Eric Boonstra

Kevlinx is a cutting-edge designer, builder and operator of sustainable, future proof, AI-ready data centres across Europe’s emerging digital hubs.

The company, which employs some of the most experienced data centre executives in Europe, is in the process of building a new 32MW+ data centre in Brussels, Belgium — BRU01 — which will serve enterprise, government and hyperscale AI customers.

At the helm of Kevlinx are CEO Eric Boonstra and COO Eric Lisica. 

Eric Boonstra’s data centre experience spans 16 years, joining Kevlinx in 2023 from Iron Mountain where he ran the European business, building and operating new data centres in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid. Before that he built EvoSwitch data centres as CEO for 10 years and sold it to Iron Mountain in 2018.

“Our goal is to build a platform and new data centres in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets in Europe, working with two major investors — Macquarie and PMV, who are also shareholders in the company — and opening our first new data centre in Brussels in Q4 this year,” he says.

“These are very exciting times.”

Eric Boonstra is a fan of challenges, launching himself into the industry initially with very little knowledge of how the market worked but with a ton of business experience. Now, with years behind him and while riding the AI wave, he has a front row seat to the rapid change happening before him.

“We face a lot of challenges,” he adds. “There's a lot of demand in the market for colocation, but the challenge is finding land and power in the right place to support the next phase of the digital economy.  We’re also here to empower talent, finding good people — which itself is quite a challenge — and streamlining the supply chain to ensure we get long lead items like generators on time.

“Above all this, it’s a great market with great demand. But in some countries data centres have a negative image. We have to put in a lot of effort to explain what we do and how data centres can be sustainable — and emphasise that they’re something you can't live without. Data runs the world.”

Eric Lisica’s passion for data centres is equally strong, having also joined from Iron Mountain in 2023 and bringing with him 25 years of industry experience.

 “At the turn of the millennium, nobody was prepared for a career in this industry,” he says. 

“These were the days when we all heard about this great new thing — called the internet — but nobody really understood what it was, how it worked and how it would develop.”

“At this time, some of my previous colleagues jumped over to this company called 

PSINet and I decided to join them in that adventure. I haven't regretted that choice.

“What I love is that every day is different. If you look at what's happening in this industry and the pace at which it is evolving — both from a technical perspective and also from a more legal compliance perspective — it's so incredibly dynamic and international. I think the combination of those two aspects is what keeps me very attached to this industry.” 

The ever-evolving nature of the business, despite being what Eric Lisica loves about the data centre industry and Kevlinx, is also one of the biggest challenges he faces in his role.

“If you look at the type of solutions that customers are asking us to deliver and the speed at which those environments are changing, that creates a lot of challenges,” he explains. “If you design and develop a data centre, you typically do that for a period of at least 15 years — but it also takes you at least 24 months to design and build that facility. 

“During those 24 months we see requirements from our customers continuing to change. This is probably one of the main challenges in the market, especially at the moment. Thinking about the specifications of your facility, which customers are you going to serve and making sure that your facility is future proof is something we as the data centre industry always have to consider.”

To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.

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