John McWilliams with Kyndryl –
The World’s Largest Mainframe Operator

Key Takeaways

• Managed Services & Enterprise Data Centers - Managed services are playing an increasingly strategic role in enterprise data center environments, enabling organizations to manage complex hybrid infrastructures while aligning operations with business objectives and innovation goals.
• Inference Workloads & Urban Infill Locations - Data centers in infill locations are seeing renewed interest as a solution for latency sensitive workloads, such as inferencing, but they require balancing the efficiency of large hyperscale campuses with the speed and localization benefits of smaller, strategically placed edge facilities.
• Regulatory Environment & Infrastructure Constraints - Regulatory complexity—spanning utility rate structures, infrastructure cost-sharing requirements, and environmental considerations—directly influences site selection, making early engagement with policymakers, utilities, and local municipalities critical to project success. While greenfield developments often face heightened scrutiny and community opposition around land use, power demand, and environmental impact, phased expansions of existing data centers tend to be more politically viable, as they build on build on preexisting infrastructure.
• Commercial Relationship & Partnership Model - At its core, the relationship blends advisory insight with hands-on execution—where transparency, shared objectives, and ongoing collaboration enable both parties to navigate complex, multi-layered data center projects more effectively than a transactional model.