TELECOMS EUROPE BETA - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
10 / 11 November 2026
10 / 11 November 2026
All times are GMT / UK
Welcome back to Critical Insight 2026 from Jordan O’Brien, Managing Editor for Data Centre Review.
Data centres now underpin everything from banking and healthcare to government services and cloud platforms, which means an outage can quickly reach far beyond one facility or customer. This session will examine how failures can cascade across interconnected power, telecommunications, cloud and supply chain systems, and whether operators are genuinely prepared to recover.
Head of Corporate, UK & Decarbonisation Strategy
National Grid
Renewable generation, battery storage and electronic equipment all fundamentally operate using direct current, yet conventional data centres repeatedly convert electricity between AC and DC before it reaches the workload. Every conversion introduces equipment, heat, complexity and potential loss. This session will explore whether end-to-end DC distribution can become a credible architecture for future data centres.
Vice President Regional Sales EMEA
Vertiv
Data centre demand is accelerating, but every new development depends on a limited supply of equipment. With lead times remaining long and technical requirements changing quickly, this panel will explore where the next supply chain bottlenecks are likely to emerge and whether standardisation, local manufacturing, and more flexible procurement can help the industry deliver capacity without increasing costs or creating new resilience risks.
Senior Director of Procurement
GreenScale Data Centers
The UK data centre skills shortage is intensifying at a time when facilities are becoming increasingly complex. AI-powered monitoring, predictive maintenance and automated controls could reduce pressure on operational teams, but handing more decisions to software also introduces questions around oversight, accountability and risk. This panel will explore which tasks can safely be automated, where human expertise must remain in control and whether technology can genuinely help close the skills gap without creating new vulnerabilities.
Technical Services Director
Riello UPS
The UK data centre skills shortage is intensifying at a time when facilities are becoming increasingly complex. AI-powered monitoring, predictive maintenance and automated controls could reduce pressure on operational teams, but handing more decisions to software also introduces questions around oversight, accountability and risk. This panel will explore which tasks can safely be automated, where human expertise must remain in control and whether technology can genuinely help close the skills gap without creating new vulnerabilities.
Managing Director
The DCA
Chief Operating Officer
Pulsant
VP Ecosystems
IBM
Please note: This live interactive event will be viewable on your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. There will be opportunities to put your questions to the guests. Once registered, you will need a special link to attend. This will be emailed to you about one week before the start.