What happens when a Navy submarine veteran challenges everything the data center industry thinks it knows? You get a conversation that's equal parts uncomfortable and essential. Tony Grayson doesn't just question industry assumptions, he dismantles them with the precision of someone who's managed 14-megawatt floating data centers under conditions most of us can't imagine.
Key Insights:
• Why veterans managing submarine IT infrastructure are the data center operators we desperately need but consistently overlook
• The uncomfortable truth about SMR timelines and why most nuclear promises won't deliver until it's too late
• How China's chip constraints forced innovation that outperformed OpenAI at a fraction of the cost and what that means for U.S. infrastructure
• Why we don't have a power problem, we have a distribution problem (and why that changes everything)
• The $300 billion distributed computing market that nobody's preparing for
• Why constraint-driven innovation beats throwing money at problems every time
• What happens when AI hardware cycles every 12 months but infrastructure planning spans decades
This isn't your typical industry conversation. Tony's background gives him permission to ask the audacious questions that make executives squirm: What's the actual ROI on massive AI campuses? Can we really manage 100,000 distributed sites? And why are we ignoring the workforce that's already proven they can handle complex technical systems under pressure?
By the end of this episode, you'll question whether the industry is building for the right future... or just the most expensive one.
Proudly sponsored by BCS Switchgear, Inc. WE ARE NOW AN OEM SWITCHBOARD MANUFACTURER UL-891
Connect with Tony Grayson:
tgrayson@northstartgi.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygraysonvet/
Apply to be a Guest or Sponsor and follow along:
https://beyondthemegawatt.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-the-megawatt-podcast
Connect with Mara:
https://www.marajadeconsulting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/datacenterchic/
Connect with Val:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-crafton-mba-0362b816/
https://valconsultants.com/