DATABANK
Red Oak presented different challenges at an even greater scale. Four 60MW buildings, 300 acres of site work, a substation and switching station, all under construction simultaneously. At peak, expected around mid to late February 2026, the campus will host close to 4,000 workers.
“ It started off a little challenging on the approach, but it’ s been very smooth and it’ s working,” Tony says.“ All of our teams are working in harmony, and I think it’ s going to be a very successful project. I think that’ s going to be a big story for us at the end of the day.”
Labour constraints and the path forward Tony sees 2026 and 2027 as pivotal years for the sector, with massive capacity coming online that will impact all data centre builders. However, he says the constraint is not technology or capital but people.
“ It has always been my priority throughout my career,” he says.“ People are number one, and I think 2026 and 2027 are going to be very interesting years. There’ s a lot of capacity being turned online, and to meet that growth everyone is looking for the same people.”
DataBank’ s strategy focuses on culture and development, says Tony. The company looks beyond money to create and nurture careers that people want to stay in for years while contributing to something larger than individual projects.
“ We want to build a team that it’ s not all about work,” Tony states.“ I’ m reaching out to people personally, talking to them about their lives and making it bigger than just a development or a project or a portfolio.
“ I’ ve always been a firm believer that people are your most important assets, and I think the culture we have created at DataBank is one of our key differentiators. We are an employee-owned company, and that makes a real difference when it comes to setting an effective and people-led way of working.”
With this strong foundation, coupled with its innovative design approach, DataBank has ambitious targets for the future.“ It’ s a strong plan and vision centred around building out 1GW of deployment by 2030,” says Tony.
“ Our corporate development team is actively looking at news sites and opportunities, and me and my team will play a role in those decisions,” he continues.“ We have great leadership buy-in and a clear path which will support us as we scale. I’ m very excited about the path ahead.” datacentremagazine. com 95