Speakers

Dr Nick Morris is a consultant in the data centre sector and related domains. His original technical background is in biotech, bio/chemical engineering, modelling and sensors, in which he is inventor on several patents. He has led a number of projects in the development, commercialisation and deployment of technology within Unilever, start-ups and also in commercial and technology appraisal for investment vehicles. He has over sixteen years experience in the data centre sector, initially via Data Center Dynamics (markets: France and Quebec, Nordics, UK) and the acquisition, development and worldwide commercial roll-out of the CEEDA data centre energy efficiency assessment framework. He has delivered projects to the European public sector which aid policy and planning, such as: the generation of sustainability appraisal tools for public procurement of cloud services based on established EED and TCDA reporting requirements; the construction of guidance on cloud supplier diversification and risk mitigation from established hyperscalers; and the building of quantitative models to estimate data centre power requirements to 2050, including impacts of AI-LLM based compute growth, cloud/hyperscaler requirements, new cooling technologies and the scope for heat reuse. He has undertaken a diverse set of projects in the commercial sector, including: the development of tools to quantify the impacts on energy use and carbon emissions for IT services run on-premises vs colo vs cloud and colo-client; the implementation of cloud-client compliance (mandated metrics within: EED, TCDA) reporting methodologies, including quantified Scope 1, 2, 3 emissions for client IT services in cloud and colo environments; and the application of energy efficiency and sustainability frameworks and metrics, including: EUCoC; ISO/IEC 30134-series; EN 50600-5-1; ASHRAE 90.4. Further work in related fields includes: the analysis of the potential impact of cumulative thermal energy of legacy emissions on carbon pricing; the development of sustainability metrics and frameworks plus resilience and sustainability optimisation in submarine telecoms networks; and the appraisal of techno-commercial viability of renewable power coupled with novel energy storage technologies.