Upcoming Industry Events

Panel: Building Iraq's digital future

Date: February 9, 2026, 14:05-14:50

Speaker: Homere Debs, Business Development Director, Uptime Institute

Location: Al Wasl Ballroom

Abstract: Iraq is a market with massive potential for digital infrastructure investment, not only as a transit route but also as a growing consumer of digital services. We are seeing significant government support for new AI data centres, the national backbone network, and a comprehensive strategy to drive FTTH, along with growing private sector investment.

• How is the state-owned backbone network supporting increased fibre deployment?
• How are international companies evaluating investment within Iraq?
• What will it take to see significant data centre deployments within Iraq?

Panel: Fast-Track to Scale: designing data centres for high-density growth

Date: February 10, 2026 at 14:00-14:45

Speaker: Mustapha Louni, Chief Business Officer, Uptime Institute

Episode: Defining automation’s role in maintenance and cost reduction

Date: February 17, 2026, 9:00-10:00 ET

Speaker: Dr. Rand Talib, Research Analyst, Uptime Institute

Operational excellence often relies on the judgement of a professional, however the possibility of being able to automate certain procedures and utilize predictive analytics for proactive maintenance remains a key aspect of an operator’s toolbox. This episode will explore the potential of smarter operations through better data utilization and the foundations needed to make this a success. We will unpack:

• How to harness analytics to improve efficiency and reduce costs
• Where automation can deliver measurable savings within operations and maintenance
• The potential role of AI in streamlining operations
• Managing confidence and risks when introducing autonomous control

Session: Five Data Center Predictions for 2026

Date: February 26, 2026, 10:00-10:25

Speaker: Tomas Rahkonen, Research Director, Uptime Intelligence

Location: Stage 2

Panel: If we have all the data, why do operators still struggle to act? - Moving beyond DCIM to Universal Infrastructure & Operations Management

Date: March 4, 2026 at 11:40-12:10

Speaker: John O'Brien, Senior Research Analyst, Uptime Institute

Today’s data centres are awash with telemetry - generating streams of data across power, cooling, compute, network, security, and environmental layers. But more data hasn’t resolved operational hesitation - if anything, it’s amplified it. Operators are still second-guessing decisions, overprovisioning resources, and discovering critical dependencies only after failure. The challenge isn’t a lack of data, the challenge is fragmented infrastructure management, split by domain, constrained by tool, and siloed by team. This panel explores how Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM) redefines operational control, elevating infrastructure management from passive measurement to coordinated execution.

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Keynote: AI Factories: Planning, Designing, Building & Commissioning

Date: March 5, 2026 at 15:25-15:55

Speaker: Muhammad Naveed Saeed, Senior Vice President, Topology & Global Tier Authority, Uptime Institute

AI factories are redefining how data centers are conceived, delivered, and operated. In this session, we will explore the end-to-end lifecycle of AI infrastructure from early planning and design decisions through construction and commissioning, highlighting how AI workloads fundamentally change power, cooling, controls, and risk profiles. It focuses on the practical realities of delivering AI-ready facilities, exposing common assumptions that fail at high density and showing how integrated commissioning is essential to achieving performance, resilience, and scalability from Day One.

DCD>Debate: AI vs. human oversight - Is AI ready to run operations?

Date: April 20, 2026 | 13:30-14:15

Speaker: Mustapha Louni, Chief Business Officer, Uptime Institute