Can you share your journey into the data centre industry?
I was with Microsoft for 24 years. In the last ten years, the cloud and data centres became a huge part of the journey we were taking as a company—similar to the other giants in the industry. Data centres were not a new thing, but what they were and what they offered has changed tremendously. It used to be more about computer rooms and halls rather than what we think of as data centres today. With AWS, Google, and Microsoft leading the charge, the transformation in the market has been clear.
Being a part of Microsoft, and particularly leading Microsoft Israel for many years, I was deeply involved in this shift. I think the first time I really thought deeply about it was when I found myself wondering why we didn’t have a data centre in Israel. Microsoft was there, but the country wasn’t pushing for any data centre initiatives at the time. I had the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister at the time “Why don’t we initiate a data centre tender?” I felt it was crucial for the foundation of what Israel is built on, especially given the vast amount of technology developed here.
It was a good reminder that the education needed for the government to help them understand the criticality of the data centre is an ongoing, arduous process. I remember I told him about the UK having national and government data centres, and Germany and Japan had them too—I gave him good examples of countries that had already done this. Eventually they did understand the importance, put a bid out to tender and today it is open and operating in the country.
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