Interview with Melissa Olson, Business Development Manager for Belimo | Women in Data Centers

Interview with Melissa Olson, Business Development Manager for Belimo | Women in Data Centers

AFCOM: What drew you to work in tech in general?

I ended up in data centers by accident. My degree is in mechanical engineering and thermodynamics, which is how I ended up in heating and air conditioning. I worked in that space for 17 years before a friend in data centers called me for help and that's how I started in the industry. That was about three and a half years ago, and I’ve been full-time in data centers ever since.

AFCOM: What emerging technologies or trends are most exciting to you right now?

Liquid cooling. There’s just so much going on in test labs and there's so much that is no longer theoretical, but it's still very much in what I would call a beta stage and there are so many competing viewpoints right now.

If I were to go back, even 18 months ago, there was this mindset that immersion was just going to take over everything. Now, what I'm seeing, at least based on the customers that we work with, immersion is definitely out there, but I see a lot more applications for cold plate, both single phase and phase two cold plate. A lot of places aren't going full-bore immersion or they got burned on immersion somehow because of the different dielectric fluids or concerns with compatibility. There was an easier transition to cold plate it seems than immersion for some customers. It's just very interesting to see how it's progressing.

AFCOM: What would you say is your greatest career achievement? And what is something you hope to achieve in the next five to ten years?

That’s a surprisingly difficult question. I don't know how to answer the greatest career achievement. A lot of it really would come down to the value I put on contributing. It’s not so much a single achievement, but the ability to contribute to having more efficient and sustainable data centers. So much of what I get frustrated about is all of these companies that have ESG goals and then they continue to design data centers the same way they've always designed them when there's so much that can be improved. Being able to contribute to a more sustainable future for data centers is what I find most value in.

As far as what I hope to accomplish? I just want to continue contributing to a more sustainable future, as well as supporting other women in data centers.

Otherwise, we started a group in Silicon Valley for women in data centers. Some of the women I've encountered don't know what it looks like for them, especially if they're in data center operations. They don't know what it looks like when they have a family, and they express a lot of concerns around having a family and a fulltime job in data centers. Helping support them and helping them find career paths that allow them to do both is something that I hope to continue to do.

AFCOM: What challenges have you faced as a woman in the data center industry? What do you think can be done to encourage women and other marginalized identities to enter the data center industry?

I think the first thing is exposure. I don't know a single person who set out to say I'm going into data centers. Most people don’t even know what a data center is. You know, people know about the cloud, but most people don’t think about the cloud as a building. So getting into classrooms and talking about data centers at a younger age is critical.

There were so few women in mechanical engineering. The college I went to was 6% women in the mechanical engineering program. In data centers, the number is even less. My personal experience coming into data centers was fairly difficult. I've been in the data center industry and mechanical engineering industry for 17 years and they are very male dominated. The data center industry is one of the biggest boys' clubs I've ever seen. Had I been new in the industry, right out of college, right out of a trade program, I don't know if I would have stayed in data centers because of the way the environment is. So that's the other thing that I've been very passionate about is how we change that. Thinking about how we support women in data centers and then how we encourage women in data centers to stay in the industry.

AFCOM: Do you have advice you could offer women in the industry?

My biggest advice would be to get involved in professional organizations like AFCOM and 7x24 and to build a network. Building your own network and seeking out others in the industry to help support you would be my number one recommendation.

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