New Zealand Cloud & Datacenter Convention 2022

3 November 2022, 8:50am – 6:30pm, Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland, New Zealand

Kia ora New Zealand!

Aotearoa New Zealand ticks all the boxes for data center growth: – access to sources of renewable energy, a skilled workforce, national and international connectivity and socio-political stability. These positive features are backed by an increasing local acknowledgment of the importance of data centers for a digitalised society and economy.

While the sector sees investment growth continuing to meet local demand, so regional opportunities are also emerging. As data centers across the Asia Pacific grapple with the challenge of balancing significant growth in demand with requirement for continuing availability, manageable cost and sustainable outcomes, can New Zealand play a role for APAC similar to that played by facilities in the Nordics for Western Europe and beyond?

This conference will act as a forum for expert discussion and insight on the factors driving data center investment in Aotearoa New Zealand and the future opportunities and challenges that such investment will bring.

So register below to be part of this great event for the first time in New Zealand!

Conference Agenda

Time (GMT+12)	Topics
08:00	Registration Opens
08:50	Powhiri Welcoming Ceremony
09:00	Welcome Address Nick Parfitt, Head of Content and Marketing, W.Media
09:05	Principle Keynote: Digital infrastructure and our digital future What are the key considerations for New Zealand’s digital future? How does digital infrastructure enable and accelerate such a future? The wider impact against the bigger picture for Aotearoa. Framing perspectives and conversations for the day. Mitchell Pham, Chairperson for the Digital Council for Aotearoa NZ and NZTech and Co-Founder of Augen Software Group
9:35	Keynote: The evolution of hybrid IT in New Zealand Hybrid IT has allowed end user organisations to benefit from the different capabilities and strengths of available infrastructure options – primarily on-prem., colocation, cloud. The evolution of hybrid IT depends on choice enabled by infrastructure and different markets have therefore travelled at different speeds into hybrid. Where does New Zealand currently stand on this journey and where will prospective future investment take it? Andrew Kirker, Managing Director, CDC Data Centres
10:00	Keynote: The fresh challenges and opportunities for data center design and operation in the era of sustainability. Data centers are coming under increased scrutiny for their energy, environmental and social practices while needing to keep delivering on reliability, availability and budget. What are the challenges of meeting a range of different needs and expectations and balancing KPIs? And the opportunities in achieving the required outcomes? Robert Linsdell, Managing Director Australia and New Zealand, Vertiv
10:20	Panel Discussion: What are the next challenges and opportunities for sustainability? As sustainability continues as a key driver of datacenter and corporate best practice, which will be the next stages in the sustainability journey for different sections of the New Zealand data center community? How will key drivers change and how will this impact perceptions of progress and the development of future strategies? Moderator: Lee Stewart, Head of Corporate Sustainability, Fonterra Panelists: Tamas Balogh, Data Centre Program Director, BW-Digital Jason Porter, Director of Technology, T4 Group Ilan Oshri, Professor of Information Systems, University of Auckland Business School Padi Quesnel, Business Group Engineering Product Lead – ANZ, Microsoft
11:00	Morning Tea Break Technology Bench Presentations: 11:10AM – 11:20AM Nigel Hemming, Country Manager – ANZ, Sunbird DCIM Title: Sustainable Operations with Modern Infrastructure Management Software
11:30	Keynote: What opportunities does New Zealand present for the hyperscaler? And what opportunities does hyperscale present for New Zealand? New Zealand’s data center industry is expanding more rapidly than most established markets across the world. Demand for data center services is growing fast but how ready is the market for the future path of digitalisation and of hyperscale? What is driving the growth in demand that has created this situation? And what will this mean for enterprise in New Zealand? Verghese Jacob, Chief Technology Officer, DCI Data Centers
11:50	Keynote: Key considerations for Edge deployments outdoor and non-traditional IT environments Edge is moving away from being perpetually ‘the next big thing’ towards becoming an accessible option for IT delivery architectures. This expert presentation looks at the roll-out of edge in New Zealand, what is driving this and what is being learned about the application of edge to corporate IT objectives as it goes forward. Mark Roberts, Director of Marketing and IT Sales, Rittal
12:10	Panel Discussion: Is an endless skills gap inevitable? The shortage of skills across many aspects of data center design, construction and operation is close to the top of most lists of industry resource concerns. How well are New Zealand data centers faring? Are technologies such as AI/ML, digital twin, predictive analytics the solution to the skills gap? Or do they bring a new set of challenges? Moderator: Craig Young, Chief Executive Officer, TUANZ Panelists: Amber Taylor, Co-Founder/CEO, ARA Journeys Donna Bridgman, Mission Critical Sector Technical Leader, Norman Disney & Young Gareth Johnston, Director – Data Centre Recruitment, Mission Critical Recruitment
12:50	Keynote: What will be the continuing impacts of supply chain disruption? The past few years have focused strategic attention around disruption and business continuity; many organisations have felt significant pressure, have pivoted or tried to innovate to work around issues of supply into data centres. The challenges of delivering uptime have been compounded by problems accessing the products and services needed to operate. This expert presentation will look at how supply chain issues are likely to play out in New Zealand 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. Donna Bridgman, Mission Critical Sector Technical Leader, Norman Disney & Young
13:10	Lunch Break Technology Bench Presentations: 1:30PM – 1:40PM Ben Crowe, Vertical sales leader, Colocation and Hyperscale, Vertiv Title: Beyond Buzzword: Sustainability as the Way Forward for the Data Center Industry 1:40PM-1:50PM Wallace Brabyn, General Manager, Vicom New Zealand Ltd Title:Inspect Before You Connect – a demonstration of VIAVI’s fully automated Wifi Fibre Inspection Tools. 1:50PM – 2:00PM Rakesh Thakur, Technical Head, Legrand Data Center Solutions Title: Rack Access Control – 2FA + Camera
14:30	Fireside Chat: Driving manageable growth: the connectivity dilemna. 5G and Wifi 6 have rewritten user expectation and provider delivery of digital communication. This is a continuous process – Wifi 7 is expected to emerge from 2023 on and work apparently is underrway on 6G. Connectivity has assumed greater importance for the modern data center so how will current and future advances impact the build, fit-out and operation of New Zealand data centers? What are some of the challenges in evolving future connectivity strategies? And the solutions? Moderator: Nick Parfitt, Head of Content and Marketing, W.Media Panelists: Ashley Martin, Datacenter Solutions Manager – South Pacific, Commscope DC Michael Stribling, Tribe Lead/General Manager, Spark Data Centres
15:10	Keynote: Net Zero Journey for Data Centres Data centres are where ICT meets the environment. Energy efficiency is already high on the agenda for data centre operators, but does the sector as whole recognise its responsibility to drive decarbonisation? The world’s most efficient data centres are found in the Nordics, can NZ compete? The answer is definitely “YES”. “Net Zero Journey for Data Centres” aims to provide NZ data centre operators a high-level guide on how to plan and implement net zero strategies. Nigel Hemming, Country Manager – ANZ, Sunbird DCIM
15:30	Afternoon Tea Break
16:00	Keynote: Which mega-trends will impact most on New Zealand as a data center destination? The past couple of years have confirmed the criticality of digital infrastructure to economies and societies across the world. As transformations continue to accelerate, which growth drivers will assume greatest importance? How will data centers need to adapt to meet the next set of challenges? Nick Parfitt, Head of Content and Marketing, W.Media
16:20	Panel Discussion: How will Data Center investment change New Zealand as a place to live, work and visit? New Zealand is fast emerging as a focus of international investment into local data centers. How will this change the nation, its economy and society? How can the transformations that will be enabled through greater local digital infrastructure be managed? What can be learned from looking at how this process is rolling out overseas? Moderator: Nick Parfitt, Head of Content and Marketing, W.Media Panelists: Paul Haley, Technical Project Manager, DCI Data Centers Matt Ryan, Growth and Development Lead, Spark Data Centres and Data Centre Advisor, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Andrew Green, Associate Director Data Centre Business, Datacom Mitchell Pham, Chairperson for the Digital Council for Aotearoa NZ and NZTech and Co-Founder of Augen Software Group
17:00	Networking Drinks