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Data Centers

Sustainability

Sustainability at Skygard

Atle Soma continues to build infrastructure - this time with datacenters

After over 20 years at Lyse, where he was part of building Altibox from scratch based on a business plan of 28,000 customers at Lyse Tele with nearly ten million customers, Atle Soma has now taken the step over to Skygard as CTO.
Timing is everything- I see many parallels between Skygard and the early Altibox days, says Soma.- Skygard has made the right choice on timing. I'm in a restless phase, with changes in security policy, ferries, Skygard's market targeting alternatives to Altinn and other authorities on security, and network solutions, says Soma.Just as Altibox had a strong owner with the capital to test an idea until it was successful, Skygard now has a strong owner who can finance a cautious approach.- So it came down to the administration creating a success out of it. That's always nice to build something new, he says.More than a technical buildingWhen the conversation turns to the industry's challenges, Soma is surprised that the technological challenges are not the biggest problem.- Data centers are very technically complex buildings, but that's not necessarily the biggest technological challenge. The biggest challenge is the power debate surrounding data centers.He points to the polarized debate about electricity consumption and dismisses the nuances.- That's not the case, choosing much focus on the work passes connected to the operation of the buildings themselves, and choosing the focus on the data that provides employment opportunities in the regions, which enables possibilities.Soma highlights the potential of waste heat from data centers.- A truly large data center has huge potential for waste heat that you age from if you use the heat only on district heating. But if you manage to do something smarter or more systematic with it, you can use it to do other things with communication and agriculture, for example, to do Norway more competitive through technology.Maturity and infrastructureWhat do you get when you get an experienced telecom veteran to continue with infrastructure? For Soma, it's about perspective.- I'm used to building much larger infrastructure and am motivated to contribute to making what's right for the community in the long-term picture.He illustrates with YouTube.- When YouTube came, there was no one I knew in the industry who had anything to bet on it. Everyone in the world had to just let their backbone expand to extreme proportions.But some years later, YouTube's users consumed more content each year than NRK had produced in its entire existence.- When the industry job had built the infrastructure that enabled this. But you never knew in advance. It's the same I see now with data centers. It's about building the infrastructure that lies at the bottom for the big ships.Skygard will be the preferred choiceThis year Soma sees that Skygard will be one of the leading players in the industry.- We will be the preferred choice for those who are tasked with security and sovereignty, and we will have an unbeatable solution in place.His own contribution?- I'm hired to build a technology organization. My contribution is certainly that I've been clear about building a good team that has competence and delivers what our customers expect, and that ensures we have the infrastructure available and operational and creates trust with Nito – not just our customers, but for the community at large.With the experience from Altibox at Lyse, Soma knows what he should do. Now he will do the same, this time with Norway's safest data center.