Singapore command center

Analysts sit surrounded by digital maps and dashboards at the Singapore command center of US firm Digital Realty.

Global data center oversight

The command centre and its two sister hubs provide round-the-clock oversight of more than 300 data centres across six continents.

Daily monitoring challenges

Daniel Naing and his colleagues handle thousands of system alerts flagging signs of trouble each week.

Team's mental state

If I panic, my team members will panic. So even though inside I may be nervous, I cannot show it.

“If I panic, my team members will panic. So even though inside I may be nervous, I cannot show it”

False positives risk

AI or automation can give false positives, requiring human intervention to verify genuine outages.

“We still need human intervention to really look at whether or not those are genuine outages, genuine alerts and alarms, because sometimes AI or automation can give you false positives”

Data center operations

Digital Realty rents server space to around 6,000 companies with power disruptions and equipment failure as most common issues.

Typhoon preparedness

An approaching storm thousands of kilometres away can put the team on standby for typhoon alerts.

AI demand growth

Tech giants race to build their own data centers to train and run AI models costing trillions globally.

Data center impact

Data centers are essential infrastructure, a matter almost like national security for digital services.

“Data centres are essential infrastructure, a matter "almost like national security"”