What’s your first instinct after seeing a great magic trick or illusion? Mine is that I’ll usually go to Google or YouTube to figure out how it happened. I’ve found that the “magic” of generative AI – the near instantaneous development of imagery, prose, dad jokes, and coding – has similarly brought a newfound curiosity to the world of data centers, as the general public wonders how AI works more than ever. As generative AI demands even greater physical infrastructure scaling and density, while also enabling automation via digital twins and simulation, a key limiting factor for growth remains at the human level – do we also have the human talent to support the doubling if not quintupling of the industry over the next five to ten years?
During this time of rapid and unprecedented innovation, many industries are forced to fill critical near- and long-term skill gaps swiftly, especially in highly impacted sectors like the data center industry.
Thequestion is: How can we keep up with the pace of innovation and ensure we have the right talent to support it?
To meet growth demands, we need more talent
The largest concentration of talent at any data center campus often is at the outset, when thousands of skilled tradesmen and women descend upon a site to build data centers of ever-increasing density and scale – and when multiple buildings on a single campus has become the norm for new development. Yet even when construction is complete, data centers are never static environments – 24/7/365 operations, facilities, and security teams remain engaged and on-call to oversee, troubleshoot, and ensure that the lights stay on, the rooms stay cool, and the facility remains safe. Furthermore, with computing innovation accelerating (like Nvidia’s announcement of a new one-year product cycle from two-years), the prospect of repositioning and retrofitting data centers to support the latest and greatest computing hardware points to continual improvement and activity as well.
According to a study from the Data Center Coalition, from 2017-2021, the data center industry’s direct (17 percent) and indirect (20 percent) job growth meaningfully outpaced that of the overall U.S. economy at 2 percent during the same period. The accelerating job growth surge due to AI is further demonstrated by data suggesting that 2022 data center employment growth (560,000 direct and 4.2 million indirect jobs) was the equivalent of 2017-2021 combined for the industry.
A friend working on the networking and structured cabling side of the industry, also grappling with the prospect of needing 10X more connectivity infrastructure challenge gave me some fresh anecdotes about the physical challenges of supporting initial builds – a fully mobilized 40-person crew at full capacity would typically perform about 100,000 cable tests per month, requiring installing and cleaning delicate multi-fiber connectors, about 2,500 per worker, and about 100 per day. They are contending with over 1 million cable test requests now, and rapidly scaling both process and qualified technicians to accelerate deliveries, well beyond previous scaling scopes – with the key point that taking ten months to complete isn’t deemed an acceptable answer.
Virtually every discipline and domain are needed to support the future of data center growth, which is projected to double in size by 2030, and by some projections that more bullishly tally the number of AI chips that will be produced points to over 5X scaling over the same time horizon. Many roles, like electricians, plumbers, safety professionals, builders, and operators are in higher demand than ever. Transformation across the industry will only continue, creating the perfect opportunity for more workers to start or pivot their careers in this direction. Whether 2X or 5X, the human scaling challenge remains ever present.
Making the pivot - AI’s impact on future careers
Few other sectors are experiencing the growth of data centers, which along with semiconductors and hardware are proving to be the “picks and shovels” of the AI revolution. Major players like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are all part of the race, signaling, yes, AI is here, yes, it’s huge, and yes, it’s here to stay.
With other industries and sectors seeing a slowdown in a post-COVID remote to hybrid work environment (I’m looking at you, commercial office sector), there’s also a tremendous opportunity for experienced, talented people from other asset classes to bring their lessons and experience to the data centers. We need builders, facility managers, asset managers, engineers, financiers, and more – and I’m optimistic that in addition to developing young talent in universities and vocational schools that talented individuals responsible for developing the physical world around us have plenty to bring to the data center sector as well.
The magic of AI is real
As the innerworkings of cloud-based technology becomes more widely understood, the cloud’s “home” in a data center has become more visible.
Though the industry has built traction, many still don’t realize how critical data centers are to our daily lives. From streaming services and social media to e-commerce and other applications, everything we do online is thanks to data centers. With the magic of new AI platforms and their impact on the Internet, there’s more visibility for the importance of infrastructure growth to make the magic happen. Now, it’s about helping candidates understand the endless opportunities AI has to offer in the industry.
Looking at the industry’s rapid growth over the past few years, data center demand isn’t going anywhere. With the rise of AI and online dependency, data centers must build a robust talent pipeline to support future growth. AI is simply a catapult for future infrastructure demands and the need for more skilled workers to make that magic a reality.