Alex JuFounder and CEO, Chindata Group
Alex Ju, founder and CEO of Chindata Group, is an advocate of the next generation hyperscale digital infrastructure in the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific region, building an important platform for Chinese companies to go global and foreign companies to enter China.
He creatively combined the demands of the digital economy, the friendly use of renewable energy, and the external environment requirements for digital infrastructure to create China’s first hyperscale digital infrastructure cluster in the area of Capital Rim. He has led Chindata Group to become the first Chinese digital infrastructure company in the world to source 100 percent renewable energy.
What technology breakthrough would pave the way for the ICT industry?
As the global digitization of applications and data are accelerating, data interaction, analysis, and storage are developing like never before, which also brings greater challenges to the ICT industry. But the first thing we are confronted with is how to deal with the data and how to improve the performance of data processing. As the foundation of the ICT industry, data center infrastructure will be in centralized, standardized, and modular technology forms of development and delivery. This provides leaders with an infrastructure that can be delivered with fast delivery, massive scale, and sustained cost reduction and flexibility. This new generation of hyperscale data centers will become the basis of the ICT industry technology innovation.
How can corporations and researchers best serve the next generation?
As high-energy consumption companies, IDC providers should include sustainability as an important part of their strategy in order to contribute to the sustainable growth of data centers in the future. Companies should strive to innovate technological solutions that have positive impacts on the environment. The R&D team from Chindata Group innovated and acquired a series of patents in the fields of electrical equipment, software system, HVAC equipment, construction, etc., to maximize energy efficiency by achieving extremely low PUE and reducing carbon emissions. With the goal to create green data centers, we should develop sustainable solutions to serve the next generation.
If one thing should be redeveloped within the telecom and related industries, what should it be?
The adoption of renewable energy is an imperative trend of the ICT industry around the world. A green and sustainable development model combining “clean energy + data center” can not only meet the energy demand of new data centers, but also support the development of the digital economy. We are actively exploring this model and are trying to encourage the industry in this direction of successful transformation.
What value does PTC hold for you/your company?
By joining PTC, we can quickly obtain a large amount of cutting-edge information in our strategic target field and we can get to know more industrial partners through participating in community interaction, which helps us to build and continuously empower our own industry ecosystem.
How does PTC fit with your company’s goals or your overall career purpose?
PTC’s mission is to advance the ethical development and use of ICT in the Pacific Rim. It is highly aligned with our mission to build a unique hyperscale data center platform through the investment in construction and operations of the underlying resources, and to promote industrial ecosystem innovation to realize large-scale coverage information infrastructure, ameliorate regional information communication network connectivity, help solve cross-regional multilateral coordination problems, and achieve prosperity of the ICT industry ecosystem.
What advice would you share with current and future graduates interested in this field?
Always day one: Have the courage and spirit from zero to one; do not forget the original intention; maintain the entrepreneurial mentality and sense of crisis; embrace uncertainty and risk; continue to challenge yourself; and treat every day as the first day of business.
Customer first: Customers are the reason for our existence. Provide customers with 101 points of service and professional adherence to their long-term value and interests.
Innovate every day: Focus; learn from industry friends; encourage trial, error, and iteration; have no boundaries; and constantly seek the best solution.
Do the right thing: Seek the truth from facts, pursue results, and do the right thing.
Be positive and candid: Be open to different points of view and criticism.
Be honest and accountable: Facing the complex business environment and regulatory rules, we should not only have the courage to face up to them quickly, but also maintain the reputation and professional standards of the enterprise. Integrity and responsibility are the ground requirements.
What is something that not that many people know about you?
I excel at integrating data center construction and their visual aesthetics. I have always embedded a sense of beauty into every detail of the data center to make it a unique-looking architecture. At the same time, I take into account the efficient use of energy and the optimal realization of customers’ value. Every data center base in our data center portfolio has a specific theme, such as “Las Vegas’ Busy Night,” “Way to Future,” and “Over the Clouds.” This aesthetic edge would definitely be jaw-dropping for visitors.
About Chindata Group:
Chindata Group is the world’s first hyperscale data center operator across pan-Asian emerging markets. We are a comprehensive service provider focusing on the whole life cycle of facility planning, investment, design, construction, and operation. We engineer the best solutions including: data centers, network, and IT value-added services for our customers using sustainable development practices.
