Kayleigh Wright Data Centre Expert

When were you introduced to data centers?

I started my career as a Property & Infrastructure apprentice at another leading telecoms provider in 2005 – and it would have been around this time when I came across the term “data center”. My role involved the design and build of space, power & cooling infrastructure within telecoms network rooms, some of which weren’t too dissimilar to data centers.

At that point could you see the potential of data centers generally?

Due to the lack of experience I had at that point, it didn’t cross my mind about having a career so fixated around data centers, or thinking about how they would evolve into the technological force that it is today. I always knew our digital world would grow, just not at the rate it has done!

However, over the years, through roles at previous telecom companies, I can say that I have witnessed first-hand the significant changes in data centers, particularly in terms of technology and standards. Today, data centers have evolved significantly from when I first started, with more efficient designs and higher levels of automation.

Was you career around DCs planned?

Having worked in the planning and infrastructure side of things for several years, I moved into a Data Center design-focused role.

Working with Data Centers was a natural progression for me, but not a planned one! Around 2018 I moved from planning space, power, and cooling for new equipment in smaller network rooms, to full design & build solutions for 200kW-800kW network rooms. The team I worked in focused on major upgrades and new builds of Metro Nodes across the country. This was an extremely interesting experience because we were working on very challenging bespoke builds as many of the buildings dated back before the 1960s so they had structural, space, M&E, and asbestos challenges to name but a few. Our teams came up with fantastic solutions to complex problems which was a great time for my development in data center standards, and also the opportunity to learn from some very experienced subject matter experts across various disciplines.

In my final years at my previous employer, I worked specifically on designing, building & upgrading Data Centers for many customers across the UK.

How did you find the transition to Indigo?

For me, joining Indigo in 2022 was like a whole new world. The whole process of joining the company was made easier by joining such an experienced team within the Data Center Division, with a combined knowledge spanning many years. A new dynamic of working with new data center processes and customers opened my eyes to the wider industry, with so much more opportunities globally working with Indigo’s customer base.

What do you enjoy most about your role at Indigo?

The people are fantastic, we’re like one big work-family! There is such a wealth of experience and knowledge here, and everyone’s full of enthusiasm to get things done.

When I joined Indigo I was doing a lot of research on products and technologies to develop our services – this has been extremely interesting. In my previous roles, we had a set of preferred products to work with only so it has been great to branch out from that.

And not only that, my previous experience was UK based, but now I’m involved with data centers on a global scale and it’s interesting seeing the different challenges from country to country. For instance, I’ve looked at quite a few projects in North America recently, especially on the West Coast where we had to include seismic bracing – something we don’t have to worry about here in the UK, so I’m enjoying the new challenges.

It feels like I’m now looking at the whole package if you like. For instance, the projects I was involved with in my previous roles, we would design and install all the physical infrastructure including cable routes, but we were never involved with the actual cable design & installation – however that’s something we do here day in, day out. My work also crosses over into our Networks division where we provide First Line Maintenance support so it’s all been a great experience.