Data Center World 2025

Data centers are indispensable infrastructure for the global economy – as critical as water and power because of how essential technology has become to every facet of how we work and live. Data centers have become so critical that they were recently the focus of a White House summit where the President and tech industry leaders called digital infrastructure a matter of national security priority. But while the importance of data centers is being recognized at the highest levels of national leadership, there is a huge disconnect at the community level.

There is a rising level of pushback from local communities to data center developments, and it poses a major obstacle to building this critical infrastructure at the scale and speed that is needed. Our industry must become far more effective and proactive in making the case why data centers are an enormous asset to communities whose positive impact will shape their futures for the better. We can’t wait for others to tell this story. The responsibility is ours to become our best advocates and to make a far more compelling case to our neighbors.

In this session, Nancy Novak and Buddy Rizer will map out how each of us can be far more effective in communicating the transformative impact of this infrastructure for local economies to audiences that do not live and breathe data centers the way we do. To make the case, we need to go deeper than just tax dollars that support schools. Novak and Rizer will discuss how we need to tell the full story of how data centers become a massive engine for economic development over the course of decades, driving growth and jobs for the next century just like railroads did in the 19^th century. Novak and Rizer will also discuss how we must make a much stronger case for how data centers are built to protect local resources like water, protect community livability and much more. The case for data centers is overwhelming if we share it in the right way. Novak and Rizer will provide a blueprint for that in this must-attend session at Data Center World Spring 2025.