Google's Former Vice President Of Data Centers On The Past, Present And Future Of The Industry

While headlines about data centers, focusing on everything from skyrocketing demand and power consumption to artificial intelligence, have been major news for only the past few years, the massive facilities have been around for decades.

Few people understand the complex history of data centers better than Joseph Kava, who was the vice president of data centers at Google for 17 years. Now retired, Kava serves as an adviser and board member, continuing to educate the world about the inner workings and endless potential of data centers. 

In May, Kava will receive a lifetime achievement award at Bisnow’s Data Center Investment Conference and Expo National, honoring his dedication to this world-changing technology and infrastructure. Register here. 

“This is very humbling,” Kava said. “I feel very blessed for the career I’ve had and the relationships I’ve built in this industry, and I know I still have contributions left to make.” 

Bisnow spoke with him to learn more about his illustrious career, the challenges the data center industry faces and what he hopes people will take away from the DICE event. 

Bisnow: Where did your career begin, and how did it lead you to your role at Google? 

Kava: Not unlike many people in the industry, I did not set out to be a data center professional from the beginning. I was trained in materials engineering, specializing in semiconductor materials, so I started my career as an intern at Applied Materials, the largest manufacturer of equipment to manufacture microchips. From there, I went to a company called LSI Logic, which made custom application-specific integrated circuit chips for the military and for specialty applications. 

My former boss at Applied Materials offered me a great opportunity to work on a high-profile project for Intel, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Pentium chip, which was a major success. 

My mentor recommended that I work with our chief information officer and learn the entire IT stack, which led to my being on the team to pick a disaster recovery data center for the company. This is how I got to know the team at a small, privately held colocation company called Raging Wire Enterprise. Our CIO became the CEO of that company and brought me on as COO. 

The business grew dramatically, building at the time what were considered very large-scale data centers with tens of megawatts, and things were going very well. I was asked to give a presentation at a Gartner data center conference, and apparently something I said got the attention of some Google recruiters, because I started getting calls from them that same night. 

Eventually, I got on the phone with the first head of engineering for Google, who was, without a doubt, the most brilliant person I had ever spoken to. He had a detailed, nuanced understanding of so many areas, from server design and software engineering to networking, construction and all of the equipment. This convinced me to interview for a role and join the team in April of 2008, and I led Google's data center organization for 17 years.

Bisnow: What were some of your greatest accomplishments in that role? 

Kava: A lot of innovation happened on my team that I’m very proud of, across the entire data center life cycle. This ranged from build and operations to server IT operations and physical security, environmental health, safety and sustainability.

There were two operating data centers when I got there, and when I left, there were roughly 41 campuses either in production or being commissioned in 13 countries across four continents. That’s around two and a half data centers every year for the 17 years that I was there. It was an amazing experience and a great career. 

Bisnow: What are some of the greatest challenges facing the industry today? 

Kava: I was a staunch advocate for the sustainability work that Google was doing, leading the industry and helping to show others how it could be more efficient. We all adopted Power Usage Effectiveness as a measurement, and the results speak for themselves. 

The industry has done a remarkable job of becoming far more energy-efficient. That being said, public perception of data center power usage remains a major challenge. There are many sensationalized headlines about how data centers will be consuming all of the water and power we need for the future, and that’s simply not true. 

Power availability definitely remains a challenge, however. The demand is historic, and the equipment vendors haven't built new capacity as fast as the demand has grown, leading to increased lead times and delays in getting data centers online. Labor shortages also remain a concern, from people who work on high-voltage interconnect expansion and upgrades to the people who oversee data center construction. 

We're also facing some pretty large technological transitions right now. The industry is still digesting the transition to direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and on the heels of that, we're going to be facing the transition from largely 415-volt AC distribution to 800-volt DC distribution and DC-powered racks.

We’re on the verge of a lot of major changes right now, and it’s a very exciting time, but also challenging. 

Bisnow: If there was one key takeaway that you would want people to have from this event or any data center event, what would you want it to be? 

Kava: I want people to truly understand what a monumental time in history this is. Our digital infrastructure is bringing about a level of change and technological revolution and advancement that the world has only seen a few times. The AI revolution is changing every business, every industry, and all of this is on the backs of the digital infrastructure that we're building. I hope that people take a minute to appreciate the profound responsibility that comes with that. 

Kava will be presented with the lifetime achievement award and give a keynote interview on the third day of the DICE National event, which will take place Tuesday, May 12-Thursday, May 14, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. Register here.