Investment

Schneider Electric recognised in Corporate Knights’ Global 100 for the 11th year

Schneider Electric has recently earned its place in the top ranks of Corporate Knights’ annual Global 100 list of most sustainable corporations for the 11th time. The Canadian media and research company examines over 6,900 companies worldwide every year to determine the top 1% most sustainable corporations. The Global 100 methodology is based on 23 key performance indicators, with 50% of the weight of scores assigned to a company’s share of Clean Revenues and Investment. According to Corporate Knights, Global 100 most sustainable companies outperform by generating more than four times as much revenue per tonne of carbon emitted than the average company in MSCI All Country World Index. Schneider Electric has featured on Corporate Knights’ Global 100 every year since 2012, making it to the top spot in 2021, and fourth this year. This performance is thanks to Schneider’s integration of sustainability into its business strategy. In 2021, Schneider Electric reinforced its sustainability consulting business to support more partners and customers in their own sustainable transformation. “There is no magic formula to being repeatedly listed as a most sustainable company, it’s about doing well and doing good” comments Olivier Blum Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer of Schneider Electric, “As an impact company, we embrace sustainability as a business opportunity and an opportunity for all. It’s part of our model, culture, strategy, and the way we embark our entire ecosystem of employees, supply chain partners and customers, in delivering on our purpose day-in, day-out.” Schneider Electric already started the year on a high with regards to its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance, following the recent announcement of global recognition from four ESG ratings in 2021, including the CDP Climate Change A list or Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

DigiCert acquires IoT cybersecurity provider Mocana

DigiCert has announced that it has acquired Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity provider Mocana. The combination of DigiCert and Mocana technologies provides IoT manufacturers and operators with a comprehensive platform for managing security across the full IoT device lifecycle. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition strategically accelerates DigiCert’s presence in the fast-growing IoT market. IDC estimates there will be more than 55 billion connected devices by 2025, with growth fueled by organizational investment in IoT platforms for achieving operational efficiency, digital transformation and competitive differentiation.  “IoT security has been a challenge for device manufactures and operators,” says DigiCert CEO John Merrill. “With the addition of Mocana, DigiCert is building on its vision for delivering digital trust, a growing necessity in the IoT market as smart devices become ubiquitous in every corner of our personal and professional lives. We are excited to introduce new and existing customers to our integrated platform and welcome the addition of Mocana’s expertise in IoT technology and the industrial and manufacturing verticals to the DigiCert team.”  “We have had a strategic partnership with Mocana for years and truly value their contribution to our product portfolio,” comments James Kline, senior director of program management at ABB Inc. “We are excited about the backing from DigiCert as a global leader in IoT security.”   The combination of DigiCert and Mocana provides customers with a means to manage device identity, secure connections, prevent device tampering, and update firmware and settings remotely and securely once in the field. This end-to-end platform reduces security vulnerabilities and enables digital transformation that is made possible from information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) convergence. “Mocana is excited to be joining the DigiCert team,” says Mocana CTO Srinivas Kumar. “Together, our solutions uniquely solve the challenges of security, from embedding security protections on-chip or at device manufacturing to on-device secure communications and firmware updates once in the field.”    

JumpCloud appoints Anita Sands to Board of Directors

JumpCloud has introduced Anita Sands as the newest member of its board of directors. A renowned public and private company director, Sands brings over two decades of investment and operations experience, including her role as COO at UBS's Wealth Management Americas group. Sands also serves on the boards at ServiceNow, Nubank, Unqork, and a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company)  sponsored by the SoftBank Vision Fund. “Anita’s experience with high-growth companies and their executive leaders in scaling and defining new markets is essential to JumpCloud,” says Rajat Bhargava, CEO, JumpCloud. “Our customers and the market are validating that only a directory can serve as the backbone for everything IT admins have to do to secure and manage distributed workforces and the apps and data they need to access. Anita has a wealth of insights into disruptive technologies and approaches, and is already contributing those insights to shape what we’re developing, how we’re growing, and how we can continue delivering more and better for our customers every day.” IT is undergoing a seismic shift as legacy systems for managing users and resources prove inflexible and expensive. Many legacy systems require complicated architectures to simply meet basic needs of hybrid-remote work and cloud-forward businesses, and organizations are forced to adapt by integrating suboptimal workarounds. Some businesses are bound by an on-premise, legacy directory and must extend it with multiple standalone solutions like single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and device management. Others, who are wary of vendor lock-in, or are all too aware of the limitations of Active Directory, attempt to manage users without a directory and are forced to juggle dozens of individual systems to connect employees to resources. JumpCloud’s directory platform eliminates all those hassles and shortcomings with a single, simple tool for securely managing heterogeneous applications, devices, and user identity.  “Too many organizations limit their own growth due to inertia, sticking with inefficient and costly solutions because of a legacy mindset,” comments Sands. “JumpCloud is positioned perfectly to disrupt this paradigm, by making its cloud directory the foundational tool for securely connecting employees to whatever resource they need to do their job, no matter what device they’re using or where they’re logging in from. JumpCloud doesn’t just enable organizations to offer remote and hybrid work, it offers a singular tool that powers all of IT without burdening users or the admins managing it.”   A former Fulbright scholar, Sands holds a master’s degree in public policy and management as well as a doctorate in atomic and molecular physics. In addition to her board work, Sands was the 2021 James Wei Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship at Princeton University, where she taught Female Entrepreneurship. Sands’ appointment follows a series of growth, product, and financial milestones for JumpCloud, including its $225M Series F funding round, key executive hires, continued industry validation, and channel program expansion.

Power distribution market to reach $7.9 billion by 2030: says AMR

According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global power distribution unit market was estimated at $4.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to hit $7.9 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 6.9% from 2021 to 2030. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers and opportunities, market size and estimations, competitive scenario, and varying market trends. Rise in demand for stable power and increase in focus toward reducing energy losses drive the growth of the power distribution unit market. On the other hand, space constraint and complex wiring systems with increasing number of power distribution units restrain the growth to some extent. However, surge in number of data centres across the globe is projected to create lucrative opportunities in the industry. COVID-19 scenario During the pandemic, the trend of work-from-home has been highly effective for non-manufacturing sectors, which in turn gave way to utilisation of more spaces in data centres. This factor augmented the demand for power distribution units. However, dearth of raw materials hampered the production rate of power distribution unit, thereby giving a mixed impact to the global power distribution unit market. The global power distribution unit market is analysed across type, phase, end-user industry, and region. Based on type, the metered PDU segment accounted for more than one-fourth of the total market share in 2020, and is expected to rule the roost by 2030. The monitored PDU segment, however, would garner the fastest CAGR of 7.4% throughout the forecast period. Based on phase, the three segment contributed to nearly three-fifths of the total market revenue in 2020, and is projected to lead the trail by 2030. The same segment would also exhibit the fastest CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period. Based on region, the market across North America held the major share in 2020, garnering around two-fifths of the global market. Asia-Pacific, on the other hand, would manifest the fastest CAGR of 9.2% throughout the forecast period. The key market players analysed in the global power distribution unit market report include Siemon, Leviton, Siemens, Nvent, Powertek, Eaton, Schneider, Raritan, and Vertiv group. These market players have adhered to several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to prove their flair in the industry.

Climate crisis: the changing data centre power game

The climate crisis agenda is placing all businesses under pressure to prove their sustainability credentials for every activity. Banks are looking for climate impact reports and policies before lending. Investors are seeking viable data to measure the value of ESG actions, with a particular focus on verifiable strategies that tackle climate change and cut carbon emissions. The amount of information being sought will be huge. It will span everything from financial reporting to providing valid data on how each and every operation sources energy and uses electricity. For example, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation has set up an International Sustainability Standards Board to develop global sustainability reporting standards. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager says on its homepage: “Our investment conviction is that climate risk is investment risk, and that integrating climate and sustainability considerations into investment processes can help investors build more resilient portfolios and achieve better long-term, risk-adjusted returns. We believe that society is on the cusp of a transformational change towards sustainability.” Businesses are being warned to step up. Large companies are hiring or promoting individuals to the role of Chief Sustainability Officer. It’s a big job. Writing in Forbes recently, Oracle’s CSO pointed to technology innovations as holding some of the answers to achieving net zero. Whether it’s through more efficient light bulbs, using AI tracking and reduce power use across vast built environments or developing tools that help firms comply with climate regs, technology is vital. Data centres don’t stand alone For business people outside the data centre industry, all they know is their data lives in the cloud and they want that cloud to be carbon neutral. They demand that none of their data, including the sustainability data that will be used to inform decision making, is stored in carbon spewing, energy wasting data centres. For users and customers, the information (data) on where, how, and how much power is consumed inside the data centre is suddenly becoming important For those inside the data centre business, as we begin the journey to become carbon net zero, this presents big challenges. We are currently just another business sector reacting to price and supply volatility in the energy markets and looking for solutions. Yet in the short to medium term, the data centre sector may fast become an integrated part of the energy supply chain. Some data centre operators are reacting quickly to the carbon issue and citing grid integration as a USP. Today, firms like Lancium.com are providing valuable data on grid power system integration. Lancium says it is building data centres in Texas that will act as ‘controllable load resources,’ where ‘the net effect on the electrical system is carbon negative.’ Can technology make data centres adaptable to net zero aims? So, where to start? Delivering power to the workload for secure uptime remains the critical role of a data centre. Ordinarily, the infrastructure used to ensure the design purpose is met is fixed, inflexible and wasteful. Adaptability, while clearly and increasingly desirable, has been elusive to date. Enter, Adaptable Redundant Power (ARP), an innovative power design technology that enables existing data centre power topologies to overcome the challenges associated with fixed systems and deliver flexibility that addresses waste and stranded capacity while ensuring the availability of critical services. For developers of new data centres basing power designs on ARP, the technology helps bake in energy efficiency by bringing flexibility to power topologies. This creates responsive power chains that direct power to ensure IT workloads operate at maximum energy efficiency. With measurable results. Data centres will be sustainable. Data centre developers seeking investment (and permission) to build the vast campuses to run the 21st century digital economy will need to demonstrate policies that address climate change. Whatever we build in the future or change in existing data centres is going to be measured against sustainability credentials. The climate crisis demands long term solutions and as we plan for 2030 only those that stand up to scrutiny will be accepted. Written by Ed Ansett, i3 Solutions.

The remarkable 5G predictions for the New Year

Stephen Douglas, Head of 5G Strategy at Spirent Communications looks at 5G predictions for 2022. Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) will grow during 2022, but new or reframed spectrum is needed sooner rather than later. Operators worldwide face stiff competition to provide as much 5G coverage in their markets, as quickly and cost efficiently as possible. To that end, expect more carriers to use DSS to raise their 5G profile with consumers. However, while DSS does ensure that more subscribers see that they’re connected to '5G' on their handsets, it can’t deliver data speeds that most consumers associate with 5G. Gradually, more operators will recognise that this effort is not enough to compete with non-DSS 5G services. Ultimately, operators will begin undertaking the more onerous and expensive process of reallocating/re-farming spectrum, and expanding their cell site footprint.  More operators will deploy standalone 5G core networks - and turn to hyperscalers for help. A few operators began deploying 5G SA networks in 2021, and those numbers will grow in 2022. What will be different is that many operators will be looking to partner with hyperscalers to do it, aiming to host cloud-native 5G core capabilities on cloud providers’ infrastructure. This process began in 2021, as operators began to grapple with just how challenging cloud-native infrastructure presents for traditional operations teams - and how much they can benefit from economies of scale by working with hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. The industry will see significant growth in investment in AI/ML and automation. Based on testing, we see significant growth in AI/ML and automation to enhance network performance and fault management. In particular, more operators are investing in active testing and assurance systems to inject synthetic traffic into their networks to emulate real users and services, instead of relying on static, passive probes. And they’re seeking to pair these systems with AI/ML algorithms that can make good decisions in real time for where, when, and what to actively test to improve services or isolate faults, without requiring human intervention. We also expect to see early efforts in using AI/ML to enhance security, and in running testing workloads from public cloud.   The first wave of telco edge cloud use cases will hit the market. 2021 saw the first fledgling edge cloud partnerships between operators and cloud providers or other third parties. In 2022 though, we’ll see these initial test runs get serious business attention and investment. Look for activity around two basic offerings: public cloud-hosted edge services, which will focus on consumer applications like gaming, augmented reality, and video content delivery; and private cloud-hosted edge offerings for enterprise and industrial use cases. In particular, expect to see commercial launches of private cloud edge services for security and video surveillance, as well as secure desktop-as-a-service offerings for home-based workers. So will private 5G networks. By mid-2022, expect to see a big push for private 5G networks for stadiums and other high-density venues. Testing over the last 18 months has revealed that the behaviour of 5G radio within these indoor environments actually provides much better coverage than anticipated, with a very small footprint. Already, a number of US stadiums have deployed indoor mmWave coverage using small cells, and found they could provide excellent coverage and performance (at speeds well over 1-Gbps, even reaching out to parking lots) for tens of thousands of users with just a handful of small cells, versus hundreds of Wi-Fi access points. These cases were proven in 2021 and should start to be deployed at scale next year. Latency will begin to replace data rates in the battle for the hearts and minds of telco customers. For decades, the race to win the mobile marketplace was all about delivering faster data rates than the competition. As operators begin to expand their focus on the enterprise and industrial sectors in 2022, that focus will begin to give way to latency. Expect more operators to invest in demonstrating to the market that their networks can not only deliver latencies as low as required, but can deliver those latencies consistently and deterministically enough to support mission-critical industrial applications. Open virtual RAN will go from pilot to production. Another incremental change in the coming year, Open vRAN will move from small-scale pilots to small- and medium-size live deployments. Based on testing, we expect to see early Open vRAN deployments in three key areas: rural regions, indoor, and non-dense urban deployments. All three are viewed as less risky than other types of deployments, either because they will not support mission-critical services, or because they will be able to fall back on the traditional macro network if needed. Some challenger service providers (Rakutan, DISH Network) may start rolling out live Open vRAN deployments in denser urban areas, but the major incumbents likely will hold off until 2023/2024. Momentum will continue building to accelerate some 'Beyond 5G' services. The service provider industry has already begun vision-setting in earnest for future wireless systems. As they do, many are searching for opportunities to bring some of those future technologies back within the umbrella of 5G architectures over the next eight years. Based on the testing we’re seeing, we expect to see these efforts in two major areas. First, integrating low-Earth orbiting satellite technology into the 5G system to enhance 5G coverage for specific use cases and specific areas of reach. Second, we’re seeing early testing efforts in the use of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and meta-materials, with the goal of creating intelligent reflective surfaces that can direct or even amplify radio signals. These technologies, which likely won’t be integrated into 5G systems for several years, will help operators cover hard-to-reach areas by enabling RF signals to travel longer distances and avoid interference, reduce the required density of radio towers, and potentially reduce energy output and carbon emissions.

Transforming provisions across Africa

Open Access Data Centres (OADC) has announced a USD500 million-plus, multi-year investment programme to construct and operate a network of more than 20 world-class, carrier-neutral, GreenStar and Uptime Institute Tier III accredited data centres across Africa. Optimised to serve the needs of the cloud provider and wholesale community. OADC, a WIOCC Group company, will deploy data centre facilities strategically throughout the continent, focusing on key locations for connectivity in each country and with each delivering an exceptional client experience - from initial contact to consultative development and deployment of future-proof solutions tailored to clients’ specific needs and to world-class, ISO-certified standards. OADC’s Chief Commercial Officer, Kevin McLoughlin, explains: “We are really excited to be working in partnership with the vibrant wholesale community, including cloud and content providers, telcos and internet service providers (ISPs), helping them to expand their businesses into new territories and markets across Africa. With content moving ever closer to the edge of the network for improved availability and performance, a single high-capacity regional data centre in Africa is no longer sufficient. Instead, our clients increasingly require access to a network of high-quality, open-access, carrier-neutral data centres across multiple countries and cities; one that will sustain and enrich Africa’s digital ecosystem, supporting their needs for flexibility and scalability to meet whatever the future demands. This is exactly what we are putting in place, working in tandem with leading global organisations to support their deployment plans for Africa.” OADC has already started construction of its first two data centre facilities, sited in Africa’s largest markets: Nigeria and South Africa. Rapid progress is being made on deploying OADC Lagos on a four-hectare site in Lekki - the largest data centre campus in West Africa. OADC Lagos The first phase will be ready for clients from early 2022, and when fully operational this US$200 million, Tier III certified data centre will support up to 20MW site power load across more than 7,200 square metres of white space – sufficient for up to 3,275 racks and making it one of the largest facilities on the continent outside South Africa. In addition, the site power load is fully scalable to 40MW as market demand grows. The Equiano submarine cable will be landing directly in the data centre, which is also close to all other major subsea cable landings in Lagos. This makes OADC Lagos the ideal location for companies looking to maximise uptime through direct access to international subsea connectivity, avoiding the costs and risks traditionally associated with vulnerable terrestrial backhaul links from facilities on Victoria Island. OADC Durban OADC’s Durban facility is also under construction, and will house the cable landing for the Durban branch of the 2Africa submarine cable. It is also designed to Tier III standards to deliver the highest levels of flexibility, scalability and client service. OADC’s proximity to Durban CBD makes it ideally located to be a key component in Durban-based companies’ primary colocation and disaster recovery solutions. In addition to offering direct and completely diverse international connectivity through the new 2Africa submarine cable, which will interconnect 33 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan and India, OADC Durban will also offer exceptional connectivity into South Africa’s terrestrial fibre network, including direct access to the NLD5 and NLD6 terrestrial fibre routes stretching 1,700km between Durban and Cape Town along South Africa’s southern coastline, and to the NLD1 fibre route direct to Johannesburg. The initial phase of OADC Durban will be ready for clients in early 2022. When fully operational, the data centre will offer more than 2,200 square metres of white space, with a further 2,000 square metres of A-grade office space also available on-site. A third OADC facility is being deployed in Mogadishu, Somalia, housing the cable landing for the Mogadishu branch of the 2Africa submarine cable and offering a range of colocation services to domestic and international businesses. OADC Mogadishu will be open to clients before the end of 2022. All OADC facilities will operate as fully open-access, carrier-neutral facilities, supporting cloud providers and the international wholesale community in extending their businesses further into Africa. All major fibre network providers will be present in the facilities, and new dedicated diverse fibre routes will be available to existing data centres and internet exchange points (IXPs). OADC continues to progress further projects in a variety of African markets, with some at an advanced stage of development. More details will be announced at the appropriate time.

Kao Data expands leadership team, appointing Matthew Harris as CFO

Following his position as Managing Director at Kao Data’s original founders and investment firm, Matthew joins the company’s c-suite, having overseen the financial evolution of the business from inception. With a Masters’ degree from the University of Cambridge, a fellowship from the Institute of Chartered Accountants and over 15 years’ experience in the financial sector, he brings extensive financial expertise at a pivotal point in the business’ evolution. During his time with Goldacre, Harris played a crucial role in securing investment into Kao Data from Legal & General Capital in 2019, and overseeing the investment of up to £130m from New Zealand-based investors Infratil Limited last month. Further, his strategic appointment comes at a transformative point in Kao Data’s development as it moves from a single-site campus to a 55MW multi-site operator, having recently acquired two new data centres with a long-term anchor lease from a large financial services business in the UK. As CFO, Matthew will work directly alongside CEO Lee Myall, CTO Gérard Thibault, COO Paul Finch and Vice President, Spencer Lamb, to help spearhead the next phase of the company’s growth, engaging with new and existing customers within the financial services, life sciences, enterprise, and cloud sectors. Having firmly cemented its position as the UK’s preeminent home for sustainable, high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI), and becoming the host of NVIDIA’s Cambridge-1, Kao Data will also continue to service the industrial-scale requirements of GPU-accelerated computing users from across the UK and Europe. “Having been firmly engaged with the company’s vision and its growth strategy from inception, I’m delighted to have joined Kao Data formally, as its CFO,” says Matthew Harris. “Kao Data is truly on the cutting-edge of tech, working with some of the industry’s foremost thought leaders and engineers to push the boundaries of design and innovation. Our facilities have been engineered to support the UK government’s National AI Strategy and have created a blueprint for the future of high performance data centres.” “Further, as our company transitions into a multi-site operator, there has never been a better time to join,” he continues. “And with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments on the rise, I’m proud to be able to oversee the next phase of the company’s growth in an economical and environmentally responsible way.”

Qlik expands APAC presence with launch of Singapore cloud region

Qlik has announced the launch of its new cloud region in Singapore, strengthening the company’s commitment to support its growing customer demand for innovation in Asia Pacific (APAC). The new cloud region builds on Qlik’s continued investment in Singapore, which began in 2011 with the opening of its corporate office. It also marks Qlik’s second cloud region in APAC and the fourth globally, following cloud regions in Australia, Ireland and the United States. Qlik’s Singapore cloud region will enable organisations, large and small, across multiple industries to store and deploy data for analytics locally at scale, reaping optimal operational performance and data compliance with cost savings of the cloud. Storing data in the regional cloud will also provide customers with the ability to serve end-users’ analytics needs across the region more effectively with even faster access and lower latency. Customers, including those based in Singapore such as the Singapore Management University, will now be able to drive even more value from their data, shifting their data approach to Active Intelligence, a modern BI approach which provides businesses with actionable insights from continuously up-to-date, real-time information to achieve transformational business outcomes. “Digital transformation is an imperative for businesses wanting to thrive in today’s era of constant change, with the move to the cloud being a crucial enabler,” says Geoff Thomas, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Qlik. “The strategic placement of a new Qlik cloud region in Singapore will help us better meet customer needs for Qlik Cloud while complying with stringent local data residency requirements. The new cloud region will also support the country’s Smart Nation plans to boost digital adoption in local businesses to further build resiliency, innovation, and competitiveness.” Qlik customers like Essilor, a leader in ophthalmic optics and visual health, have welcomed the new cloud region in Singapore. “Our cloud strategy is a vital part of our digital transformation, and Qlik Cloud has been instrumental in this journey, allowing us to innovate faster and deliver our solutions across APAC more efficiently,” comments Benoit Nesme, Director, Data & Analytics, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Russia, and Africa for Essilor. “Hosting our analytics applications in Qlik’s cloud region will increase performance and robustness, empowering us to make smarter, data-informed decisions to deliver the best products and services that meet our customer’s needs.”

IONOS data centre almost completed, with opening planned for 2022

The second phase of the data centre being built for IONOS has been completed, with the location in the Midlands set to open in 2022. The practical completion of the energy-efficient data centre, based at Worcester Six Business Park, has been developed by leading property developer Stoford. The 43,708 sq ft unit for IONOS, and Fasthosts, its subsidiary UK brand, comprises a cutting-edge 30,729 sq ft data centre and 12,978 sq ft of ancillary offices. Completed on time, the unit has a wide range of sustainable and energy-efficient features, including solar photovoltaic panels that cover the entire roof and Tata Steel’s Confidex Sustain wall and roof cladding, which creates a carbon-neutral building envelope. The photovoltaic panels should cover 10% of the energy use at the site. Sab Knight, Head of Cloud Sales at IONOS, says: “The new Worcester site is crucial for IONOS’s growth in the UK and shows our commitment to further investment in infrastructure and jobs. “We are very happy that the building was completed in time and have already started the technical fit-out of the data centre in what will be the most modern and environmental-friendly IONOS data centre to date. The Worcester Six site will start operation in the first half of 2022 and will host one of the most advanced cloud platforms in Europe.” Councillor Marc Bayliss, Worcestershire County Council Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Skills, comments: “It is great news for the county as construction has now finished at IONOS’s unit at Worcester Six Business Park. It’s another clear and visual indication of the progress we have made over recent years, being able to welcome world-renowned businesses to Worcestershire. “The completion of the IONOS build will provide Worcestershire with a highly valued asset through the company’s connections with data, one of the world’s most valuable commodities, and should bring substantial economic benefits for the county.”