Attending Data Centre World 2025 this year felt like stepping into the nerve centre of an industry that never stops evolving.
From discussions on sustainability and AI to the urgent need to bridge the skills gap, the event was packed with insights, innovations, and more than a few reality checks!
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Chris Barton kicked off Tech Show London – of which Data Centre World was a large part – with an inspiring talk about his journey in founding Shazam. For anyone who’s ever desperately needed to identify a song stuck in their head, Shazam has been a lifesaver. Originally just a simple tool for recognizing music, it has since grown into a global tech powerhouse with over 300 million users, offering real-time lyrics, background playlist identification, and more.
Chris shared some core principles that guided his success:
- Build from basic truths – Strip an idea down to its fundamentals and build up from there.
- Creative persistence – Don’t take “no” at face value. Barriers are often just challenges waiting to be tackled.
- Search and destroy friction – Every extra step in a consumer’s journey is a potential drop-off point. Reducing friction isn’t just good user experience – it’s good business.
Of course, innovation wasn’t just a theme in Chris’s talk – it ran through the event like electricity through a data centre, powering every conversation and keynote.
Tim Goring, Global Business Manager – Digital TWIN, at Siemens Smart Infrastructure showcased ‘Building X’ software, a platform that runs the applications that help manage building operation with digital twin technology. The software shaved 26% off commissioning times in a test project (that’s equivalent to six whole days!).
Tim confidently stated that “like self-driving cars, a building can run itself.” It’s a bold vision – but in an industry obsessed with efficiency, not an impossible one.
Puya Forghani, Offering Manager Large Power Converters at Vertiv, delivering the talk “Powering the AI Era”.
The ever-present skills gap also took centre stage. Pete Betts, Engineering Director at Virtus put it bluntly: “We’re not proud enough as an industry of what we do. Let’s advertise it the same way we’d advertise a film.”
Iain Farquharson, Integration Manager at Red Bear Tech, had a great analogy: “We need to encourage youngsters into the industry; by providing the ‘Lego instruction booklet’ equivalent, we can make data centre construction much more accessible.”
Speaking on a later panel on AI’s role in infrastructure and operations, Nabeel Mahmood, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Nomad Futurist, delivered a sobering statistic: “We have a human capital deficit right in front of us. Over 70% of the workforce is due to retire within the next ten years. That’s a lot of retirement parties. We need people to come into this industry with a passion for it, and that’s going to come from educating people at a young age.”
The Activate Learning Education Trust stand. Read more about ALET and the Digital Futures Programme.
Nabeel reframed AI as ‘actionable intelligence’: “We are the ones defining the processes and writing the algorithms – AI does the repetitive tasks.” Meanwhile, Shane Garner, Head of Security & ICT Systems at Pure DC Group, emphasized the need for security, warning that tracking the origins of code is critical to preventing malicious attacks.
Iain Farquharson later emphasized the struggles within data centre construction. “The industry is struggling to deliver projects on time, in budget, and with the current resources available. 57% of people working in the sector are dealing with burnout because of these factors and the pressure they cause.” He referenced the MacLeamy Curve, a concept that highlights the correlation between the cost of design change and the stage of the design process. He explained the importance of implementing new technology early in the design phase, likening it to “choosing the colour you’re going to paint a room, before you pick up the brush.”
Leaving Data Centre World, one thing was clear – the industry is undergoing rapid transformation. From automation and AI to tackling the skills shortage, the challenges ahead are significant, but so are the opportunities.
Events like this not only highlight these issues but also bring together the brightest minds to solve them. The conversations happening here aren’t just theoretical – they’re shaping the future of data centres. The question is: how fast can we adapt?
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