Olu Soluade, CEO @ AOS Consulting Engineers

Speaker: Olu Soluade, CEO, AOS Consulting Engineers, South Africa

Olu Soluade: I had the opportunity of attending the Accredited Tier Designer course organized by Uptime in 2010 in Chicago at the time of my attendance have actually started working on various data centers. But when it comes to Tier Certification, there was basically this detailed topology, but there was no example of what had been done before. So just sitting in the class in Chicago meeting all the Uptime advisors and consultants and all the other members that came all over the world from Canada and Africa was actually an eye-opening experience. I so much enjoyed the course. But one of the key things that happened, the key attribute of the course for me was the real life example of an application for Tier Certification of a data center somewhere else in the world. Just being in the class and getting the group to actually review that submission and giving inputs was actually a key thing for me in terms of the Uptime training. And based on that, the confidence of being able to do it was actually enhanced at that time. Also, the time when I did it in 2010 was also the period when the TCOS was actually officially launched, at the time, that also gave me opportunity when it comes to Operational Sustainability in terms of a data center experience. But fast forward, after the two weeks of the exam, and I received my result, I was very happy because I became the first one in Africa to be an ATD. In fact, my ATD number at the time was 181 which means that in the whole world, I was number 181 in terms of the ATD course and the ATD certification. Now fast forward to when Uptime started the seminar processes as well. In order to actually enhance your Tier understanding, I did all the first seminars from everywhere I did in Dubai, I did in Turkey and all that. And when the result came out and I became an ATD Expert that was also an enhancement and a testament of what the training from Uptime is all about. Now, let me tell you what has happened since then, we've been able to satisfy together with Uptime, about eight M&O sites in South Africa. We've satisfied various Tier III and Tier IV data centers in terms of TCDD and TCCF, just doing that alone has enhanced our capabilities and our capacity to be able to make a difference in everything that we do and to actually add value to our customer. Now, let me tell you the training offered by Uptime in terms of the Tier Certification, in terms of the TCOS, the M&O, and everything is actually an eye-opening experience. It is one thing for us to read the books on our own is another thing for us to attend the training. And when you do attend the training and you pay attention to it, I assure you that the gems that they're going to take out is actually going to be of value to even your clients that you'll be working with, not presently alone, but also to the future. So I want to encourage you as you plan and prepare your career in data center in Tier Certification and everything. I would like to encourage you that it is worth it, once again, it is worth it. My partnership with Uptime as an individual and as a company has actually yielded a lot of things for us globally. And as we move on, we know that we're adding value to our customers because of the training that we've subjected ourselves to with the Uptime curricula. I want to encourage you as you as you watch this video and as you make up your mind and decision, please do it. Enjoy it. You will be better off. This is Olu Soluade from AOS Consulting based out of South Africa. Thank you and enjoy it.