We ‘Deep Dive’ with Theresa Bobis, Director Southern Europe, DE-CIX, who tells us more about life inside and outside the office.
What would you describe as your most memorable achievement in the data centre industry?
The most memorable and rewarding experience I’ve had, in the context of DE-CIX and Southern Europe (where I’ve been active now for around nine years), was when we reached the first hundred customers at DE-CIX Madrid. We reached 100 ASNs in November 2017, less than a year after launching the Internet Exchange. At the time, and for quite some time after this, we were the fastest-growing IX in the world. That was a powerful moment for all of us, a sign that our hard work was paying off.
It’s always rewarding when our data centre partners welcome us and believe in the power of the network ecosystem that we bring into their data centres. It’s a joy to see when we prove that we can help them create data gravity and attract networks and ISPs to become their customers. This raises the data centre to the level of a network-reach data centre.
What first made you think of a career in technology/data centres?
I started out with a biology degree. As a graduate, I worked in the field of reviewing the import and export of food and chemicals in the Philippines, working with government authorities and the health industry, and dealing with customs and regulations. Some of my friends were in the technology business and I felt like it would make an interesting change – and it worked out well for me.
I believed I could learn about tech and I wanted to be part of the sector. The Internet was just starting, and I got hooked on the technology. I became a bit of a telecom junkie, as they called me back then.
Later on, I went into a Business Development role, and it was a totally new world for me. I had to start from scratch in terms of my knowledge but I already had experience in the interactive part and in dealing with the authorities. I’m good at developing relationships with people, which really helps in the technology world. The transition wasn’t that difficult because I had friends in the industry who helped me to understand and explain the technology to me through analogies. That helped a lot.
What style of management philosophy do you employ in your current position?
As the team lead for DE-CIX in Southern Europe, I have a fantastic team across multiple disciplines and I always strive to trust and empower them. Beyond that, my philosophy is to be of service to the customers and to genuinely understand what they need rather than just putting my agenda or services in front of them. I try to develop a relationship with the customer and put mutual trust first. Creating a long-term relationship has always been my priority.
Sometimes, what I have to offer is not relevant to this person or the company, but the relationship is still valuable and perhaps we can support each other in different ways – with a recommendation, for example. It’s just a reflection of the community spirit that I see throughout the interconnection industry.
What do you think is the current hot talking point within the data centre space?
Everybody’s looking into power availability, and of course, Artificial Intelligence (AI). These are common topics in discussions with everyone I talk to currently because everybody’s building data centres everywhere, and preparing for their data centres to be power-ready and interconnectivity-ready. You might have a space, but if you cannot draw electricity and you don’t have interconnectivity, it’s just a silo. How can traffic go in and out?
So nowadays, wherever I go, they will say, ‘I have 100 MW available’, or ‘I have 60MW’, and everybody’s excited about how the new applications like AI that drive this growth will unfold in the coming months. They’re talking about how to house AI platforms, AI-as-a-Service, what kinds of applications you can derive from AI platforms, the ratio of AI training to AI inference, and where the business opportunities are.
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office?
I normally just want to go out to a quiet place to chill out with my friends and family. I love to relax, have a nice glass of wine, listen to music and have life-enriching conversations. Sometimes this even includes customers with whom I have a good relationship. I enjoy having a simple coffee or a glass of wine and listening to their stories about their children, their lives, seeing the photos of their newborns – it just melts my heart.
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?
Well, looking at my region in Southern Europe, we see massive investment in new data centre infrastructure, including hyperscalers, colocation facilities and HPC data centres across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the construction of grid-scale renewable energy plants (solar, wind and hydro) – specifically to support digital infrastructure. This is hugely exciting and we see great potential for Iberia not only as an excellent opportunity to optimise international data traffic flows but also as a carbon-neutral hub for Europe’s AI industry.
As the recently published study, The Iberian Peninsula: A next-generation regional mega hub, demonstrates, Iberia is an interesting region for investment for both infrastructure players and Fortune 500 companies, and we will see continuing strong growth across the peninsula in the coming years.
For me, other areas where investment is now needed are in building more Edge data centres, and related to that, creating greater interconnection density. Evolving data traffic pathways need new opportunities for interconnection. We see the concept of a regional mega hub in the interconnected hubs and infrastructure markets on the Iberian Peninsula, and this concept will be needed on a global scale to meet the needs of tomorrow’s digital services and applications.
Additionally, enterprises should look at how they can distribute and interconnect their infrastructure across different data centres to support the evolution of traffic flows. They should be exploring the diversification of their data centre strategy, using multi-tenant data centres with strong network ecosystems and taking control of their network interconnections to create greater resilience as well as lower latency connectivity
