Inside Data Centre Podcast
Who are the people powering the world’s data centers?
Inside Data Centre Podcast is a podcast about the global data center industry, focused on the careers, companies, and conversations shaping modern digital infrastructure. Hosted by Andy Davis, the podcast features interviews with data center professionals, investors, operators, vendors, and industry leaders from around the world. Each episode explores how people enter the data center sector, how their careers develop, and the challenges facing data centers as demand for cloud, AI, and connectivity continues to accelerate. Covering hyperscale, colocation, operations, sustainability, and skills, Inside Data Centre Podcast is essential listening for anyone working in, or looking to work in, the data center industry.
Inside Data Centre Podcast
Waleed Zafar, XYZ Reality: What actually happened in 2025?!
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In this episode of the Inside Data Centre Podcast, Andy Davis is joined by Waleed Zafar, Chief Revenue Officer at XYZ Reality. They look back on a pivotal year for the data centre sector and unpack how rapid demand, rising capex and global talent shortages are reshaping construction. Waleed also shares how XYZ Reality’s technology is influencing delivery models at scale and helping major developers execute faster across global portfolios.
Key Topics:
• Why 2025 became the year of execution for hyperscale data centre builds
• How talent shortages are slowing delivery and driving adoption of new technology
• The impact of real-time, objective field data on decision making and productivity
• Case study: 408 days saved and $130M commercial impact across a seven-project portfolio
• Lessons from global deployments and how clients benchmark productivity across regions
• Rising capex, shifting geographic demand and what this means heading into 2026
• Why modular works in pockets, and where flexibility still demands traditional build methods
Tune in to hear Waleed’s view on what 2026 will reveal about who can truly execute at scale in the data centre race.
The Inside Data Centre Podcast is recorded in partnership with DataX Connect, a specialist data centre recruitment company based in the UK. They operate on a global scale to place passionate individuals at the heart of leading data centre companies.
To learn more about Andy Davis and the rest of the DataX team, click here: DataX Connect
The data centre industry is moving faster than ever, and behind the scenes, some seriously smart people are making it all happen. Welcome to the Inside Data Centre Podcast, where we dive into the stories, insights and innovations driving real change across the industry. From hyperscale campuses to game-changing technologies, we're talking to the people shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Whether you live in breathed data centres or just want to understand what's powering our connected world, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Inside Data Centre Podcast. On this episode, I'm joined by Wally Zafar of XYZ Reality. Good afternoon, Wally. Afternoon, Andy. How are we doing? I'm good. Good to see you. I think we we've done this before. It seems like quite a while ago. I've obviously had David on a few times since and a few of your colleagues, but I think myself and you, it must have been a good few years ago since we last had this conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know. It's always good seeing each other bumped into each other at the events as well. And so uh always nice to be able to jump back in. So appreciate you uh organising this. Thank you. No, pleasure.
SPEAKER_00I want to take a look back at the last 12 months, kind of industry-wise, it's December the 10th as we record this, so the listeners know. Hopefully we'll get this out before Christmas. But um, it's been a crazy year, and I think and I know for the industry it's been transformational, but also for yourselves, you know, for XYZ and some of the some of the developments you've had as a business have been transformational as well. So I thought it's a good opportunity to spend you know 20, 25 minutes looking at how the industry's changed, but also how how your business has changed as well. I think the key for me when I look back at the year and the news flow, when I write my newsletter every Friday, um it seems to take me longer and longer now after every week because there's so much news. Whether it's new campuses, new platforms, MA, new technology. And because of all this demand, obviously the race to build faster is is bigger than ever. You know, we have to deliver as quickly as we can now as an industry to cope with all this increased demand. So I wondered from your perspective, what you've seen that's kind of driving the acceleration, and you know, is construction now like a limiting factor in the growth of some of these major organizations that are chasing capacity?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd I'd say so for sure. I think like from our standpoint, kind of what we saw was that like you know, 2023 was like the year of planning, 2024 was like the year of like acquisition, so to speak, in terms of like getting the land and the power, and then the early players who did that they've like kind of hit construction this year, right? And so we've seen a big uptick as a direct result of that. Um, and so I'd I'd definitely say like from from this point forward it's the year of X it's the years of execution now, right? So this is where you know the battle is won, so to speak, is now on the field itself. Um, and I'd definitely say that construction is a limiting factor. Like everyone is talking to us with the exact same problems, like can't get the talent, can't get the resources. Contractors are taking on so many projects simultaneously, they've stretched their best resources super thin. You know, that bid team that came in to, you know, the client to be able to win the project, that team is uh you know spread across like five different jobs now. And so you kind of have a bunch of like really inexperienced talent trying to deliver these huge, complex builds. And as a result of that, you know, there's going to be some missteps, right? And uh we're beginning to see that in the marketplace with delays during the construction process itself. And so, yeah, it's uh it's meant for a very interesting time in terms of clients trying to develop out their strategies going forward.
SPEAKER_00And I always forget about the talent conversation when we talk, when I talk to anyone in your organization, like, because obviously talent's my job, but your technology has such an impact on talent, and and I know as well as you do that these organizations that are building these huge data centers, the campuses are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, the talent supply is not getting bigger, it's it's reducing because there's more demand on it, and there's demand from other industries as well, like power is having it having a huge impact on it as well. But technology is going to change that, is it? Technology is a solution to this talent problem, and your technology is one of those solutions. So, have you seen it really impact your customers around the the talent challenge specifically?
SPEAKER_01Massively so, right? So, kind of the way the best way I can describe it is that like that, let's say that one amazing resource that you have, right? That one amazing project director, you need to be able to amplify their impact and their their productivity rates and their decision-making skills, such that they're able to kind of have a faster flywheel of like input of data coming into their system or like in their heads to be able to then come out with the outputs and the correct decision-making process. And what would have, for example, them it may have taken them several days to be able to be able to come to the right decision. Now that data is there in front of them within the hour, right? That means that they can make faster decisions and therefore then deliver a better outcome. And I think that's the biggest impact that we're seeing is that the productivity rates and not just the executive management layer, but also then as a direct resource of that in the field is significantly faster, right? And it is genuinely like a flywheel, right? The faster you come to a the right decision, the fur the faster it then goes back out into the field, that means faster work and so on and so forth, right? And so that's what we're beginning to see more and more of is like the actual productivity rates of installation in the field ticking upwards as a direct result of solutions like ours in the marketplace. And that only comes from having like real-time, 100% objective data that everybody kind of agrees upon that this is the ground truth, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00And have you found that as the the talent landscapes change when you've got new people coming into the industry, that there's more, they were more receptive to technology? Because I remember talking to you guys when you launched, which you'll know better than I do when that was, but it seems like a lifetime ago. But equally seems like yesterday we had that conversation that trying to, you know, get the industry, the construction industry as a whole, to kind of accept new technologies was challenging because the industry is quite a legacy industry, isn't it? But as new people have come in, we're seeing um more open-mindedness, I guess, to technology. 100%.
SPEAKER_01And I think there's been two factors where like, you know, we've literally had like clients and contractors come up to us and say, look, we can't keep doing this the same way that we were doing this beforehand, right? Like it is not scalable, right? It is not it is not the solution. Like we have no choice but to adopt a solution like yours to be able to accelerate our delivery program and de-risk it as well. And so as a result of that, just people have just sort of embraced it with open arms and are now like really leveraging the power of data.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you see it in in all industries, you see it in recruitment as an industry, you know, we are all trying to, you know, how can we make ourselves more productive? And I think within the construction, specifically in data centers, you've got that such that demand that there's a necessity to do it as quickly as you can, isn't it? So it's like a it's like a testing field as well, I think, for the wider construction industry.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And like what we're starting to see is that our clients get bolder as well, right? And so, you know, whereas beforehand they would talk about, you know, initially launching us on like a couple of projects, let's say, to start with, right? They're then right, oh, like we don't have a choice. We need you to deploy on like 10 projects simultaneously all across the globe, uh, in order to be able to get uh us moving. Like we know that you guys operate well, we know you work, we know your value add and the delivery model. And so we have no doubt that you'll be able to scale with us globally, right? And so that becomes the initial test bed for us, which means that like similar, similarly so, we've had to scale super quick this year as a direct result of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I was going to touch on the applied digital partnership. When you're talking scale, yeah, applied digital's facilities certainly certainly ticked that box. And I had I had Wes Cummings on here a a few months back, and as an organization, they have you know significant growth. And that, I guess, is was that applied digital looking at a new delivery model, trying to adapt in order to be able to build at the scale that they need to build at.
SPEAKER_01110%. And they had tried, like, you know, and fair play to them, right? They tried every solution in the marketplace, right? Before coming to a decision that, you know, we were the leaders, so to speak. And so, um, and I think that comes from leadership, right? That comes from being open to change and constantly like creating a test spend environment to get the test solutions, for example, to figure out what is the right one for you. And uh, we went through that process with them like successfully, we we hit it out of the park. Uh, and so our partnership is ever growing with hopefully more announcements as well in the coming in the coming weeks or months.
SPEAKER_00Um and for for a company like those, like Applied, why is it so important that they have the ability to use your technology? Is it speed? Is that the main priority for them?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, right? So, like speed and being able to de-risk their delivery process, right? As in, like, if you think about their kind of commercial model, they're building in in very like, I'd say, remote locations, right? These aren't sort of like huge metropolitan areas, right? So being able to get talent into those areas is a challenge, and therefore, then the talent that you do get, you want to be able to amplify as well and increase their rates of productivity. And so, this for them is like the perfect solution as a direct result of it. Super large-scale, complex build program. They need to be able to de-risk it and simplify it, they need to be able to track all that data in real time such that they can actually even prevent those issues from happening in the first instance, and as a direct result of that, therefore, then they get their end product much faster to their customer. And that means that that's extra revenue uh from their standpoint too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think you know the industry as a whole is when I when I have conversations with those, whether they're within customers or or talking to customers, it is you know, the capacity being live is is what they're looking for. It's so like we'll yeah, we'll commit if you can commit to deliver in the required timescale. You know, if it's if it's not 2026, we probably don't want to have a conversation with you until next year, and then it then it'll have to be 2027. There's whereas previously you could you could forecast that capacity demand up to three or four years ahead. Now that the demand's there is immediate, and these customers want the capacity delivered as quickly as possible.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Yeah, and I think that's that's the name of the game, right? And I and I like I'll come back to it. I think the the battles now in the field, right? How fast can you execute safely with uh and deliver an amazing good quality product, um, all whilst meeting timelines that are that are getting tighter and tighter, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and have you got any examples of like data specifically around the impact that you've you've had as the technology's had on a particular project?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so like there's recently uh we announced this publicly too with one particular um large-scale developer, I'll I'll call it that, uh, where we were deployed on seven projects simultaneously, six different locations uh across their portfolio. Um, and it was in the hundreds of megawatts in terms of size across the portfolio. And uh we basically saved them 408 days off of the schedule, right? And that had a direct $130 million commercial impact for them, right? There's an additional like $28, $30 million in rework savings by preventing these issues from happening in the first instance, uh, and then the knock-on effects associated with that. But fundamentally, like the biggest driver for them was that that was 408 AIDS, that translates into a $130 million commercial impact. And that was like the business case has wrote itself at that point in time. And so since then, signed an enterprise-wide agreement with that customer and that client, nine figures in size. And so we're super proud and super excited about it as a direct result.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and the the geography point's important as well, I think. Like the ability to work across multiple geographies. I I I'm assuming, and I am assuming like you know, the same technology utilized across multiple facilities, you can learn from each of them as well, can't you? The learnings you've made on a project in the USA, you can take that to a project in London, for example.
SPEAKER_01110%. And you can compare the productivity rates as a result, right? So, like the best way I can kind of uh give as an example, and I'll have fun about it consistently, but like, you know, there was a job site in Dublin that was doing 13 meters per day of buzz like installation, and then there was an active project taking place in Paris, which was doing nine meters per day. Why? How do I get the lessons learnt from one project and disseminate that across my entire portfolio? And the other aspect of it too was that a lot of clients believe that the data that they're getting is like, you know, is clean as accurate. But if you go down to like the fundamentals of how it's being captured, in the best of cases, is someone walking out on site with an iPad with a set of drawings, looking around a room and going, yeah, we're about 20% complete here, right? Your 20% is different than my 20%, which is different than else's 20%, and when we're talking about the tens of billions in capex being spent, that level of variance has a significant impact, right? And so now all we've done is just basically taking a guess out, the guess workout entirely. And rather than, you know, let's say, for example, you know, you walk the site once a week with a 360 camera, right? And that tells you, okay, this was a five-day activity. Now you have a solution which tells you by the minute, by the hour, how long each element takes to install, right? Such that, you know, if something is a five-day activity, you can actually scrutinize that and say, okay, cool, what actually took place? And now for the first time, you can go, oh, so that crew actually came in Monday morning, they completed that set of works, they then down the tools, they picked it up back up on Thursday, and then they finished it on Friday evening, right? So that's actually a two and a half day activity. Now you can actually take that data and then re-optimize the schedule for the next build going forward. So you get therefore then a more compressed timeline. So this is what our clients and our and our portfolio clients are going through right now is our leveraging the data that we've captured for them to be able to optimize the build going forward.
SPEAKER_00And this is how they're going to win the battle in the field. Interesting. And it's had it has it had an impact on the way when a customer would design their facilities as well. Like what they learn from building, say, last year, they take into the design process for the next facility. Precisely that, right?
SPEAKER_01And it has a significant impact, therefore, then also on procurement, right? And so as a result of it, it's just this like giant self-learning model as a direct result, right? And it all comes down to just having clean, 100%, real-time, accurate data. That's the game changing for them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, data in the data center industry. I've said that so many times on this podcast, but it all it always amazes me. We are now the good thing now is we are using the data that we have access to. However, when we when I started this five years ago, I don't I don't think we even knew how to use the data. So that that's been a big change. And when you look at CapEx, you mentioned it, you know, the CapEx 4A facility, facilities are getting larger and larger. Well, the announcements are getting larger and larger. Obviously, the the design, the build, etc., is is increased. Do you think that this push on using technology to enhance the build process is largely as a result of just that increase in capex means the increase in risk if anything goes wrong?
SPEAKER_01Precisely that, right? Like, if you will, like the developers are like signing up to more and more strenuous sort of like customer requirements, right? With larger penalties, liquidated damages, and and the likes. And they're also then on the other end of the scale, where from the the contractor standpoint, they're also, you know, they're going to be hit by the EOT claims, etc. too, that's associated with it, right? And so all of a sudden, this data doesn't just become fundamental meaning to accelerate delivery, but also becomes fundamental in providing them with like a like a risk insurance policy, right? To give them a digital audit trail as to exactly what took place on what day and what hour and what minute and by who, right? And so it it becomes twofold as a drug result of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And on the industry as a whole, you you're similar to me, where you've got that kind of broad exposure to multiple customers and you get quite a good insight, I think. I find it fascinating, all the different conversations you find yourself in. But what have you seen this year? If we look back on the year, like the main we talked about talent, we talked about you know the build process, but is there is there anything else that your customers are saying is a is a major challenge or has been a major challenge as they move into next year?
SPEAKER_01I think a lot of it's been around about um so talent being one thing, right? At that management layer, as well as at the kind of the field layer. So I think that's been uh one big thing. Uh and then the other big thing has been just in terms of like the capex expenditures, like the cost per megawatt, especially on the AI build-out programs, right? People are always sort of you know trying to do their targets of like whatever it is, like 10 to 13 million, right? On the AI build-out program, like we're seeing anywhere between like 15 and 18 per meg. And so that as a result of it seems to be causing a little bit of like internal carnage, right? Especially whether it be with the ambassador group, the internal teams, etc., from a forecast standpoint. But this is just a reality of the situation, right? Which is that we're all after the same things at the same time. And so the result of it is un the price is only going to unfortunately go one way, right? And uh so that seems to be one of the other big aspects that people are beginning to realize at the back end of this year itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I get quite a lot of calls from investors now asking me, yeah, what's the price per megawatt? And it's kind of like, how long's how long's a piece of string? So it's like, yeah, wait, where are you building? What are you building, you know, when are you building? I think and geography is another thing, isn't it? That's changed a lot this year. And you again, you would have seen it because of the conversations you have. Yeah, we're not we're not always talking about the clear, the obvious markets anymore. We are talking about significant scale in remote locations, as well as the yeah, the core markets remain very, very busy, but we've definitely seen a geographic spread which has a major impact on talent, which again links back to the conversation around the technology.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. And I think like the US, from like on a I suppose like an XYZ standpoint, like for the uh this year we've 13xd our number, right, from last year. Like so we've hit this like amazing white inflection point for it. And next year will be the first year that we would have generated more revenue from the US alone than we have done from the rest of the world, right? And so we're really beginning to see that we're entering this huge significant phase of like execution, majority of it coming from the states, and then we have a significant European pipeline of work that's going to kick off then from the middle of next year, and I think in the year after then it will almost be neck and neck again, right? And so I think that's what we're we're seeing now more than anything, is that the US almost has like has the head start, so to speak, when it can the construction phase, and then the Europeans are beginning to come online then on this point forward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the the US is always ahead, isn't it? But it moves fast as well, especially now in the current political landscape. It does move much faster than than Europe, but fully aware, you know, when you again when you talk to customers about demand and about where they're looking for capacity, there is that huge flow of Europe and that demand in Europe, which will, like you say, it's been very busy now in Europe, don't get us wrong, but there's a lot, there's a wave coming as well. But we've seen similar the you the US scale of growth this year, you know, our own businesses are as a as well has grown significantly with within the US, and it is as a result of that the scale of growth that's happening right now.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And like um the other aspect that we're beginning to see more and more of is like partnerships being formed with the entirety of the supply chain, right? And we're going through the exact same process too. So we're beginning to partner directly with the specialty contractors, and we've been able to demonstrate to their mass scale and with their mass scale that you know they're able to help basically increase their productivity rates in the field and actually install five times faster with half the labor, right? So, you know, when Genesis One's talking about that elect you know, the electrician shortage in the labour marketplace, like I don't think the recruitment drive into this space is going to help maybe solve the problem in the medium and long term, but in the short term it doesn't solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is somehow increasing the productivity rate of the crew that you do have, right? And so that's what we're looking to start doing now is actually going further into the supply chain to be able to increase our productivity productivity rates in the field itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the I totally agree with you. The short term is solutions, not the people is not the solution, unfortunately. There just is not enough people. And we're kind of fortunate at the moment that a lot of other industries are not that busy, but that won't that won't last forever. You know, the other industries will come back as well, which again will will take a lot of the talent and it pushes up cost of talent as well, which is another big challenge you're seeing in the industry. As we go into 2026, which yeah, I think you're the first person I've said it to. Seems crazy that we're not far away, only three weeks away, I guess. Um, what do you see changing like from a delivery model perspective? Is there anything you think will will come in? Are there are there new technologies and you know how will the customers build differently over the next couple of years?
SPEAKER_01I mean, everybody's been harping on about the same things when it comes to like modular and prefab and this, that, the other. That only works if you have the same design, right? The same product that you're trying to find. And the design keeps changing, doesn't it? And the design keeps changing because the end product keeps changing, right? Right? The the compute requirements and everything else. So as a result of that now, I think like people are slowly beginning to realize that you can prefab some of the core elements, right? But there's so that there's certain other elements that you know you kind of have to go about the traditional way to be able to give you that flexibility and agility that you need to be able to meet your customer demand, right? So I think that that's w one aspect I'm seeing more and more of, right, is just uh like being more selective and more stringent with what you send off site to be able to produce and capture, and and therefore then more strategic in what you keep on site for the agility aspect of things, right? And we see it within our own workflows too, right? They're like now and now more and more from a client perspective. They're asking us to track all the things that they do off site, right? As well as all the things they do on site, and it's all beginning to trend towards the same items that we're tracking off site, as well as the same items that we're tracking on site, et cetera.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's it's difficult, isn't it? I I agree with you on the modulo. It's been talked about for years, hasn't it? Really? You know, I've been in the industry quite a quite a while. And module has always been a conversation, there's definitely a solution for the right product. But again, like when you when you look at an NVIDIA types, you know, product forecast and pipeline, you know, you how do you build for it when you don't actually know what's coming or when it's coming? Exactly that, right?
SPEAKER_01And I think that's the that's the challenge is that like how do you how do you if we will like increase the output during that procurement and design process such that you can you can basically give you give yourself the best chance of uh partnering up with some offsite fabricators.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and and who knows what scale of rack or density of rack is coming next. I think I think it gets bigger every time Jensen stands on stage. So we'll have to see what happens and what the reality is but though those changes definitely don't help the industry from a forward thinking in a design uh perspective.
SPEAKER_01110% and I think like a lot of the uh a lot of the braga watts right I think they'll be exposed come 2026 too right like 2026 will be like the year of execution we'll know who's real and who's not who's got capital to build and who doesn't right and I think one might see a little bit more of the consolidation taking place too right where I can I can see a world where yeah and developers begin to merge together a lot more JBs a lot more partnerships because again there's only so much talent in the marketplace built as Liberty's complex builds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah definitely and we're seeing that well you're hearing about that already aren't you and I'm sure there'll be some announcements in the next month or two that uh kind of vouch vouch for that point. Um and yeah and when I talk to the you know the the customers and the and the investors and I like it is is some that require much more of a commitment for that capital drawdown now which again is you know impacting how quickly people can build because the customer wants capacity very quickly the investor or the capital wants commitment of a customer before capital. It's like a catch 22 scenario for some people at the moment and like say that will impact on who can who can build how quickly they can build and and I think I agree with you joint ventures and consolidation is definitely uh definitely going to happen over the next 12 months we can look back on that prediction but I'm pretty confident uh we won't have to wait too long for that one. 100% I think we can cash that check in so to speak. Yeah definitely we'll have a have a drink at Christmas um anyway thanks for time it's like XYZ I've done so many podcasts with you guys and your journey's amazing I recommend anyone has a look at your website and your content's great as well and there's always some you know great insights um that you that you share with the industry. So thanks for doing that. But if anyone wants to get in touch with you directly what what's the best way to reach you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah just ping me on LinkedIn uh always more than happy to be able to kind of message back etc or just like uh reach out by email or lead.zafar at xyzreality.com um as I mentioned fast growing um and uh yeah just more and more enterprise wide portfolio wide agreements and so we're super chaffed and excited about the growth and looking forward to partnering more with the industry going forward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and we'll keep following that journey but thanks for time I'm sure we'll bump into each other at an event somewhere in the near future but I if not sorry PTC no maybe not not unless anyone listening wants to pay for my flight book me a ticket hotel and c and convince my wife that it's a it's a work trip. My my DMs are open as my kids would say we'll start a crowdfund shall we'll start a DC crowdfunding bring Andy to PTC but no thanks for time I'll catch at you again soon. Appreciate it Andy thank you that's it for this episode of the Inside Data Center podcast thanks for tuning in. This show is brought to you by DataX and Data Exec, the recruitment partners powering global talent across the data centre and digital infrastructure world. If you enjoyed today's conversations don't forget to follow like and subscribe it really helps us grow the podcast community. Stay tuned for more stories, insights and conversations of the people shaping the future of our industry