DCD Zero Downtime: The Bi-Weekly Data Center Show

Anyone who has entered a data center will be familiar with the upright rack design that has become standard in data halls around the world.
But while piling up the “pizza boxes” has served the industry well for decades, the advent of liquid cooling systems, developed to meet the thermal needs of advanced chips, means a new approach may be needed.
Cooling firm Air2O is thinking outside the (pizza) box, and has come up with a modular, stackable design for data center racks, which it says can improve cooling efficiency.
On this episode, DCD speaks to Air2O’s Iggy Kogan about the new design, dubbed the High Thermal Density Air-Cooled Rack Assembly.

The UK is calling time on its copper networks, and thousands of telephone exchanges across the UK are set to be closed in the coming years.
The end of an era, some of these buildings date back around 100 years or more. If recent history is anything to go by, many will be turned into residential buildings.
Lisa Kinch, a historic places adviser for Historic England and associate lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture, did her PhD research on telephone exchanges in the UK, giving her a unique view on these buildings and their historical context.
We discuss her research and the unique place the UK's telephone exchanges have in the country's architectural history.

While critical infrastructure has always been the backbone of the digital landscape, the recent data center boom has caused more people than ever before to become aware of the industry and consider the career opportunities it might have to offer.
However, like the tech industry writ large, there’s a perception amongst some outside of the critical infrastructure sector that its workforce lacks diversity and therefore isn't an industry in which they could excel professionally.
In this episode, Lizzy McDowell, director of marketing, Kao Data, tries to dispel some of the myths about the industry and discusses the importance of promoting diversity within the data center sector and why there’s never been a better time to consider a career in critical infrastructure.

DCD speaks to Dr. Tim Gregory, nuclear scientist at Sellafield, the UK's national nuclear laboratory, and author of the best-selling book Going Nuclear, about the history of nuclear power, how it actually works, and whether it can play a key role in powering the growth of AI both in the UK and further afield.

This episode is a bit different.
With the festive period officially peaking, DCD decided to change tack and instead give you a "year in review," where we talk about our favorite stories from 2025.
Join Charlotte Trueman, Zachary Skidmore, Georgia Butler, and Paul Lipscombe as they cover their respective beats.
We hope you enjoy it - and happy holidays!