For many tech leaders we are constantly facing decisions to better support our organisations. Predominantly we are faced with the constant pressures of finding cost savings whilst trying to keep the lights on and provide innovative solutions to our stakeholders. One of the most prohibitive areas we face is the cost of change, which can be technical, people or process but all represent increasing costs.

So, how do we achieve cost savings whilst ensuring stability & innovation? For many the decision will be migrating from on prem to cloud, but is the cloud the panacea? In this keynote join Mary-Beth Hosking as she teases out the change impacts of moving from DC to Cloud and questioning is it really worth it?

Melbourne’s data centre scene has witnessed incredible expansion in recent years, with growth rates of the market mirroring that of Australia’s Tier 1 market in Sydney. How is Australia’s largest secondary data centre market poised to evolve over the next few years, especially with the progress of upcoming developments? In this session, we dive into the shifts in data centre trends within Victoria’s capital city and discuss how Melbourne stacks up within the wider Australian context.

Over the next few years as digital demand increases, as 5G kicks in and the need to access data on the basis of low latency increases also, Melbourne will continue to show strong growth in data center investment. The world in which data centers will operate is transforming quickly so how will data center design and planning help to manage change?

This expert presentation will look at how supply chain issues are likely to play out in Australia as well as some of the issues raised by Scope 3, and approaches that can be used to integrate Scope 3 into an effective sustainability strategy.

As data centers become increasingly critical for business and commerce, so data centers also become scrutinised more closely for ESG performance. This panel discussion combines the views of those who set the policy and those who need to execute it.  Where are the stress points? How are these resolved? And how does this impact on the “data centre as brand” trend?

As edge computing matures as an IT delivery architecture so it runs into the same questions as the data center industry overall. One of the most important of these is how it will impact the cluster of environmental and social issues included under ‘sustainability’. Will it lead to greater efficiency in IT delivery and, if so, how? How is it likely to impact demand patterns? How can the sustainability performance of Edge be monitored and managed? 

What impact is the ‘skills shortage’ and the costs of labour having on data centers and associated industries across Victoria? How should the State face the future of labour in and around the data center? What will be the role of different stakeholder groups in restoring the balance between the demand for and supply of necessary skill sets?

This panel will look at a number of the key technologies and I.T. innovations that we can expect to see coming onto the market in the near and longer-term future. Which will contribute most to the challenges currently faced by data centers? How will they do so?