CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Amit Agrawal, Chief Business Officer (CBO) of Web Werks – Iron Mountain Data Centers
- How the rise of data centers creates employment opportunities in the sector?
The economy increasingly relies on technology to create jobs and encourage growth. Technology is the foundation of the digital economy, and its modern infrastructure is data. Across the country, data centers are powering communities, creating jobs, and driving economic growth. They support local communities both directly and indirectly through improving public infrastructure and providing millions of dollars to local governments. Local infrastructure improvements and robust commercial activity can also help bring more businesses to the area, which can create jobs and spur additional economic growth. Data centers are inching closer to becoming India’s rising industry. As Web Werks – Iron Mountain Data Centers are opening up data centers in 5 locations and creating 500-700 jobs in the short term during the project and 150-200 jobs in sustained operations.Data is being generated every minute due to an ever-increasing demand for consuming new content, which increases the demand for data storage and management. They are also important for global competitiveness.Due to digital payments and big data, many businesses now store their data locally, which helps the local economy thrive by creating jobs and financial resources. Education, banking, media, e-commerce, logistics, and other industries are digitising and assisting Data Centers in growing and with the ecosystem that gets created amplification happens. The growing penetration of the internet, smartphones, social media, and digital payment services is expected to increase the demand for cloud services in India.
2. What are the innovative approaches to attract applicants?
To draw qualified candidates, data centers need creative techniques. For them to persist, safeguard the environment, and involve the community, they need a variety of talents. Data centers can widen the recruitment net through cross-skilling – As the talent pool shrinks, colocation hiring managers need to broaden their search to other related industries. The approach of “cross-skilling” implies the consideration of candidates who do not come from the same industry but whose skills base is comparable. For example, colocation data center firms that seek technicians could consider individuals equipped with technology-related workstream skills. Or, for a software developer role, hiring firms could consider an individual without specific experience, but with a technology-oriented mind. Also: Data centers can adopt proactive analytics as an alternate talent source. New AI and machine learning software tools help broaden the level of knowledge of their current staff, enabling them to more easily handle complex tasks.
3.The key positions for which data centers require to recruit talent?
Leaders are now teaching recruiters to look outside the typical prospects so that the hiring hierarchy doesn’t have to be constantly reorganised. Data Centers require talent in a variety of commercial disciplines, including technology, infrastructure, operations, marketing. This in turn generates fulfilling employment and chances to learn from other sectors, which may eventually converge. This includes positions like data centre operations managers, network engineers, computer systems engineers, data centre electrical specialists, mechanical engineers and more. But companies will also need to hire for non-tech roles to fill customer-facing and ancillary positions.
4. How can data centers prevent a skills shortage?
The need for Data Centers has skyrocketed as a result of improvements in data utilisation. The effect data centers have on the economy and how it is affecting the nation’s views on job opportunities. Data centers are poised to grow exponentially with the investment in personnel becoming a significant investment among digital infrastructure leaders. A tight job market and increased demand among competitor data centers fuel the shortage of workers. Decreasing the data center skills gap requires an expansive amount of outreach to universities, recruitment, mentorship, and continuing training once in the industry as data becomes necessary for day-to-day existence.
5. The roll out of 5G will pose significant growth in the data center market creating a hiring rush?
As 5G is coming into the picture, enterprises can leverage their IT environments that are close to the 5G access points. This will open up new opportunities and possibilities for robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles, telemedicine, and tactile internet among others, which will certainly raise demand, which is already high due to the increasing reliance on digital connectivity. With claimed speeds of 20-times faster than 4G – giving users quicker downloads and network operators greater efficiencies – the technologies involved will open doors for industries, changing how they think and what they do with mobile connectivity. This demand will spur development of data centers, which house, protect and distribute the key parts of internet technology, operations and hardware.
