DCD is delighted to reveal the winners of the 2022 edition of the annual DCD Awards , which honor the most talented people and the best data center projects in the industry.
This year's finalists were selected by an independent panel of data center experts from hundreds of entries, submitted by contestants from across the world - and today, the awards were presented in a gala ceremony.
Click here to see the names of all the finalists .
Edge Data Center Project of the Year
Winner: Pulsant Cloud - Pulsant's Next-Generation Edge Platform
Edge is now maturing as a mainstream IT delivery option for companies looking for more immediate and location-sensitive reach. This award recognizes projects that can demonstrate a unique and strategic approach as to how a successful Edge deployment is designed, set up, and operated.
Pulsant built a next-generation Edge infrastructure platform for the UK, aiming to enable 95 percent of businesses to benefit from the major advances of Edge computing and give regional enterprises and service providers unmatched scale and reach - and invested more than £100 million ($122m) in the platform over the last 12 months. So far it has delivered a network of 12 strategically-located UK-wide data centers offering low latency access to the cloud.
Category sponsor: Moy Materials
Enterprise Data Center Evolution Award
Winner: Data Center Infrastructure Management, Itau Unibanco - Mogi Mirim, SP, Brazil
Many enterprise companies still manage and house at least some of their IT on-prem but many more recognize the need for a hybrid IT strategy in order to operate in a world driven by digital and business transformation. This award recognizes the process of data center evolution that enables the enterprise to meet all the required objectives of its IT strategy.
Itaú Unibanco had an initiative to improve processes, restructure teams, and automate manual processes. Itaú Unibanco - Centro Tecnológico Mogi Mirim comprises two data centers with more than 10,000 sqm of IT space and 30,000 sqm divided between facility and support.
Category sponsor: Datalec Precision Installations
Mission-Critical Tech Innovation Award
Winner: XYZ Reality the Atom augmented reality construction headset
This award is dedicated to data infrastructure technologies and recognizes excellence in cutting-edge technology solutions developed for the world of critical power, cooling tech, monitoring, and operational management systems.
Atom is a safety-certified hardhat with a built in display, that connects to the HoloSite augmented reality platform and shows building plans as a 3D hologram. The result is data centers and other buildings can be produced without costly reworking, because progress is checked in realtime.
Category sponsor: Jones Engineering Group
Energy Impact Award
Winner: Techbuyer Interact machine-learning tool
As the data center has become an increasingly critical foundation of the modern world it has become equally associated with significant energy consumption. New for 2022, this award recognizes the most innovative and efficient ways in which data centers are sourcing, managing, and conserving energy.
Interact, from TechBuyer, is a non-intrusive, machine learning, SaaS tool that provides tailored server upgrade recommendations that will reduce the cost, energy consumption, and carbon footprint of an organization’s server estate.
Category sponsor: Node Pole
Environmental Impact Award
Winner: Microsoft Circular Centers initiative targeting e-waste
New for 2022, this award recognizes innovation in and commitment to reducing the total environmental impact of the data center.
Microsoft's Circular Centers process decommissioned cloud servers, sorting components and equipment to optimize material that can be reused or repurposed. The company wants to reach zero-waste by 2030, and now runs Circular Centers in several of its data centers.
Category sponsor: H&MV Engineering
Social Impact Award
Winner: Equinix Digital Literacy program in Mumbai, India
New for 2022, this award seeks to recognize the data center industry’s most innovative and impactful social and community development initiatives.
Equinix India has been enhancing digital literacy and inclusion. In the past 18 months, it has donated 185 tablets to Community Learning Centers (CLCs), 33 laptops/ desktops, 23 Smart TVs, and one projector to 23 schools around Mumbai. This will empower and enable 6000+ children in government schools
This category is sponsored by Huawei
Data Center Design Innovation Award
Winner: Bridge Data Centres MY06 data center in Johor, Malaysia
How can design ensure that each data center is fit for its operational purpose throughout its life and can meet or exceed client requirements? This award recognizes data center developments that have pushed the boundaries in terms of design and construction.
The MY06 data center in Johor Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s 1st cooperative construction outside China, between Chindata Group, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Bridge Data Centers. Phase 1 project uses a modular building method, with containers integrated in China and assembled quickly on-site in Malaysia. The project also uses immersion cooling techniques for the entire data center’s cooling systems.
Category sponsor: Schneider Electric
Middle East & Africa Data Center Development Award
Winner: Vantage Data Center Johannesburg Campus - JNB11, South Africa
This award recognizes data center, cloud, and associated developments across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) that have pushed the boundaries in terms of design, construction and operation.
In October 2021, Vantage commenced the build of a major carrier-neutral campus in Johannesburg, its first in Africa. The first data center (JNB11) was completed in just 10 months and delivered in July 2022 - with zero lost-time incidents over 1.5 million working hours. The campus will consist of three facilities across 30 acres (12 hectares) with 650,000 square feet (60,000 square meters) of data centrer space.
Category sponsor: Meesons
Latin America Data Center Development Award
Winner: Mexico Telecoms Partners multi-city ECR-8 (Edge Computer Room) deployment
As the requirement for data center services moves into younger markets, how can the development of data centers meet the challenges of delivering services that are resilient, secure, efficient, and agile?
This award recognizes data center, cloud, and associated developments across Latin America that have pushed the boundaries in terms of design, construction, and operation.
Mexico Telecoms Partners (MTP) has been a promoter of Edge solutions in Mexico for four years with a presence in 19 cities, and has now launched a new generation of Edge sites, with an innovative design that has achieved Uptime Institute Tier III certification, with an availability of 99.98 percent, to deliver 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Content Delivery (Streaming), DRPs, and other IT services.
Category sponsor: CEEDA
Emerging Asia Pacific Data Center Development Award
Winner: NTT Global Data Centers NAV1A Mahape Project, Maharashtra, India
This award recognizes data center, cloud, and associated developments across the emerging nations of the Asia Pacific region that have pushed the boundaries in terms of design, construction, and operation.
NTT built its NAV1A Mahape Project in NaviMumbai, India, on an industrial site. It has been retrofitted to the existing site, to make a high-density campus with a futuristic design, and high levels of power redundancy. The project will provide employment opportunities for close to 500 individuals.
Category sponsor: DCD>Academy
Data Center Construction Team of the Year
Winner: NTT Global Data Centers Phoenix PH1 Data Center
The delivery of a data center is a race against the clock, as time is money. It’s also a situation where no corners can be cut, and the eventual product must not fall below agreed specifications and quality standards.
This award recognizes construction teams that demonstrated flexibility and initiative in dealing with project twists and turns while meeting or exceeding overall time, cost, and quality outcomes.
NTT is building a 102-acre data center campus in Mesa, Arizona, with plans for seven buildings offering a total of 240MW of critical IT load, along with an on-site substation providing upwards of 480MVA. A closed-loop chilled water system with air-cooled chillers and integral free cooling minimizes water usage. The first two-story building on the campus offers 36MW of critical IT load and achieved LEED certification.
Category sponsor: ZincFive
Data Center Operations Team of the Year
Winner: Kaiser Permanente Data Center Operations - Urban Renewal (UR) program, Irvine, California
No one runs a data center in isolation, and teamwork is a crucial skill alongside the technical know-how the job requires. While working to ensure the operation runs reliably and effectively in line with client expectations, the operations team needs also to respond effectively to unforeseen situations, requests, and challenges.
This award recognizes teams convened for special tasks or 'one-off' projects, or to deal with unforeseen situations.
Kaiser Permanente entered its Irvine CA colocation facility in 2008 but has dramatically reduced its footprint, and has terminated the Irvine Data Center (IDC) lease. It had to migrate all compute environments to Kaiser Permanente-owned facilities and cloud providers, and/or decommission them via its Urban Renewal (UR) Program.
Category sponsor: Excool
Young Mission-Critical Engineer of the Year
Winner: Niovi Papanikolaou, Consultant, Northshore
The future prospects of the data center community rely on the emergence of a new generation, ready to pick up the baton and take the sector on towards undreamt-of achievements. Past winners have gone on to build successful careers while raising the profile of the companies that employ them.
Niovi joined Northshore this February and her unique brand of enthusiasm for energy efficiency, combined with her broad working experience in energy management, immediately made her an extremely valuable asset to the team. Niovi’s skills are being applied in multiple roles, including data validation, project management, and energy engineering.
Category sponsor: Kirby Engineering
Sustainability Pioneer
Winner: Noelle Walsh, Microsoft
This award seeks to recognize the efforts of an individual and an industry leader in the world of sustainable data centers and information technology. This year’s winner will no doubt be a pioneer, someone that stands out from the crowd and that sits behind some of those big ideas that the world needs more of right now.
The winner of this award is selected by a specially convened panel of judges. There are no finalists.
This award is sponsored by Eaton
Outstanding Contribution to the Data Center Industry
Winner: Lee Kirby, Salute Mission Critical
Every industry has its champions, thought leaders, and pioneers who will be revered for their achievements for years to come.
The previous winners of this Award are all distinguished by their extensive service to the data center industry through publication, education, developing innovation, and active involvement with the data center community globally.
Each previous winner of this Award has in some way changed the way in which the industry looks at key challenges or key opportunities and through that process changed the way we look at ourselves.
The winner of this award is selected by a specially convened panel of judges. There are no finalists.
This award is sponsored by Mercury Engineering
A full breakdown of the awards will be in the next issue of DCD Magazine supplement series.
