mindset to provide reliability, energy efficiency, sustainable design and LEED expertise when providing these consulting services for enterprise, colocation and hyperscale companies. This career-growth

Data Center Frontier Editor in Chief Matt Vincent and Contributing Editor Bill Kleyman (CEO/Apolo) recently had another video chat to discuss the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit 2025 and, in particular, the event’s focus on data center power. The second annual Trends Summit is scheduled for August 26-28 in Reston, Virginia. Register Now This second QuickChat in our series—following the opening discussion that set the stage for the conference—now zeroes in on data center power challenges. The conversation explores how AI’s exponential growth is straining power infrastructure, turning energy into both a critical market-entry barrier and a defining theme of the event. The Power Challenge: Quantifying the Scale Kleyman outlined the sheer scale of the power challenge facing the industry. He cited a Goldman Sachs report projecting that U.S. data center power consumption, currently around 2-3% of total consumption, could more than double to 8-9% by 2028. He also highlighted a forecast that the data center industry will require upwards of 50 gigawatts (GW) of power by 2035, a figure he put into perspective by noting that 1 GW can power a city of a million people. The discussion mentions a few large-scale projects that illustrate this trend: Kevin O’Leary‘s Wonder Valley project in Alberta, Canada, aiming for 8 GW. Tract’s new multi-gigawatt campus project in Texas amid plans for a staggering 25 GW national build-out. Kleyman also referenced the NVL576 rack unveiled at Nvidia GTC 2025, which is capable of supporting 600 kilowatts (kW) per rack, signaling the official arrival of the “megawatt era class of data center racks.” Grid-Optional Solutions and the Summit Panels The discussion transitioned to how the industry is moving from being solely grid-reliant to “grid-optional.” A significant trend highlighted is the inclusion of behind-the-meter power generation in new builds, with 30% of new U.S. data

Welcome to Earnings Frontier, our new series where we cut through the noise of quarterly financial reports to get straight to what matters for the data center industry. Today, the spotlight is on a pair of companies whose recent earnings calls offered valuable insights into the market’s current trajectory: Equinix and Modine. On one hand, we have the colocation giant, Equinix, which continues to demonstrate its enduring strength as a foundational pillar of the digital economy. Their latest results underscore a familiar story of robust customer engagement, strategic capacity expansion, and a steadfast focus on interconnection. The numbers speak to the company’s ability to capitalize on the sustained demand for cloud and AI infrastructure, all while successfully navigating a complex and competitive landscape. Then there’s Modine, a company whose name might not be as synonymous with data centers as Equinix’s, but whose recent performance is a powerful testament to the critical role of cooling in the age of AI. Their earnings call highlighted a strategic pivot toward data center cooling technologies, with strong growth in their Climate Solutions segment. The company’s commentary reveals a deep understanding of the market’s evolving needs, with a keen focus on high-efficiency, advanced cooling strategies that are becoming non-negotiable for next-generation workloads. In the following segments, we’ll dive into the details of these two contrasting, yet equally illuminating, earnings reports, exploring the key metrics, strategic takeaways, and forward-looking statements that are shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Equinix Outlines Three-Pronged Strategy for 2025 Double-Digit Revenue Growth CEO Adaire Fox-Martin described growth from acquisitions, new projects, customer AI adoption, and long-term strategies, saying, “We were built for this moment.” Key Takeaways Leaders at Equinix, Inc. announced the acquisition of three data centers in Manila and has 59 projects in 34 metro areas, including key markets such

Fully Integrated Modular Design for Speed and Scale The data center industry has increasingly embraced modular, prefabricated systems to address time, cost, and consistency pressures. OneCore stands out by delivering Vertiv’s full power and thermal stack — along with whitespace fit-out and control systems — as a single, factory-integrated solution. This eliminates the patchwork of partial modules and gives customers single-vendor responsibility. Vertiv also emphasizes deployment speed, claiming the platform can be commissioned at a rate of 1 MW per day. In a OneCore deployment, power, cooling, and whitespace components are assembled offsite in parallel, reducing on-site complexity and schedule risk. The completed system arrives enclosed in a steel shell — a modular, turnkey building block that includes both critical infrastructure and whitespace — streamlining logistics and accelerating construction cycles. Designed with HPC and AI factories in mind, each OneCore block can scale from 96 to 944 racks, accommodating extreme-density workloads such as GPU clusters or HPC nodes. Modules are optimized for liquid cooling and support 5 MW to 50 MW of power. Key Vertiv technologies integrated into the platform include:      Trinergy UPS systems, switchgear and busways for power distribution. CoolChip CDU, perimeter cooling, CoolLoop Trim Cooler, Liebert® AFC chiller for thermal management. SmartRun for overhead IT infrastructure. Unify centralized monitoring and control. Meeting Efficiency and Sustainability Demands Each block is engineered for high efficiency. Cooling is delivered through a mix of liquid (e.g., CDU and Trim Cooler) and perimeter systems, with support for advanced formats such as direct-to-chip liquid cooling — improving thermal performance and reducing energy use. Efficient UPS architectures help lower PUE and energy overhead, while power and cooling can be tailored to each module’s IT load, minimizing the risks of over- or under-provisioning. Every module comes fully integrated with Vertiv Unify, the company’s scalable platform

Compute Exchange and Silicon Data, Bochev added “are also working on developing clearer benchmarks for the compute market, and will have more details to share on that in the coming weeks.” PIC ‘should serve to keep suppliers honest ..’ Scott Bickley, an advisory fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, said he views the offering “as a way for enterprises to source short-term GPU capacity and possibly get a deal, especially if it is stranded capacity from the neocloud providers.” This, he said, “would also help to benchmark costs when purchasing this capacity in general, so it’s good, but it is also straightforward in terms of the value proposition.” He also noted that most companies are not buying GPU capacity directly; “This is for those that are building their own models or deploying their own AI applications atop existing models.” Bickley added, “it should serve to keep suppliers honest to some degree in terms of the floors and ceilings of the price to access GPU capacity.” Soon after Compute Exchange first launched in February, Matt Kimball, VP and principal analyst for data center compute and storage at Moor Insights & Strategy, described the GPU compute situation as “pretty dire. This is driven by what most view as a single supplier (Nvidia) selling GPUs before they can even be made to a market that has an insatiable thirst.” On Tuesday, following the announcement, he said that the concept of PIC is appealing: “I really like the idea of PIC as a tool for customers and seeing the compute exchange become an arbitrageur of sorts. This delivers a real value to [anyone] who is looking to utilize AI infrastructure,” he said.