In this installment of Nomads at the Frontier, Data Center Frontier Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent checks in with Nomad Futurist founders Nabeel Mahmood and Phillip Koblence for on-the-ground reflections from PTC 2026 in Hawaii, and a clear signal that the digital infrastructure market is shifting from hype to delivery.

Mahmood says PTC 2026 reaffirmed the move toward integrated digital infrastructure, with attendance continuing to grow and conversations increasingly translating into real progress. But the defining theme across AI, investment, and deployments was power. As Koblence puts it, “all of those questions are power”—and unlike prior years, the tone has moved from speculative site talk to “show me the money, show me the power,” with real timelines and secured capacity.

The episode digs into the industry’s evolving stance on behind-the-meter generation, which is increasingly treated as the most viable medium-term path to getting online as grid bureaucracy and interconnection delays become the “long pole in the tent.” The discussion also tackles the sustainability tension in that shift: why the industry often kicks the can down the road, what alternative options (fuel cells, hydrogen) may offer, and why nuclear timelines don’t solve the near-term gap.

Mahmood and Koblence also emphasize that the buildout isn’t just a power story; it’s a people and community story. Workforce shortages remain structural and long-lived, and community acceptance is now central to the industry’s “license to build.” Nomad Futurist’s mission, they argue, is becoming a bridge between digital infrastructure and the public, demystifying what the industry is, why it matters, and how the next generation can enter it.

Finally, the conversation pressures-tests the AI boom: Mahmood predicts the “mega-scale AI factory” bubble will burst within three to five years, with growth shifting toward inferencing closer to users, but he still expects the sector to normalize into sustained double-digit expansion. And on Nvidia’s roadmap, both founders call for realism: megawatt racks may be coming, but as Koblence notes, “there are zero facilities” today that can support a 1–1.5 MW rack at scale.

In the latest episode of the Data Center Frontier Show Podcast, Editor in Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Sailesh Krishnamurthy, VP of Engineering for Databases at Google Cloud, about the real challenge facing enterprise AI: connecting powerful models to real-world operational data.

While large language models continue to advance rapidly, many organizations still struggle to combine unstructured data (i.e. documents, images, and logs) with structured operational systems like customer databases and transaction platforms. Krishnamurthy explains how vector search and hybrid database approaches are helping bridge this gap, allowing enterprises to query structured and unstructured data together without creating new silos.

The conversation highlights a growing shift in mindset: modern data teams must think more like search engineers, optimizing for relevance and usefulness rather than simply exact database results. At the same time, governance and trust are becoming foundational requirements, ensuring AI systems access accurate data while respecting strict security controls.

Operating at Google scale also reinforces the need for reliability, low latency, and correctness, pushing infrastructure toward unified storage layers rather than fragmented systems that add complexity and delay.

Looking toward 2026, Krishnamurthy argues the top priority for CIOs and data leaders is organizing and governing data effectively, because AI systems are only as strong as the data foundations supporting them.

The takeaway: AI success depends not just on smarter models, but on smarter data infrastructure.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how enterprises can operationalize AI at scale.

The data center industry is changing faster than ever. Artificial intelligence, cloud expansion, and high-density workloads are driving record-breaking energy and cooling demands. But behind every megawatt of compute capacity lies an equally critical resource: water.

As data halls evolve from static infrastructure to dynamic, service-driven ecosystems, cooling has emerged as one of the most powerful levers for efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. In this episode, Ecolab explores how Cooling as a Service (CaaS) is transforming data center operations, shifting cooling from a capital expense to a measurable, performance-based service that drives uptime, reliability, and environmental stewardship.

Tune in to hear experts discuss how data centers can future-proof their operations through a smarter, service-oriented approach to thermal management. From proactive analytics to commissioning best practices, this conversation dives into the technologies, partnerships, and business models redefining how cooling is managed and measured across the world’s most advanced digital infrastructure.