Sustainable and Resilient Data Centres

Dr. Lock is a Professor (Engineering) at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and the Head of its Energy Efficiency Technology Centre. He plays an active role in energy efficiency and sustainability, being the Chairman of Accreditation Committee for Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and the Co-Chair of Steering Committee of Singapore Certified Energy Managers (SCEM) Scheme. He is an Accredited Tier Designer awarded by the Uptime Institute. He is a specialist consulting engineer in the areas of mission-critical electrical design, power quality, EMC, and safety. He conducted many power failure investigations of data centres.

Professor Lock has a unique blend of practicing and academic experience acquired through a career which is equally split between the industry and the academia. He received both his B.Sc. (1975) and Ph.D. (1979) degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, UK. He was a faculty at the Department of Electrical Engineering, National University of Singapore for 17 years when he left to set up his consulting practice in 1997. He returned to the academia as a professor at SIT in 2016 after 20 years in the industry.

He is a registered Professional Engineer (Electrical) and served as a Board Member of the Professional Engineers Board, Singapore for 14 years. He is a Fellow of Academy of Engineering Singapore and an Honorary Fellow of the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations.

He is the co-Laureate of the 2021 WFEO Medal for Excellence in Engineering Education awarded by the World Federation of Engineering Organisations. He received the Public Service Medal (2015) and the Public Service Star (2020).

Derek William is a Consulting Engineer based in Singapore, with experience in data centre works in many countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Derek has been in the data centre industry since 1998. As a professional engineer, he has been the founder and principal of a Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Consultancy company since 2000, now semi-retired but still active in the Data Center industry.

Apart from being a registered Professional Engineer, Derek holds globally-recognised qualifications as data centre specialist (in design engineering) and an accredited tier designer. The projects include LEED certified data center, GreenMark Platinum data center, and Free Cooling (in Singapore), ranging in size from small server rooms, through colocation, to hyperscale.

His contributions to the industry include seminar/webinar presentations such as GreenMark for Data Centers committee, Singapore Computer Society committee, and contribution to STDCT. Derek has been a regular trainer for DCD Academy (formerly DC Pro) since 2012, specialising in Data Center cooling.

Wong Tew Kiat is a seasoned industry practitioner with 30 years of working experience in data centre and system infrastructure and operations management of a 100,000 sq. ft data centre space. His work experience includes IT Infrastructure, data centre infrastructure & operations management, Business Continuity Management (BCM) for pandemic preparedness planning, crisis response management, incident response, IT Disaster Recovery (DR) management, emergency management and data centre risk and health check management.

He is currently appointed as the Data Centre Chapter (DCC) chairman by the Singapore Computer Society, with responsibility on national platform development for Data Centre professionals to network and share research and innovative ideas. He is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP), has a Certification by the Disaster Recovery Institute International (USA) and is also a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (FBCI, UK). He is also a Certified IT Project Manager, Senior (CITPM), Certified Outsourcing IT Manager, Senior (COMIT) and Certified IT BCM Manager, Senior (CITBCM) by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Singapore.

He was the President of the Business Continuity Chapter, an industry chapter in SCS between 2005 and 2008 and between 2010 and 2011. He also chaired the CITBCM Resource Panel to develop the Body of Knowledge for the CITBCM. He currently chairs the CITBCM Board of Assessors. He is also currently the Chairman, Technical Committee with Institute of Technical Education for its Diploma in Data Centre Operations. He has also conducted numerous trainings in the modules of Data Centre and Business Continuity Management for SMU. He is also an experienced public speaker in many data centre and business continuity seminars and conferences in Singapore and the region.

Dr. Li Xiaorong is an Assistant Professor in the Infocomm Technology Cluster at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Dr Li works on the frontiers of distributed computing systems and large-scale artificial intelligence. She has taught courses such as mobile and cloud computing, database systems, etc.

Before that, she was a senior research scientist and capability group manager, focusing on cloud/edge computing for big data analysis, AI/Machine Learning, modelling and simulation in A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC). Dr Li was also an Executive Manager and a technologist working on various topics such as green data centres, AI and technology roadmap at Infocomm Media Development Authority, Singapore. She received her PhD in Electrical and Computing Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2006 and her B.E. from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 1998.

Her interests include parallel and distributed/high-performance computing, big data analysis, AI/ML, modelling and simulation, green computing, etc. Dr Li is a senior member of IEEE and she has published more than 50 papers in prestigious international journals and conferences.

Dr. Wei ZHANG received the B.Sc. degree in electronic information science and technology from the School of Science, Xidian University, Xi’an, China, in 2008, the M.Eng. degree in circuits and system from the School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2015. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Information and Communications Technology Cluster, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Before joining SIT, he was a Scientist at the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. From 2015 to 2017, he was a Research Fellow at NTU, Singapore. His current research interests include energy optimization for the information and communication technology area, as well as smart buildings and smart cities.

Han Ming Kuang is currently the director of Data Centre Consulting, Solutions and Projects covering the international region, which includes East Asia, Pacific, Japan, India, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

His team supports the delivery of the full lifecycle of data centre solutions, from pre-sales to execution, to ensure Schneider builds a strong capability and expertise in data centre solutions and delivery. Core to the function is providing the competency of being the subject matter expert for DC design, consulting, design optimisation, pre-sales support, DC assessments, project management, and execution.

Han was previously a M&E and building services consultant and has been involved in design and project management.

He has gained 25 years of experience in the field of M&E consulting and project management, including extensive experience in concept, detailed design, and project management for various types of building development, such as residential, commercial, industrial, educational, and mission-critical projects.

Chethan K G is principal mechanical consultant at Schneider Electric with 15+ years of experience in HVAC industry and plays a key role in providing expert guidance on sustainable and resilient cooling solutions for data centre. His extensive knowledge and experiences in data centre cooling practices, emerging technologies and sustainable solution has contributed greatly to design, implementing, and optimising data centre efficiency.

He is an accredited tier designer awarded by Uptime Institute & Certified Data Centre Professional by EPI. His accomplishment includes multiple enterprise, colocation and hyperscaler data centre projects globally.

Chriz Lam is a principal DC consultant at Schneider Electric and plays a pivotal role in providing expert guidance and leadership in the realm of data centre consulting. His in-depth knowledge of industry best practices, emerging technologies, sustainable solutions and commitment to driving operational excellence has contributed greatly to design, implementing, and optimising data centre infrastructures for data centre client on a globally.

He is an accredited tier specialist awarded by Uptime Institute, Certified TIA-942 design consultant by EPI, certified Project Management Professional by Project Management Institute and LEED Accredited Professional by US Green Building Council. His accomplishment includes numerous Uptime Institute Tier III and IV projects globally and data centre of sizes from server room to multi megawatt data centre set up.

Christian is an Associate Director at RED Engineering with over 15 years’ experience as a Data Centre Design Consultant in the building services industry. He is accredited with the following certifications: Accredited Tier Designer ATD, Certified TIA 942 Design Consultant CTDC, Data Centre Design Consultant DCDC, BICSI USA, Data centre Certified Designer DCD CAPITOLINE, UK, LEED Green Associate and Accredited Designer ASD XTRALIS, Australia. 

Most of these years were spent on data centres with deep involvement in Tier III/IV design, from concept to detailed design, leading all the electrical packages along with testing and commissioning for TCCF, through to project handover. 

Started his career in designing big ticket data center projects for major finance & banking groups, telecoms and technology services in the EMEA, north Africa and the Gulf region specifically Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuwait, before moving five years ago to APAC region and continue his career in designing and leading colocation and hyperscale data centers, delivering over 1500MW worth of IT load over the last 15 years

Kubendhiran Sundaramoorthy (Kuben) is the Senior Director of DC Operations at Nxera SG Pte Ltd (Singtel), where he oversees the data centre facilities infrastructure and operations of Nxera data centres in Singapore. Overall, Kuben has 25 years of experience in data centre operations, engineering, project management, and facilities management. Throughout his career, he has specialized in data centre infrastructure and operations management, with a focus on data centre reliability and availability, including incident, emergency, and crisis response preparedness. He continues to drive operational strategies that ensure resilience, scalability, and sustainability in data centre operations. 

Kuben holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Annamalai University (India), a Master’s degree in Computer Control & Automation from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and an Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business & Technology (USA). 

His professional certifications include Specialist Certificate in Data Centre (Site Ops) from NTU, Data Centre Specialist-Operations from DCD, Sustainable and Resilient Data Centres from SIT, Sustainability Strategies and Green Economy from SMU, PMP from Project Management Institute and LEED AP (O+M) from U.S. Green Building Council.

Tracy Liu is a Principal Manager in the Green Mark Department at the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). With over 20 years of experience in mechanical, electrical and energy-related works, Tracy has played a pivotal role in developing Green Mark criteria and conducting Green Mark training, with a focus on energy efficiency requirements. She led the launch of Green Mark 2021 and spearheaded the Green Mark for Data Centre GMDC: 2024 initiative. 

An Electrical Engineer by training, Tracy has contributed to the development of technical requirements for several Singapore Standards, including the recent release of SS530 and SS591. 

Tracy holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Master of Science.

Arvind Verma is the Senior Assistant Director under the Digital Infrastructure Department of IMDA. He leads the technology and standards development to support the environmentally sustainable growth of the DC sector in Singapore. Some of the key projects include the Singapore Standard for deployment and operation of DC IT equipment under tropical climate (SS 697), the BCA-IMDA Green Mark scheme for DCs and the Energy Efficiency grant for DC IT equipment. Arvind holds an Accredited Sustainability Advisor (ASA) credential issued by the Uptime Institute.