Hong Kong has played a key role in the global digital ecosystem as a gateway into and from the PRC and also as a major financial and commercial hub in its own right. What is its current status and its future direction?

The data centre industry is the bedrock of the digital economy and advances have been made in strides to ensure operational efficiency and optimal performance. Join Chang Cho, Founder and CEO of Onion Technology, as he unpacks how Onions’ Data Centre OpsWare is driving digital transformation for the data centre business.

In this keynote, Peter Wong will share how Prenetics, a leading genomics and precision oncology company, plans and operates a global digital infrastructure in this changing environment.

The energy transition to fighting the climate emergency has already begun, but the world is still spending billions of dollars importing fossil fuels. Organizations should better optimize their energy consumption to protect company margins. It is incumbent upon data centre owners and operators, which consume up to 2% of the world’s energy, to focus on energy efficiency and sustainability.

In this keynote, Steven Lee will explore how data centre owners and operators can deploy a holistic approach to adopt the latest innovations and technologies to measure their progress and reduce energy consumption. By taking this forward-looking approach, organizations can achieve visions of net zero IT operations, and act as responsible members of the ecosystems we all share.

Enterprise companies are the foundation of the data center/cloud ecosystem. Decision-making becomes more complex as providers and technologies evolve and as options and information increase. How well is provider evolution meeting enterprise needs or is it shaping those needs?

This keynote discusses the current state of cybersecurity and the threat trends that organizations are facing. This is based on the latest Google Cybersecurity Action Team report and the mitigation strategies companies should consider in the coming years.

Increasing demand, shortage of space, greater requirements of compliance, rising costs of labour and materials… What is now the ROI case for building in Hong Kong? Which innovations and techniques can be deployed?

What do data centre migration and transformation look like and its requirements for a successful outcome – description of migration strategy and methods in avoiding common pitfalls.

David will discuss and introduce phases of repeatable process, risks and considerations, source DC assessment and artifacts gathering – validation, target DC infrastructure readiness and migration methods.

There are a number of definitions of a data center hub city. One is the size of the local datacenter footprint, far larger than that required by the digital activity of its own population, government and economy. The extra capacity can then be used to meet the needs of markets which lack the infrastructure or resources locally to meet their own level of digital demand.

The hub needs to offer developed infrastructure—data centers, networks and storage—as well as access to the resources necessary to plan, build and  operate data centers. Cities which are rated as “easy to do business” are more likely to develop into recognized hubs.

As impact factors reshape demand for data centers and as the data center itself evolves far beyond just being a building, what does the future hold for data center hub cities, and for Hong Kong in particular?