When Ahmed Ibrahim immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from Ghana in West Africa in 1997, the internet was on the cusp of making digital technology a part of everyday life. Now, he’s on the cusp of a leadership role building the digital infrastructure that delivers the internet to the world.
This September, Ahmed earned a Master of the Arts Degree in Data Center Leadership and Management from Anglia Ruskin University in partnership with CNet Training. He attended the three-year distance learning program with the support of a scholarship from Infrastructure Masons.
“My goal is to see how I can bring the knowledge that I’ve gained in the field and through this program to benefit the development of data centers in Africa, particularly Ghana, where I’m from,” Ahmed said. “Data centers are getting built there today and I think there is a need for the skillset I’ve established for myself.”
Construction Management
Ahmed earned an academic certificate in construction project management from McGill University in Montreal in 2012 and spent several years as a field technician and construction project manager for industrial and commercial companies in the Montreal area. His life changed in 2017.
“I was called for an interview. They asked, ‘Are you interested in data centers?’” he recalled. “I’m like, no, wait a minute. I have no background in this. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He thought the company was looking for someone familiar with computer servers and racks. He learned they were interested in his construction project management skills to lead a team building the data center facility infrastructure.
In today’s terms, the first systems Ahmed worked on were tiny – 100 kilowatts to 500 kilowatts, primarily for retail clients. He oversaw the entire process from requirement development through sales and architecture, requests for proposals and execution. Then, once complete, he would work with operations to ensure a smooth turnover.
The company was acquired by Cologix a year into Ahmed’s tenure. He shifted to working on megawatt-scale builds and grew his skillset, earning a data center design certification from DCD>Academy.
Then, hungry for more responsibility and growth, Ahmed set out on his own. He set up a freelance construction management company, HKRay Global Inc, based in Montreal, providing data center construction management services and secured a long-term contract leading mission critical construction for a data center developer in Montreal. He also found the time to apply for the program in data center leadership and management through Anglia Ruskin University and CNet Training.
During the interview for the leadership and management program, Ahmed asked about financial support. He was encouraged to contact iMasons.
“That’s when it hit me: Wow, there are organizations out there who are looking for people to help,” Ahmed said. He joined iMasons, which is free for students, and applied for the iMasons scholarship program. Within a week, iMasons provided a “red carpet welcome,” he said.
AI/ML-driven Cooling
For his third-year thesis project in the data center leadership and management program, Ahmed researched the use of artificial intelligence/machine learning to drive data center cooling systems for energy efficiency and sustainability.
“AI is the big new thing for our industry,” he said. “How can we use it to make our industry more efficient and sustainable?”
Data center cooling accounts for about 40% of the power used in a data center, Ahmed noted. AI/ML algorithms can incorporate real-time data from the information technology level, such as server workload and processing power, along with data center environmental data like temperature and humidity to dynamically adjust cooling.
These algorithms can also use pattern recognition to predict thermal loads, which optimizes cooling efficiency and reduces the need for cold air supply. The AI/ML approach minimizes energy consumption and enhances sustainability by tailoring cooling to actual demand. This ensures precise thermal management and energy savings, thereby making the system highly cost-effective, Ahmed noted.
Several companies are already using AI/ML cooling systems in their data centers, from Google and Siemens to Facebook and Huawei. Ahmed hopes to raise greater awareness of the availability of these innovative cooling technologies being developed by companies like Phaidra and Siemens and encourage others in the data center industry to adopt them.
“I think one of the factors that’s making the developers hesitate in adopting this innovative solution is the various complexities of how you integrate with existing infrastructure,” he said. “There’s also high cost of initial investment and just acceptability. Are people willing to accept an AI system running their data center?”
Industry Challenges and Opportunities
In addition to the hesitancy of data center companies to adopt energy efficient technologies controlled by AI systems, Ahmed sees the lack of available people to build, operate and maintain data centers as the digital infrastructure industry’s biggest challenge
This is true for the projects he runs for his clients in Canada, and what he hears from others throughout the industry.
The concern, he said, is that unlike traditional career paths like law and medicine, data center programs are not yet formally integrated into educational systems. Since the data center industry is only growing in importance, future generations need to be better prepared for careers in it.
As Ahmed looks to his own future, he wants to take his data center industry skills and knowledge to Africa, where he sees opportunities to build digital infrastructure and help train a next-generation workforce for the future.
“Like it or not, we are all now digitized,” he said. “Data centers are becoming our lifeline.”
You can support student’s like Ahmed with donations to the Digital Infrastructure Futures Foundation (DIFF), iMasons’ 510c3. Contributions are tax-deductible and eligible for employee giving and employer match programs. Donate here