Executive Roundtable: Strategies for Speed and Resiliency in Data Center Delivery

Jason Waxman, CoolIT Systems: When bringing a new product to market, we work closely with customers to define performance, reliability, and production requirements; then move fast. 

For example, in our Liquid Lab™ Innovation centers in Calgary and Taipei, we rapidly design, prototype, test, and validate—as well as UL certify—new products all in-house. Our Liquid Labs allow us to compress development timelines without compromising quality or reliability.

Every CoolIT product is engineered using Design-for-X principles that consider performance, reliability, quality, manufacturability and serviceability from day one.  So, when a product has completed testing, validation and certification, we are ready for manufacturing ramp. This includes making sure the supply chain can support a product’s production scale-up as well as provide components that meet or exceed our quality standards.  

We’re also increased industrial automation in our assembly processes, including robotics and AI-driven optical inspection systems, to ensure high-quality, high-volume output.

Whether it's our own product or one custom-designed and produced for a customer, our rapid development capabilities combined with the ability to ramp manufacturing rapidly, ensure we can quickly bring new products to market at scale.

Phillip Marangella, EdgeConneX: Again, AI is dramatically transforming the way we build and operate our data centers. The speed and scale for both hyperscale and the edge have significantly increased in size by at least 3-5x, and the speed of delivery has been reduced in some cases to half the traditional timeframes.

Things like prefabrication, global purchase agreements for long-lead equipment, power reservations with utilities, and the acquisition of larger land banks result in a significantly greater capital commitment upfront.

We have to work more closely with the customer to understand their capacity forecasts, design requirements, and required delivery schedules, ensuring we are ready for service on time and on budget.  

Nicole Dierksheide, Rehlko: We all know that the data center market is scaling at an unprecedented rate, and as a backup power provider, we're a key part of the total solution. One of our strengths has always been our ability to support both standard and custom generator configurations.

Our standard product lineup — like our popular 3-megawatt genset — is highly configurable using internal tools that allow customers to select from a range of options, such as alternator size or enclosure types. These tools streamline the process and provide fast access to pricing and bill of materials, which is essential for quick deployment.

However, data center projects often require more than off-the-shelf solutions. Heat rejection, airflow challenges, and unique site conditions, like high altitudes or extreme climates, can require modifications to standard equipment.

For instance, a site might need an oversized alternator for better airflow, or a configuration that accommodates stacked generators and additional piping. These types of customizations fall into what we call engineering specials, something we’ve long supported across our business.

To meet the speed and complexity of today’s data center demands, we've created dedicated teams focused solely on the data center segment. These teams include engineering, project management, and customer support resources who work directly with hyperscale and colocation customers throughout the lifecycle — from initial design through commissioning and beyond. This close collaboration helps ensure we meet all technical requirements while also staying on schedule.

We've also leaned heavily into digital transformation. We’re integrating digital tools and automation into our engineering and project workflows — not just in the products we deliver, but in how we operate internally. As the industry continues to grow rapidly, we know we can’t simply scale headcount at the same pace. So we're investing in AI and digital platforms to help us manage complexity, improve speed to market, and maintain the reliability and power quality our customers expect.

Carsten Baumann, Schneider Electric: Increasing manufacturing capacities is a clear strategy, but it carries long-term risk. To mitigate this, we are securing supply chain agreements with customers to ensure infrastructure capacity is available when needed, reducing risk for both parties.

An important factor for meeting compressed timelines is to design and build modularly. Prefabricated electrical, mechanical, and IT packages are accelerating the deployment of capacity, both for hyperscalers and at the edge. There are several advantages as various published use cases demonstrate.