Data Center Insights: Miles Whitling, Maddox Industrial Transformer
The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry.
Here’s a look at the Q1 2026 insights from Miles Whitling, Director of Marketing at Maddox Industrial Transformer.
Miles Whitling is Director, Marketing at Maddox Industrial Transformer. Whitling has developed expertise in digital marketing strategy and execution, with a focus on driving measurable results through targeted campaigns and data analysis. His experience includes managing advertising budgets, optimizing online presence, and integrating marketing automation platforms. In his role at Maddox Industrial Transformer, Whitling has overseen marketing initiatives, contributing to the company's engagement with commercial, industrial, utility, and renewables segments.
Data Center Frontier: The industry has entered what many describe as the execution phase of the AI infrastructure cycle. What capabilities — organizational, technical, or operational — will most clearly separate the projects that deliver on time from those that struggle over the next 24 months?
Miles Whitling, Maddox: The projects that deliver on schedule are those that treat procurement as a core project discipline. Long-lead time electrical equipment (like transformers and switchgear) is schedule-critical. Successful developers secure these components early, often pre-purchasing equipment even before final design lock.
Many of the projects that move from proposal to construction have also abandoned project-by-project procurement. Instead, they’re standardizing specifications and placing large orders that they’ll allocate across multiple projects.
The choice of suppliers is another key differentiator. Working with vendors that are aligned with your project’s timeline and who have both the capacity to deliver and the flexibility to adapt make a significant difference.
In many cases, medium-sized partners are able to combine scale with responsiveness in a way that supports fast-moving builds better than traditional OEMs who have the scale but lack speed and flexibility to adapt to some data center projects.
Data Center Frontier: As AI campuses scale into multi-hundred-megawatt and gigawatt territory, successful delivery increasingly depends on tight coordination across utilities, suppliers, builders, and operators. Where is the industry still too fragmented, and what models of collaboration are proving most effective?
Miles Whitling, Maddox Industrial Transformer: Historically, utilities, suppliers, contractors, and operators have tended to work in silos. That model breaks down when projects are moving at the pace required for AI infrastructure. Many EPC teams are still engineering custom specs and then discovering supply constraints. All parties are also often concerned with “stepping on each other's toes,” crossing wires, and overstepping commercial boundaries, which can slow down processes and create problems due to miscommunication. The projects executing well have made coordination intentional: weekly or biweekly calls with all key parties, integrated master scheduling, and suppliers brought in during design rather than after. Strategic supplier partnerships are replacing transactional bids, shifting from a one-off supplier model to a relationship model.
Data Center Frontier: With AI demand evolving rapidly, many operators are trying to balance speed to market with long-term flexibility. How should developers and suppliers think about future-proofing infrastructure – particularly power and electrical capacity - without overbuilding or locking into the wrong assumptions?
Miles Whitling, Maddox Industrial Transformer: On the one hand, power infrastructure requires much less flexibility than the design for the data hall itself. While compute technology, rack density, and cooling strategies continue to evolve, power infrastructure remains relatively stable. Once the core power systems are installed, they typically remain consistent over the life of the data center. And given the pace of demand, developers probably don’t need to fear overbuilding power capacity–if it’s available, it will get used.
At the same time, developers still need to align engineering and procurement teams to ensure equipment designs can serve multiple sites. Most hyperscalers are already standardizing their specifications and ordering long-lead equipment like transformers and switchgear in large quantities, assigning gear across multiple projects as needed. This can significantly accelerate delivery.
Data Center Frontier: Public scrutiny of large-scale data center development continues to rise, particularly around power use, land, and community impact. Looking ahead, what will define whether the industry optimally maintains its social license to operate as AI infrastructure expands?
Miles Whitling, Maddox Industrial Transformer: Community pushback around data center development is often tied to concerns about power. Communities often think a new data center might crowd out residential power or drive up electricity rates. Maintaining public trust will depend on how transparently the industry plans and communicates around power infrastructure. In practice, large data center loads often incentivize utilities to invest in new generation capacity, substations, and transmission upgrades that strengthen the overall grid. Some operators are also pursuing on-site or data center–owned power generation. This approach can reduce strain on the public grid and address concerns about energy availability and pricing. The operators that are navigating this most effectively are those that actively invest in the surrounding power infrastructure. This means co-investing in substations, funding transmission upgrades, and pairing campuses with renewable generation. Maintaining approval to operate will depend in large part on transparent communication and demonstrating that data center infrastructure strengthens, rather than strains, the power systems that communities depend on.
About the Author
Matt Vincent
Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier, where he leads editorial strategy and coverage focused on the infrastructure powering cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy. A veteran B2B technology journalist with more than two decades of experience, Vincent specializes in the intersection of data centers, power, cooling, and emerging AI-era infrastructure. Since assuming the EIC role in 2023, he has helped guide Data Center Frontier’s coverage of the industry’s transition into the gigawatt-scale AI era, with a focus on hyperscale development, behind-the-meter power strategies, liquid cooling architectures, and the evolving energy demands of high-density compute, while working closely with the Digital Infrastructure Group at Endeavor Business Media to expand the brand’s analytical and multimedia footprint. Vincent also hosts The Data Center Frontier Show podcast, where he interviews industry leaders across hyperscale, colocation, utilities, and the data center supply chain to examine the technologies and business models reshaping digital infrastructure. Since its inception he serves as Head of Content for the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit. Before becoming Editor in Chief, he served in multiple senior editorial roles across Endeavor Business Media’s digital infrastructure portfolio, with coverage spanning data centers and hyperscale infrastructure, structured cabling and networking, telecom and datacom, IP physical security, and wireless and Pro AV markets. He began his career in 2005 within PennWell’s Advanced Technology Division and later held senior editorial positions supporting brands such as Cabling Installation & Maintenance, Lightwave Online, Broadband Technology Report, and Smart Buildings Technology. Vincent is a frequent moderator, interviewer, and keynote speaker at industry events including the HPC Forum, where he delivers forward-looking analysis on how AI and high-performance computing are reshaping digital infrastructure. He graduated with honors from Indiana University Bloomington with a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing and lives in southern New Hampshire with his family, remaining an active musician in his spare time.
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