Jay Park
Founder and Chief Development Officer at Digital Edge
An electrical engineer by trade, Jay Park has spent almost four decades working across high-tech industries. He entered the data centre space in 1999 and, focusing solely on design, obtained no fewer than six patents during his time at Exodus Communications, Equinix and Facebook.
Park freely admits he was ready to retire after Facebook, where he had successfully spearheaded the design of the company’s first owned data centre and built numerous state-of-the-art facilities globally.
However, he soon realised something was missing from his career.
“As a native Korean, I wanted to make some impact in APAC,” says Park. “I’d made a lot of impact in North America and Europe, but had never had the opportunity to do so in the APAC region.”
Following a conversation with some old colleagues, Park couldn’t resist the opportunity to join forces with a group of fellow seasoned executives and establish Digital Edge in 2020, becoming its Chief Development Officer.
Not all plain sailing for Park
Working in the data centre sector certainly isn’t without its challenges.
Time to market is all-important in this fast-moving industry, but Park emphasises how difficult it has become to build a data centre due to the rigorous environmental checks that take place during a lengthy entitlement process.
“Everybody's building data centres these days, so the delivery schedule is getting longer and longer,” adds Park. “It’s a big challenge for us because construction used to take 18 months and now we're looking at 24 in some markets.”
What’s more, despite the exceptional innovation and design being displayed by industry leaders like Digital Edge, there is acceptance from Park and his colleagues that some clients may be reticent to try new things and embrace change.
“Everybody likes the good old way if it’s reliable,” he continues. “As the world changes we need to save energy, electricity and water, so we have to implement new designs, but convincing our clients is a big challenge.”
Relishing the challenges
Instead of being disheartened by these challenges, Park relishes them.
His go-to strategy is to look at problems from different angles, which he often achieves by putting himself in the clients’ shoes in a bid to understand their own unique challenges.
“No matter what I do, if I don't understand the client’s challenges, the relationship isn’t going to work,” Park goes on.
“Once I understand what the hardship or roadblock is, hopefully my solution can meet them halfway or at least help them with something so they can achieve their deployment.”
This attitude ties in perfectly with Park’s unrelenting desire to constantly think outside the box and try something new.
This is an executive who is always looking for ways to not only improve, but push the boundaries of what’s possible.
“I like to be in the ‘uncomfortable zone’ and, truly, I am a problem solver,” says Park. “If I see a problem, I like to take it as a blessing and look for the perfect solution.”
Read the full story HERE.
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