London Focus Panel – Report

PEDCA Focus Panel report – London July 2014

PEDCA moved into more intensive phase of consultation with stakeholders on its findings, holding a “focus Panel” at the University of East London in July – this involved gaining feedback from some of the most influential and renowned organisations and experts in the industry. Joining the 13 partner PEDCA project team during the day were representatives from data centre industry stakeholders such as Digiplex, Norland, Equinix, Gloabal Switch, Keysource, Telecity Group, AE4IT, ARM, Future Facilities, Telehouse, Carbon3IT, DatacenterDynamics, Emerson, 3M, CS Technology, TechUK and Teledata, together with senior thinkers from the academic and scientific world such as London South Bank University, University of Hertfordshire, University of Leeds, Goethe University of Frankfurt, TU Delft and the hosts of the event, University of East London.

The day’ activities involved presentations from University of Leeds and the Data Centre Alliance on each aspect of the PEDCA project’s findings on the requirements of the data centre sector. These were dealt with in turn over the day, starting with Strategy and Innovation during the morning sessions, and Skills and finally, Education, Training and Awareness during the afternoon. The proceedings were professionally co-ordinated by Know Innovation who used proven techniques to focus in on the views of the participants whether they be “Plus points” (ie things they liked), “Potentials” (areas that can be built upon) and “Concerns” (ie risks, problem areas).

The day provided an enormous amount of discussion, feedback and valuable steer for the project. The enthusiasm and passion of the participants is testament to the strength of the industry and welcomed and recognised by the PEDCA project team.

The project now moves to repeating the exercise in Netherlands, Germany and Poland. Judging by the experiences of the London Focus Panel, these events will provide the PEDCA team with a solid steer to build a lasting European Joint Action Plan to maximise the sector’s strengths and to provide the EU data centre industry’s businesses and organisations a solid platform to grow and prosper.

The PEDCA team would like to thank Know Innovation for their support and all involved on the day, especially all the participants for their kind and valued contributions.