As the exponentially expanding nature of the data center industry meets the dynamic realm of today’s business landscape, cross-business collaboration has become a catalyst for industry expansion and presents a formidable force as we pioneer digital infrastructure in ways yet untested. While the demand for data surges, obtaining accessible data center space has become increasingly challenging, embarking on data center construction projects has grown more expensive, and the management of data center operations has become more intricate. The electrifying realization that we’re all in this together can lead to only one choice: We have to get creative and collaborative to solve large industry problems.

While many industries play their cards close to their chest, in the mission critical space, realization that the value of a partnership can extend far beyond the boundaries of the individual services one organization offers is fundamental. In fact, it's the only way for the level of infrastructure demanded of our industry to be feasible. Together, we can surpass the capacity of any single endeavor initiated as individual companies. This recognition underscores the significance of partnerships that transcend functional divides, emphasizing the idea that competitors can indeed be collaborators, and that partnered services across diverse parties can join forces and propel our industry into uncharted territories of growth in services and capabilities.

As our industry grapples with shared challenges — land scarcity, spatial or technical limitations, power constraints, community acceptance, and staffing issues — the need for collaborative problem-solving has never been more pronounced. The scope of the issues at hand necessitates a collaborative approach that transcends organizational boundaries and embraces a holistic industry perspective, and these alliances embody the spirit of unity required to tackle the colossal infrastructure demands our industry faces.

This past year we have seen countless examples of competitors becoming collaborators, locked in a dance of “co-opetition,” finding themselves both competing and cooperating simultaneously in a way that transcends the traditional boundaries of rivalry. We have also witnessed many partnerships throughout the digital infrastructure value chain.

The following examples are more than a testament to technical prowess — they are a testament to the strength of relationships built on trust, resilience, and shared vision. Check out the potential offered by these groundbreaking projects.

• JLL, Lumen Technologies, and Schneider Electric came together to deliver ready-to-use modular data center solutions across the U.S. JLL will manage the comprehensive site selection process to identify and secure sites, including approximately 5,000 along Lumen’s fiber network, which brings the speed, global footprint and edge, storage, and managed service capabilities to meet customer needs, while Schneider Electric provides the expertise in design and construction of the modular data center to get it operational.
• Intel and Siemens have established a joint effort to take a hard look at the negative impact of chipmaking on the environment, with the hope of finding ways to reduce the chip industry’s collective footprint. By focusing on Scopes 1, 2, and 3 of carbon emissions, they aim to identify new ways to optimize power use in fabs and reduce carbon emissions across Intel’s supply chain using Siemens’ automation hardware, software, and electrical equipment. This will optimize the energy efficiency and sustainability of chips at every stage of Intel’s life cycle.
• DC Blox secured assets from Light Source Communications and Ascendent Capital Fiber to build a dark fiber route — before, building a strategy for data center, dark fiber, and lit services required three separate conversations. The new strategically designed routes connect to enable subsea access, cloud performance, and key peering points at the edge and at hyperscale capacities.
• Infrastructure Masons and The Open Compute Project have partnered to develop a standardized framework to address carbon transparency in data centers, striving to make positive impacts to our industry’s environmental footprint.
• Schneider Electric and Compass Data Centers expanded their partnership by integrating supply chains between the two companies to manufacture prefabricated, standardized modular data center solutions efficiently and cost-effectively.
• American Tower and IBM joined hands to revolutionize customer experiences at the edge. Their collaboration will accelerate the deployment of a hybrid, multi-cloud computing platform to drive edge applications across industries, which will enable technologies like IoT, 5G, AI, and network automation.
• Another edition of "Greener Data" is due to release this year, featuring the perspectives of leading decision-makers in the data center and network infrastructure industry, across the entire value chain. As over 30 authors contribute insights on how to make the biggest impact, the knowledge shared will help the entire industry tackle the challenge of sustainable operations.

Amidst these shared industry challenges, broad associations emerge as linchpins of integration, facilitating the alliances necessary for collective progress. Broad associations and the physical gatherings they host are, perhaps, best positioned to enable this level of integration. In fact, I’ve always respected that the industry that supported the world through the immediate shift to digital-interactions-only as we navigated the pandemic was, in fact, one of the first industries to return to in-person conferences.

Now, with the work from home revolution, we've made industry conferences the new office. All the collaboration and networking benefits we used to boast from gathering in the office are why we turn to industry events, but with bigger and better benefits. This has done wonderful things for collaboration across companies, as we put heads together amongst partners, integrators, and connectors. We all need a tribe, and the road has offered us a means to gather with ours. The digital nature of the modern day has made our tribe one that is spread across the globe, with the potential to mobilize and gather as nomads to share the latest ideas and inspirations. Conferences allow us to establish trusting relationships across businesses as we seek to harmonize our collective strengths and achieve something greater than the sum of our parts. There is no match to their ability to foster connections between high-caliber decision-makers and influential leaders.

As the industry confronts the intricate challenges of our time, the ability to collaborate, innovate, and build bridges across functional divides will be necessary to drive industry expansion. Organizations that ignore the invitation to forge alliances that defy convention and redefine what is possible will soon be left in the dust. The level of infrastructure we are responsible for providing is bigger than any one of our services; it will always be.