The Data Center Frontier Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

The Data Center Frontier Show

Endeavor Business Media

Technology

Frequency: 1 episode/11d. Total Eps: 227

Welcome to The Data Center Frontier Show podcast, telling the story of the data center industry and its future. Our podcast is hosted by the editors of Data Center Frontier, who are your guide to the ongoing digital transformation, explaining how next-generation technologies are changing our world, and the critical role the data center industry plays in creating this extraordinary future.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Data updated on 19/10/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - Technology
19/10/2026
#85

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 37%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Everyone Says Diesel Is Dead. The Market Says Otherwise.

Episode 206

Thursday, October 15, 2026 • Duration 12:30

The conversation around data center power has focused on replacing diesel. But for many hyperscalers and developers, modern standby diesel remains a practical solution amid grid constraints, permitting challenges, and growing reliability demands.

In this discussion, Matt Vincent, Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier, sits down with Brad Meissner, Director of Product Management at Generac, to explore why diesel continues to play a critical role in data center power strategies—and how low-NOx engines, HVO compatibility, and next-generation emissions controls are redefining diesel technology in 2026.

Read moreCollapse

AI Is Rewriting the Energy Storage Playbook

Episode 205

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 • Duration 24:32

AI data centers are creating a new kind of power problem. As thousands of GPUs ramp together, fast and synchronized changes in electrical demand can place new pressure on UPS systems, generators and the broader power infrastructure supporting the compute load.

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, DCF Editor in Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Frank DeLattre, President Americas at Musashi Energy Solutions, about how hybrid supercapacitors could help data centers manage those rapid power transients — and why AI may be forcing the industry to rethink the role of energy storage altogether.

DeLattre explains the difference between storing energy and managing power, and why high-power, short-duration storage may become increasingly important as AI infrastructure scales. The discussion explores placing energy storage at multiple points in the power chain, from the UPS to systems closer to the server rack, where transients can potentially be addressed before they propagate upstream.

The conversation also examines whether short-duration storage can help operators get more compute from existing electrical capacity by buffering momentary peaks, as well as the tradeoffs between energy buffering and throttling GPU performance.

DeLattre also raises a provocative question around traditional UPS design: If backup generators can accept load within seconds, how much stored energy does a modern AI data center actually need for ride-through?

The discussion looks ahead to a future in which operators may think less in terms of a single “UPS battery” and more in terms of an energy storage architecture — combining different technologies, durations and locations to solve different power problems across the AI data center.

Read moreCollapse

Powering the Future: Why Overhead Busway Is Built for High-Density Data Centers

Episode 203

Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 15:46

AI and high-performance computing are changing how data centers are designed and powered. Rack densities have more than doubled in recent years, and power demands continue to climb. For data center operators and engineers, the pressure to scale faster, reconfigure more often, and support higher loads has made the power distribution decisions more important than ever. This QuickChat video will focus on overhead busway as the optimal power distribution system for modern data center environments. Chris Osian, Product Manager at Starline, will discuss why busway outperforms traditional RPP-based approaches as power densities increase, and what the right power distribution infrastructure needs to deliver: the capacity to support increasing power densities, the flexibility to change without downtime, and the ability to scale with the facility over time. With over 30 years of proven performance in mission-critical environments, Starline is the name data centers have trusted to deliver on all three.

Read moreCollapse

DCF Trends Summit: ON.energy’s Asser Elsamahy

Episode 202

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 • Duration 15:22

Using AI UPS Systems to Tame AI Load Swings

AI data centers are creating a power challenge that goes beyond simply securing enough megawatts. Large AI computing clusters can introduce rapid swings in electricity demand, creating new power-quality and grid-stability concerns for utilities and data center operators. In this interview recorded live at the 2026 Data Center Frontier Trends Summit, DCF Contributing Editor Doug Black speaks with Asser Elsamahy, P.E., vice president of engineering at ON.energy, about how battery-based power systems are emerging as one response.

Elsamahy says battery energy storage itself is not new. Systems have been deployed globally at gigawatt scale for roughly two decades. What is changing is their role inside the data center. As AI workloads introduce larger and faster fluctuations in power demand, batteries and power electronics can increasingly act as a buffer between the compute environment and the electric grid. ON.energy’s approach is what the company calls an AI UPS, or medium-voltage UPS, built around a double-conversion architecture.

Instead of relying on a single set of inverters, the system uses two. One side faces the grid and can respond to utility requirements such as voltage ride-through, frequency ride-through and ramp-rate limits. The other faces the data center load and supplies what the computing equipment requires, including rapid surges and changes in demand. The result is an architecture designed to separate the behavior of the AI load from the behavior presented to the grid. Elsamahy contrasts that approach with a conventional parallel battery energy storage system using a single inverter set.

“It kind of is in a constant struggle of, do I support the grid or do I support the load?” he said. “I have to pick one or the other. It’s very difficult to do both.”

The batteries can also be recharged in multiple ways. A facility can draw modestly more power than its compute load requires during off-peak periods, or it can use downward portions of the AI load profile to replenish stored energy.

Elsamahy describes the battery as a “reservoir of energy” that gives operators greater flexibility over when they draw power and how they respond to changing conditions. That flexibility can also support peak shaving.

Power Quality: The Conversation Data Centers Can't Afford to Ignore

Episode 200

Thursday, September 24, 2026 • Duration 18:14

Uptime and cooling performance both depend on something that is often overlooked during the data system design process: power quality. In this podcast, "Power Quality: The Conversation Data Centers Can't Afford to Ignore," we talk with a Power Quality expert about harmonic distortion in data centers — what it is, how it is created, and how poor power quality impacts data center cooling, uptime and performance. We will also dig into solutions engineers can employ to mitigate poor power quality in their data center.

Power quality deserves a seat at the table alongside the metrics data center operators already obsess over — availability, PUE, and thermal performance. Total Harmonic Distortion, or THD, gives engineers a real, measurable way to gauge the health of their electrical system, turning power quality from an abstract concern into something concrete that can be monitored, benchmarked, and acted on.

This discussion will focus on where harmonics actually come from — and it's something of a paradox. Many of the same components installed specifically to make data centers more efficient, such as variable frequency drives and EC fans, are also responsible for generating the harmonic distortion that undermines power quality. Understanding which specific equipment, in which specific areas of a facility, pose the greatest risk to power quality, gives engineers a practical way to identify where problems are most likely to originate.

Once data center engineers understand the source of harmonics, we’ll dig into the interdependency between power quality and thermal cooling in data centers. Clean, stable power is required to cool a facility properly, and proper cooling is required to run a data center efficiently — the two don't operate independently, one relies on the other. When harmonics go unmanaged excess heat accelerates equipment wear, protective devices trip unexpectedly, cooling systems degrade, and thermal throttling sets in. Left unaddressed, the result is unplanned downtime — the very outcome every data center is designed to avoid.

The physical layout of a facility matters too. "Grey space" and "white space" — the mechanical/support areas and the core IT data hall, respectively — each present different harmonic challenges and require different mitigation approaches. There isn't one single location in a data center where power quality can be fixed once and for all; effective mitigation means evaluating the facility as a whole, rather than searching for a single point of resolution.

OIX's Ilissa Miller: Preparing Communities for AI Data Centers

Episode 201

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 • Duration 24:26

Communities across the U.S. are being asked to make increasingly consequential decisions about data centers at the same time that AI infrastructure development is moving faster than traditional municipal planning processes.

On this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, DCF Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Ilissa Miller, founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations and a board member of the Open Infrastructure Exchange (OIX), about a new effort to help communities prepare before specific data center projects arrive.

At the center of the conversation is the OIX Digital Infrastructure Framework, designed to give municipal planners and elected officials a structured set of questions for evaluating data centers and other digital infrastructure.

Rather than prescribing what communities should approve, Miller says the framework is intended to help them determine where digital infrastructure fits within their own long-term land-use strategies.

Many municipalities, she notes, still do not explicitly recognize data centers as an acceptable land use — even on parcels already designated for industrial activity. That can send developers into conditional-use or zoning processes while residents and public officials are still trying to understand what exactly is being proposed.

Miller argues that comprehensive planning offers a better starting point.

Communities should be deciding in advance where different types of digital infrastructure might be appropriate, what information developers will need to provide, and how data centers fit alongside other economic-development priorities.

The need has become particularly acute as opposition to data centers increasingly overlaps with broader public anxiety about artificial intelligence.

“Most opposition is about more than the data center itself,” Miller says.

Concerns over AI governance, automation and societal impacts are legitimate topics for debate, she argues, but they are not necessarily the same questions local officials must answer when evaluating land use, power, water, noise, construction and community impacts.

Industrial-Grade Reliability: Why Data Centers Are Rethinking Measurement Infrastructure

Episode 199

Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 16:24

As data centers race to support AI workloads, liquid cooling, and accelerated construction timelines, operators are facing new challenges around reliability, efficiency, and infrastructure visibility. Many facilities still rely on commercial-grade instrumentation across critical cooling and utility systems, creating blind spots that can increase operational risk and reduce confidence in performance.

In this episode, we explore why leading operators are adopting industrial-grade instrumentation to gain more accurate insight into flow, temperature, pressure, and fluid quality across their facilities. The conversation covers the critical measurement points that impact uptime, how liquid cooling is changing infrastructure requirements, and the role measurement technology plays in helping operators commission faster, reduce risk, and confidently scale for future growth.

Listeners will walk away with practical guidance for evaluating instrumentation strategies, selecting technology partners, and preparing their facilities for the next generation of data center demands.

Read moreCollapse

Scott Bergs, CEO of Kirkwood IG: Fiber and the AI Data Center Buildout

Episode 198

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 • Duration 33:38

As AI data centers follow available power into new markets, network infrastructure is moving much earlier into the site selection process.

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, DCF Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Scott Bergs, CEO of Kirkwood Infrastructure Group, about how hyperscale and high-density compute are changing the physical network requirements behind data center development.

For years, fiber could often be addressed after land and power were secured. Bergs says that model is breaking down. Hyperscale and neo-cloud campuses increasingly require multiple physically diverse, high-capacity, low-latency network paths — infrastructure that may be difficult or impossible to add late in the development cycle.

That means connectivity planning now has to begin alongside power, roads, permitting and other site infrastructure, sometimes before the ultimate tenant is even known.

Bergs also explains the evolution of Kirkwood Infrastructure Group from the team behind DF&I, which built dark fiber infrastructure across Northern Virginia and Maryland. Kirkwood is now expanding across the Southeast and into the Midwest as large data center campuses move into markets where power may be available but communications infrastructure remains relatively thin.

The conversation gets into the physical implications of that expansion. Bergs describes customer demand progressing from lit services to dark fiber, then dedicated cables and increasingly dedicated conduit capacity. High-density applications are driving fiber counts from 864 fibers to as many as 6,912 per cable, while conduit itself is becoming a strategic asset for security, routing control and future network expansion.

Vincent and Bergs also discuss hollow-core fiber, including its potential latency advantages and the engineering tradeoffs posed by its larger form factor and different implementation requirements. Bergs’ larger point: network developers need to build enough physical pathway capacity today to accommodate whatever fiber technology becomes dominant tomorrow.

AI Puts Fiber on the Critical Path

Episode 197

Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 33:09

AI Infrastructure’s New Site Selection Equation: Power, Fiber and Permitting

AI data center development may begin with power, but it increasingly depends on whether connectivity can be built at the same scale and on the same schedule.

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, Matt Vincent, Editor-in-Chief of Data Center Frontier, speaks with Jeff Wabik, CTO of DC Blox, about how AI infrastructure is changing the relationship between data center development and fiber networks.

Wabik explains how DC Blox’s site-selection strategy has evolved over the past decade—from finding “dirt close to eyeballs,” to securing more land, to chasing available power, and now to evaluating whether massive, diverse fiber routes can be constructed alongside new campuses.

The conversation explores:

Why 864-count fiber is now among the smallest deployments DC Blox commonly sees
How hyperscalers are becoming major builders of terrestrial and subsea network infrastructure
Why new conduit systems may include 10 to 14 ducts from the outset
How fiber permitting can take 12 to 18 months and influence routing decisions
Why DC Blox may route around jurisdictions with histories of permitting delays
Fiber lead times stretching to 70–80 weeks for large-count cable
Skilled-trades and operations workforce shortages
Why community engagement around water, noise, environmental impacts and tax benefits is moving much earlier in the development process

Wabik describes the current AI infrastructure buildout as “beautiful insanity”—an era in which power, connectivity, permits, equipment, labor and community acceptance increasingly have to come together at the same time.

“A data center without connectivity is an expensive warehouse.”

Listen to the full conversation for a ground-level look at how fiber is becoming part of the critical path for AI data center development.

DCF Trends Summit: Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations and the AI Hardware Exit

Episode 196

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 25:32

The AI infrastructure race is largely about getting more computing into data centers faster. But increasingly, operators also need a plan for getting yesterday’s hardware back out while it still has value.

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, recorded live at the third annual DCF Trends Summit in Reston, Virginia, DCF Contributing Editor Doug Black speaks with Josh Humm, Data Center Solutions Manager at Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, about how accelerated AI hardware cycles are changing IT asset disposition, or ITAD.

Humm says traditional enterprise infrastructure might remain in service for three to five years. Newer GPU systems, by comparison, can face refresh cycles of just 18 to 24 months. That compressed timeline is colliding with another AI-era reality: the equipment itself is getting heavier, more specialized and more difficult to remove.

AI systems can include liquid-cooling manifolds, proprietary configurations and units weighing 5,000 to 6,000 pounds, requiring specialized rigging and decommissioning procedures. At the same time, valuable processors, memory, storage and networking components can depreciate quickly once equipment is taken offline.

“The faster we can get the materials out of your building, the more it’s worth, the more we can return to your program,” Humm says.

The result, he argues, is that ITAD should become part of lifecycle planning rather than something operators begin thinking about only when hardware reaches end of life.

The conversation examines how operators can design decommissioning workflows into facility operations, maintain defensible chains of custody, securely destroy data and determine whether retired equipment should be resold whole, harvested for components or recycled.

Humm also discusses the risks created by vendor handoffs across onsite decommissioning, transportation, processing, remarketing and recycling. He recommends scrutinizing providers for data-security and environmental certifications, downstream transparency and the ability to scale as AI refresh projects grow larger.

The Data Center Frontier Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

The Data Center Frontier Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

X4

LinkedIn3

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

X4

LinkedIn3