Well, so welcome everybody.
And today I've got a special guest on executive insights.
It's Paul almond.
So Paul, before we get started, why don't you just introduce yourself to
everybody in your company and what you do?
Sure thanks, Kevin.
My name is Paul almond and I'm the technical director with data
to UK desk century, KRS Schneider elite partner, based in Manchester,
I've been talking to different executives throughout this series.
Something that a, an observation I've come out with is a lot of the customers.
Don't that one of the things they've learned through this pandemic is the
server rooms are incredibly important.
And, you know, in your observation, is this something that customers have
been doing a good job with in the past?
Um, I think, yeah, the, the, how the have been monitoring in the past, but
certainly, um, You know, effective remote as a critical infrastructure
has become increasingly important.
Um, especially where many offices or facilities are suddenly needed
to become unmanned for long periods of time throughout the pandemic.
So when they became unmanned, all of a sudden customers started realizing that
maybe they weren't managing them as effectively as they thought they were.
Is that, is that a good summary of you look at, you used to being able to
pop in and out of rooms or buildings?
Uh, and when that's not possible, then remote monitoring really
comes into its own for them.
Yeah, it's interesting.
And, and I've had some discussions with people about not only the importance
of remote monitor monitoring and how that's changed, uh, because you know,
the pandemic forced you to go unmanned.
So really highlighted some of the weaknesses, but I'm curious,
you know, there's been a lot of discussions about different verticals.
Maybe things are different for different areas.
Is healthcare different than finance?
Is it different than, uh, uh, some other vertical or what's your take on that?
W we've seen a few differences between the verticals, but really it's
affects everyone in very similar ways.
It's a problem for, for most organizations, CIO, or CTO to
come to grips or again, to get to grips with what's gone on and
how the, how things have changed.
So, so you've seen similar challenges, similar recommendations.
Um, you know, w w has it been a change in kind of the types of software and
solutions that people are giving and, and has there been a change in what
you're recommending customers do versus maybe what you would have six months
ago, nine months ago, 12 months ago?
Well, it's certainly been the push, the push for, um, cloud and hybrid.
Uh, so w we're seeing a lot more as a service type solutions for our customers.
Um, and also where we've been looking at products, um, product selection
that the customers are wanting to know the house of the box monitoring
alert and monitoring and alerting is, is, is right up there with the must
haves for anything that choosing.
And so you talked about remote monitoring, you know, again, I mean, we've been
selling monitoring packages for say UPS's our basic equipment, but th
the, the portfolio or the needs expand at all, as you went through this,
uh, pandemic, in terms of the types of things that customers wanted to
monitor, did it get broader in any way?
Um, not really.
I don't think it's say it's that the solutions have always been that for,
uh, for, for different products.
Um, and it's, it's really making sure that where.
Well equipment has monitoring and alerting that actually sets up.
That's something else we've seen customers who thought that sets
everything up, all looks after themselves.
And they will have found that over the years, um, people have gone in, people
have changed terms and when they suddenly need to make sure it works, uh, the day
they come to look at it and find out there may be, find that it's not quite how they
thought it was or how they want it to be.
So we've been working with a lot of our customers in making
sure everything is running.
And, uh, it really is, you know, it's tip top for them.
So making sure everything is running, but, you know, I assume you've also
seen, uh, if things are unmanned, you've seen an uptick in the need for
maybe more environmental monitoring and things like leak detection, then
maybe we would have been a year ago that that becomes a bigger requirement.
Is that true?
Yeah, definitely.
At the start of the crisis, we had a very, um, quite a long warm spell.
So temperature monitoring was, was taught to a few of our
customers and cooling solutions.
And then towards the end, um, we had sites affected by flash flooding.
So then leak detection suddenly becomes the new hot point.
So the customers are really looking at how, how that kind
of a broad range of monitored.
Um, environmental and physical conditions and the solutions
we're putting in for them.
There's a lot to everything from leak detection, temperature,
humidity, monitoring, and security with access on video recording,
it was unique to the UK, right?
The heat, the heat, and the flash flooding that started happening.
Uh, in your view though, are there any other geographic specific
things that occurred or was it pretty consistent throughout Europe?
From what I've seen?
It's quite consistent throughout Europe.
A number of our customers have.
Uh, global organizations with offices across the world.
And we look after, um, many of their solutions.
So we were seeing similar problems around the place.
Didn't nothing specific to the UK or I think Europe, but, um, many
places had exactly the same problems.
Yeah, just without the flooding and the heat wave.
Right.
So possibly.
Right.
So, and so we, we been talking with some other people, there has been
this, a theme that's come out in some of our conversations about the,
uh, relationship with the customers.
And in some cases that got strained, in some cases, it got better.
What's your impression of, uh, you know, what's been the impact of, uh,
the last nine months on the relationship you've had with your customers.
Well, customer service has always been a, a major part of
the ethos of our organization.
So keeping in touch with our customers, understanding what they're doing, looking
forward to and what they want to be doing and what they need to be doing.
So we've always had a very good relationship with our customers.
Um, when the pandemic hit, uh, customers were comfortable just to give us a
call or we already talking to them.
So really it was a case of, of business as usual in that respect,
but certainly some of the.
Requirements became more urgent.
And so we were seeing a lot quicker turnaround on decisions for products
where it might've been months or weeks that was being done in days.
So yeah, we always had a very good relationship with our customers,
but making sure that we're available for them has been key
to getting everyone through this.
Yeah.
So this theme of compressed time of decisions that would take weeks, took
days and implementations and acceleration.
And if I understand you correctly, some of this has maybe accelerating to the cloud.
In certain applications.
Yes, definitely.
Yeah.
So it's accelerated the cloud and cloud deployments have increased, but again,
on the hybrid solutions, um, those are also, uh, been, um, very popular with
our customers and so using parts of the cloud, but also, um, some of their own
kits in their own hybrid data centers.
So using both together as, as given customers, um, a lot of
the functionality to grow and move forward that they need to.
So I'm going to dive into that for a second.
It's interesting.
Can you talk about, you know, the hybrid environment and what that might look like?
Um, what are the, what are the applications or what are
the things that you see your customers hanging on to on-prem.
Right versus what they're moving to the cloud.
Is there a consistent theme?
Is it just something where they want to keep it on prem?
Because it makes them feel better or is there actual a real
business need there in your view?
Well, quite a few customers have got a, um, a significant
investment in their infrastructure.
So they're not always as keen to move it straight to the cloud.
Sometimes hybrid may be a stepping stone, but, you know, cloud cloud's
one of those things that people can't.
Um, control.
So, you know, if there is a cloud outage and your whole, your whole systems in
the cloud, and that will affect them.
So customers quite often will use parts of the cloud for applications, or they may
well have bespoke applications or customer data that they want to hold onto locally.
So that whole hybrid approach, uh, works well for them.
Maybe dive into a little bit, I didn't hear you talk about security there.
So does there a.
Perception that a there's a security risk moving to the cloud or is there
a security risk staying on prem?
How do you give guidance to customers on that topic?
Security has always been a major concern for any customer looking to
move to the cloud, but I think over the years, Um, the cloud providers have,
have made significant moves forward in that when we're looking at on-prem
security, um, again, this is something that customers are comfortable with.
They understand it.
So it's, it's easy for us to be able to work with them and assess
their needs and ensure that they get the physical security.
Right.
Which then gives them the.
The ability to sort out that data security, um, but
moving wholly to the cloud.
Yeah.
Some customers do want to do that and they're quite happy to do that.
Or those are maybe a little bit more cautious and just want to make sure
they've got all our bases covered.
Yeah, it's interesting because I've, I've said before, is that a physical
security is the first step towards.
Uh, cybersecurity and that without physical security,
you really don't have it.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So Pauly, we talked about it a little bit about digital acceleration and
you gave a few high-level examples.
I was wondering, do you have any specific example of a customer or a project that
happened that really kind of would give some details on digital acceleration?
Um, yeah, certainly one of our larger, uh, data center provider customers, um,
had a growth program in place and, um, buildings built and died, but they've seen
such a rise in and take up of their space.
They've actually accelerated, um, additional building works to, to further
cope with the increase in customers.
So they're seeing a growth in.
Uh, organizations moving to the cloud or moving to a hosted infrastructure.
Um, and that's really accelerated their own building plans on their
own growth plans to be able to cope with that and, uh, what was
going to be the medium to longterm.
But now it's become short to medium to them.
Yes.
So long-term capital improvements actually became short-term
capital improvement plants.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Paul.
So the topic of edge computing, I assume you've heard of this in this
industry, we've been talking about edge computing quite a bit, and you know,
and I've yet to have anybody giving me a really good definition of it.
So maybe you just talk about edge computing a little bit and
what you're seeing, and then I want to hear your definition.
Okay.
Well, yeah.
I just been around for quite a few years and it, and it means
different things to different people.
Um, but really what we're seeing is that for most customer edge, whether
they realize it or not is just as critical as a central data center.
Uh, the kits needs power.
It needs cooling, it needs monitoring and, and just as
important and it needs security.
Um, for example, we have a couple of customers who, uh, they have their new.
Uh, HQ being, um, designed and built, and that edge is a critical part of
that installation or that design.
Now they're actually looking at the edge, how each of those rooms is powered and
protected, and we have another customer in manufacturing and edge now really is
important for their data collection and they're running IOT systems in there.
So for them edge is critical because it brings back the live data back
from their equipment, which helps them know exactly where everything
is in the manufacturing process.
Yeah.
So in some ways, is it safe to say that maybe what we consider several
rooms and wiring closets, we use those types of words in the past now
are kind of turning into micro data centers or edge computing environments.
Is that a, do you see that definition holding up?
Yeah, absolutely.
Definitely.
So well, as well as the, the micro data centers being on a whole other deployment
with an edge solutions, but yeah, the.
The data and the equipment in there is just as important.
Yeah.
So it's really about, you know, taking things and, and, uh, you know, we used
to treat the data center and manage it and had great controls over it and kind
of ignored those arguably as an industry.
So it's, how do we get an appropriate level of management and solutions that
bring it up closer to maybe the criteria that we've, what we call a data center
is that, uh, it might take a year.
Is that a good interpretation?
Yeah.
Understanding the importance.
Um, and so for those customers who possibly neglected the importance of
those, those, um, either the wiring closets or, or small server rooms, um,
they quite often paid with, with problems and issues, which arose out of that.
So now it is the customers are seeing it as a, as an area that needs addressing.
And I say that the security and the monitoring is as important
as in the main data center.
So I got one last question for you.
I think Paul is, you know, there's definitely a, you know, a sense
of companies are persevering right over the last year through this.
And I'm just curious about what do you think is the longer-term impact with
your customers and how is it going to change your relationship with them
or kind of the softer side of things?
What do you think is, uh, maybe some implications we should all think about.
Wow.
Uh, I don't know the customer for the future for some of our
customers is going to be a long road.
Um, for others, it's a chance to expand.
We have so customers in different verticals.
Um, one of our larger customers is an online retailer and for them.
This pandemic has been, uh, uh, seen an explosion in their business.
And so as accelerated some of that projects for all the customers,
uh, and prompts in the building side, some of these larger
projects have been put on hold.
So they're finding it suffer really for us.
It's just working with the customers to ensure the solutions we put
forward are right for them, uh, and certainly agile, um, and that enables
them to adapt to change when needed.
So it's interesting.
So in some ways the customer's demand on you has gone up.
Right.
So how are you guys adjusting to that?
Yeah.
How are you, how are you guys adjusting to that as a business?
Yeah, well, so for some of our customers that has, it's
been a bit of a balancing act.
So for some customers, we're seeing, um, a higher requirement for our
services and our support and our assistance for those other customers.
Who've had to, who've taken a downturn in their business.
We see we're speaking to them less for new projects.
Uh, so really we're just reassigning our time to those customers that,
that need to work with us now to, to move their own projects.
And I know you guys have always been customer centric, but maybe even.
You know, accelerating or refocusing make it become even more customer centric.
Is that a fair assessment?
Uh, yeah, definitely.
Um, thinking about how we can best assist our customers, keep an eye on what the
markets are doing, what the products are doing, what new products are coming
to market and how we may be able to assist our customers with those products
or how it will assist their business.
We've been talking about the ecosystem and it sounds like you'd agree with us is
that, Hey, we really need to think as an ecosystem, how do we operate differently
and, and do it in a way, uh, that brings the most value to our joint customers.
Is that fair to say?
Absolutely.
Yeah, definitely.
And we're working well.
The partnership with Schneider works very well in that visa is a good
breadth of products that all working together to give the customer the
best value for that product selection.
Well, that's great, Paul that's those are all the questions I had for today.
So thanks again so much for joining us on executive insights and good luck as we
continue to work on our business together.
Thank you very much.
Good luck to you.