Interview with Rebecca Weekly, VP of Infrastructure at GEICO | Women in Data Centers

Interview with Rebecca Weekly, VP of Infrastructure at GEICO | Women in Data Centers

AFCOM: What does your day-to-day look like? What are your favorite parts of your job?

Well, I probably came by the desire to play with hardware earlier than a lot of humans. I started playing with robotics when I was a kid, and then got into building my first server when I was 12, running a BBS service. I’ve definitely always loved tinkering with servers, which is probably how I ended up in data centers. I also studied electrical engineering. I started by doing silicon developments in processor companies, and then my desire to keep learning one kind of level of context above what I knew just meant I kept seeing more parts of the industry.

After I learned about silicon development, I was like, oh, I really want to understand the system that's going into. How are the systems built? How are they networked? What are they connecting to? What are the challenges? Where are they making those connections? What do we understand about upstream fiber and the building monitoring systems? What's actually happening to make the cloud run? Every opportunity felt like a chance to learn more.

AFCOM: What do you like about the industry? What industry trends or emerging technologies have made you the most excited?

It's such an incredible industry, because there is so much happening…from silicon to systems to the data centers, there are constant opportunities to learn. There's innovations in DevOps 24/7, and there's innovations in power heating and cooling. So, if you're like me and love to get excited about new tools and techniques and technologies, this is an ideal day job

There are clearly amazing opportunities in terms of development efficiency, operational efficiency, and automation that AI is enabling. It's an incredible time to be in the domain space of transformation with those tools coming online.

If we are talking about exciting tech in terms of that domain space, for me, the most exciting part is thinking about the complexity of legacy stacks and transformation, and the complexity of DevOps stacks in all the different clouds. Stitching this stuff together is incredibly hard and these tools are making it significantly easier.

There’s also so much innovation happening around power delivery and clean power and sustainable data center practices, from green concrete through to circular economy and open firmware. We can recycle and upcycle servers for 2nd life and, you know, as a person in this world that's exciting. I know our data centers are using something like 10% of the world's energy, but if they continue on the trajectory they've been growing at, by 2030 they'd be using about 25-30% of the world’s consumption of energy. That's not a sustainable trajectory to be on if we don't continue to get more efficient and continue to find more renewable sources for these power-hungry environments. AI has exacerbated that problem.

AFCOM: In your opinion, how can the industry encourage and empower more women to start a career in data centers?

I do believe representation matters, and I believe exposure matters, and I think one of the problems we have is we have a stereotype of a programmer, a stereotype of somebody who operates in data centers, that doesn't match. The numbers of women in tech are still moderately depressing, but it doesn't match the actuality of the industry.

We're starting to see STEAM programs and general programs that are reaching out to girls and marginalized people in general. Organizations like "Women Who Code" are trying to build representation within underrepresented communities to help them see people like themselves in this industry.

But the most important thing is that we have to affect the pipeline. We are only getting 20% of women into electrical engineering, closer to 30% in computer science, but in electrical engineering which is the bigger feeder for data centers (whether syndicated systems design or development) The other big feeder is the facility side or construction, but those avenues have even fewer women. We need to begin outreach during puberty...when women become more cognizant of the perceptions people have of us.

We need to keep women engaged in math and science throughout their education, and that is true of women and all marginalized people. We need to keep them engaged in the critical underpinnings of what it's going to take to have them be successful and engineering careers. And then in college, they need to have opportunities to get their hands on context.

Internships offer valuable experience. Getting into the industry and getting your hands on real problems and seeing the impact is absolutely going to help us retain that talent into the industry. Then we need to keep hiring diverse people at every level, because diverse people have diverse networks.

AFCOM: What advice would you provide to young professionals looking to start a career in the data center industry?

The best piece of advice I've received is to not take it personally. 

You get a lot of feedback, whether it's implicit or explicit, and you just have to remember, it's not all about you. I think I took everything far too personally and thought everything was an indication of my intelligence. And you know, unfortunately or fortunately, life is much more complicated than that. There are 1 million different factors that lead to success: not just your hard work, not just your intelligence, but your communication, your presentation. Work will teach you things that you won't learn in your education, about what success looks like. And that feedback is a gift.

Yeah, trying to park the hurt and just focus on the input. Input will help you self-correct to get to a successful phase. And it's very simple advice. It's just, it's probably not about you.

Please keep an eye out for the next release of our "Women in Data Centers" interview series.