Ep236: Steve Altizer—From Big Boxes to Smart Modules: The New Data Center Frontier from The QTS Experience

Ep236: Steve Altizer—From Big Boxes to Smart Modules: The New Data Center Frontier

1 hour 16 minutes Posted Dec 12, 2025 at 8:00 pm.

Intro + ”We’re building data centers the wrong way”

Why Stargate and purpose - built AI halls are the future

Prefab white space: the last frontier of data center construction

Do hyperscalers want 20-year leases on AI buildings?

Hyperscalers are teaching the industry liquid cooling

Designs today might only last 5 years

Modular is coming... and the concrete box is dying

Taking colocation down to the row/pod level

Liquid cooling risks: ”I know enough to be scared”

Bring Your Own Power (BYOP) is inevitable

”Everyone’s going high-performance, high-density”

UPS on cooling, batteries instead of generators

Data centers will be like automobiles - pick your model

Jensen, Blackwell, and why Nvidia won’t stop

Community Pushback and the new soft skill every operator needs

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Show notes

Steve Altizer—mechanical legend and self-proclaimed closet architect—offers a fresh way to look at the modern data center. From the rise of prefabricated white space to liquid cooling’s growing pains, he lays out where the industry is headed and why the old concrete box might finally be ready for an upgrade. It’s smart, honest, and unexpectedly fun.

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