The QTS Experience

José Luis Friebel got into data centers by accident — second job interview in London, start tomorrow, we've got a conference in six months. Best accident of his life, he says. He told me the thing slowing this whole build-out down isn't power. It's plumbers. I did not expect that.

Chapters
00:00:00  From a sunny coastal town in Spain to the global data center business

00:07:13  Why an industry that built the cloud still doesn't talk to itself

00:12:08  The panel where somebody says "you're full of crap" — and nobody's offended

00:17:03  The human capital crunch, and the unsung heroes of modern civilization

00:19:57  Scholarships, electricians and plumbers: not charity, industry survival

00:29:26  What communities actually say when you ask them

00:34:11  Water, energy, and what it takes to be a good neighbor

00:38:50  Why the industry got caught by surprise on transparency

00:43:55  AI as infrastructure, and 90 billion in Aragon

00:48:16  Radiologists, drones, and why AI creates more jobs than it destroys

00:54:41  AI cities, and the jobs question: direct, indirect, and induced

01:02:22  "You're not an island, you're a peninsula"

01:04:49  What José wants you to remember

Links & References
José Luis Friebel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-luis-friebel-dcd/

InfraXmedia: https://www.infraxmedia.com/

DatacenterDynamics: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/

AI Cities Summit Europe 2027: https://www.aicitysummit.com/europe/2027

AI Cities Summit launch: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/marketwatch/infraxmedia-launches-ai-cities-summit-series-to-support-governments-navigating-ai-infrastructure-growth/

SPAINDC (Spanish Data Center Association): https://spaindc.com/

MEXDC (Mexican Data Center Association): https://asmexdc.com/

Infrastructure Masons: https://imasons.org/

Lays Rodrigues: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lays-rodrigues/

George Rockett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-rockett-b18a3b4/

Dan Loosemore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-loosemore-marketing-specialist/

Thank you for visiting our channel, be sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe! For more information, go to https://www.Q.com

Learn More about QTS Data Centers on the QTS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/users/qtsdatacenters

Think you have a great topic for a podcast or would like to schedule an interview with Dave? Send in your requests to podcast@q.com

Jake Dukes runs programs at Zac Brown's camp for veterans and kids. Years ago he came to me and said he didn't want to talk about money or sponsorship — he wanted us to show up. I stayed till one in the morning. Their chef is also unreasonably good.

Chapters

00:00:06 Pastor, camp, and a friendship that started on a beach

00:04:29 The mission: find what makes a person unique, then magnify it

00:07:30 What a data center has to do with a camp in Georgia

00:12:22 Warrior Week, Warrior Path, and the invisible wounds of war

00:16:56 A lumpy first eighteen months, and the go/no-go stations

00:21:23 Why trust is the hardest thing to rebuild

00:26:31 Don’t scrap who you were — reforging instead of starting over

00:35:39 What the week is actually for: making one real friend

00:39:41 Zac Brown’s heart for veterans and at-risk kids

00:42:07 Who pays for it: 93% of the kids are on scholarship

00:43:35 The light in the eyes, and a cucumber that tasted like a Kit Kat

00:45:50 Why kids and veterans belong in the same place, and what neurodiversity means

00:50:28 What a hiring manager should know about the veteran across the desk

01:06:48 Twenty years of building in communities, hiring from them, and being welcomed

01:09:30 How to tell whether a company that says it hires vets actually does

01:20:52 “I don’t want to talk to you about money”

Links & References:

Camp Southern Ground: https://campsouthernground.org/

Camp Southern Ground staff: https://campsouthernground.org/staff/

Jake Dukes, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jachindukes/

Mike Caimona, incoming CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbcaimona/

Thank you for visiting our channel, be sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe! For more information, go to https://www.Q.com

Learn More about QTS Data Centers on the QTS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/users/qtsdatacenters

Think you have a great topic for a podcast or would like to schedule an interview with Dave? Send in your requests to podcast@q.com

When James told me the best early warning for a job-site injury isn’t a safety number, I said what you’re probably thinking — that’s ridiculous, and how would you even measure it? What came next changed how I look at it. Come find out what the number is.

Chapters:

00:00:00 A Gaelic footballer walks into a data-center podcast

00:02:07 Culture as bedrock: measure the inputs, not the score

00:05:30 Scaling culture when you’re hiring thousands

00:06:34 What PepTalk does: feedback from the field, and morale as a leading indicator

00:11:57 The blind spot: why the once-a-year survey misses it

00:16:18 The data: low-morale stretches vs. high-incident stretches

00:19:43 People leave unsafe sites: retention as the early warning

00:36:14 Construction vs. operations: human error and reinforcement

00:40:19 Staying alert in a “fully operational Death Star”

00:45:39 Reading the site like a body: must-have or nice-to-have?

00:51:11 Measuring the truth, and the one big takeaway

Links / References

James Brogan (guest) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbrogan1/

Bernard Brogan (co-founder) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardbrogan/

PepTalk — website: https://www.peptalk.com

Thank you for visiting our channel, be sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

For more information, go to https://www.Q.com

Learn More about QTS Data Centers on the QTS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/users/qtsdatacenters

Think you have a great topic for a podcast or would like to schedule an interview with Dave? Send in your requests to podcast@q.com

Rob Hopewell’s been in data centers so long I keep accusing him of starting at 11 — UUNET, EdgeConneX, now running QTS sales. We get into why this AI moment isn’t the dot-com bust, why the phone in your hand is a data center, and how our industry can finally explain itself.

Chapters:

0:00  From UUNET to now — the early internet, peering, MAE East/West

5:44  “Unprecedented” — solving first-time problems (spiky AI load, the utility)

7:47  Selling power, not square feet — the model that changed the industry

11:48  A day in the life running QTS sales — deals at the C-level

14:16  What the dot-com bust taught him — strategy, relationships, hustle

15:29  The 2016 hyperscale pivot — the Freedom Design and the availability zones

19:04  “Plan B: make plan A work” — the first deal, and Blackstone

24:09  EdgeConneX and what “the edge” really is

30:37  Building speculatively — the formula that won Atlanta

36:04  The messaging problem — what a data center actually is

40:09  Why AI isn’t a bubble (and meeting OpenAI in 2017)

45:08  “One throat to choke,” building sales talent, and the takeaway: culture

Links:

Rob Hopewell on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robhopewell/]

QTS Data Centers: Q.com

Thank you for visiting our channel, be sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe! 

Learn More about QTS Data Centers on the QTS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/users/qtsdatacenters

Think you have a great topic for a podcast or would like to schedule an interview with Dave? Send in your requests to podcast@q.com

Rob Hopewell’s been in data centers so long I keep accusing him of starting at 11 — UUNET, EdgeConneX, now running QTS sales. We get into why this AI moment isn’t the dot-com bust, why the phone in your hand is a data center, and how our industry can finally explain itself.

Chapters:

0:00 From UUNET to now — the early internet, peering, MAE East/West

5:44 “Unprecedented” — solving first-time problems (spiky AI load, the utility)

7:47 Selling power, not square feet — the model that changed the industry

11:48 A day in the life running QTS sales — deals at the C-level

14:16 What the dot-com bust taught him — strategy, relationships, hustle

15:29 The 2016 hyperscale pivot — the Freedom Design and the availability zones

19:04 “Plan B: make plan A work” — the first deal, and Blackstone

24:09 EdgeConneX and what “the edge” really is

30:37 Building speculatively — the formula that won Atlanta

36:04 The messaging problem — what a data center actually is

40:09 Why AI isn’t a bubble (and meeting OpenAI in 2017)

45:08 “One throat to choke,” building sales talent, and the takeaway: culture

Links: Rob Hopewell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robhopewell/

QTS Data Centers: Q.com

Thank you for visiting our channel, be sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

Learn More about QTS Data Centers on the QTS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/users/qtsdatacenters

Think you have a great topic for a podcast or would like to schedule an interview with Dave? Send in your requests to podcast@q.com