“Media companies demand cost-effective and scalable solutions. What we want to do is facilitate a global media ecosystem. I can't wait to realise this ambition.”
Media broadcast players face a major challenge with the ever-growing need for content that is on-demand and available worldwide. “What the media do, will not stop at the border. Media companies broadcast programmes across national borders, which requires a cost-effective and scalable solution to ensure sufficient bandwidth.” It's one of the reasons why Robert believes so much in LCL's ambition in the media sector. Partly because of the location, he sees a lot of opportunities. “If you look at Belgium, you can see that, in geographical terms, it's in the centre of all the big media hubs: the media parks in the Netherlands, London and Paris. LCL is a tremendously well-connected data center. Especially now with LCL's five data centers spread across Belgium. If a media broadcaster has to broadcast across multiple data centers and carriers, this is very expensive and often not scalable. The unique thing about LCL is that this is done via one link, saving costs and maximising scalability.”
LCL's data centers offer media broadcasters a flexible, future-proof solution. Robert: “A data center has many options available. Unlimited bandwidth can be purchased and delivered immediately. Everything is concentrated in one data center. Security is also extremely well organised in a data center. A data center is also energy efficient, which is important for media broadcasters who have a green energy policy. At LCL, we think it is very important that these conditions can be met. Our data centers have several advantages: scalability, security, sustainability, connectivity and a hybrid environment.”
The large connectivity network at LCL also makes the data center company unique, according to Robert. “LCL offers a lot of options when it comes to cloud players. Today, it is not enough to deploy a single cloud provider such as AWS. You see parties using Azure for an Office environment, for example, and also using AWS or Oracle for data storage. What's important for media companies is that they have the choice to go to dozens of cloud providers, preferably on-demand. Carriers are also hugely important. The relationship with carriers makes LCL the best connected data center in Belgium. This is something we foster and want to expand on.”
LCL is implementing the plans for the media sector together with Equinix. Robert: “Equinix has a cloud platform located in LCL's data center. Via this 'EQUINIX FABRIC™' platform, you can reach just about any cloud provider. And this can be done in a flexible way. For example, if you're expecting a high volume of data traffic for an event, you can turn the cloud services on and off and make sure they are scalable to handle large numbers of visitors.”
Collaboration between parties is another trend you see with media broadcasters. “At LCL, a media ecosystem is currently already available. We want to make this more visible and known to media broadcasters. They will increasingly need to work together to compete with international players. By working together, they can cut costs and take advantage of each other's services.” With Robert at the helm, LCL aims to provide a central, scalable and flexible link to media companies. “We want to facilitate a global media ecosystem by making sure that all that connectivity is available not just nationally, but globally, on-demand. I can't wait to realise this ambition.”
Robert's enthusiasm is apparent not only in his work, but also at the personal level. “I'm very eager to learn. If I'm going for something, I want to know everything about it.” He also instils this enthusiasm into building business relationships. “In order to serve customers well, you have to think creatively. You have to come up with solutions that are not obvious at first. But they might actually be there, if you start thinking differently.” Robert enjoys being closely involved with his clients. “Investing in business relationships is very important to me, because you have to be able to trust each other blindly. I personally think that the type of sales that used to be there, before the digital transformation, don't work anymore. We need a different kind of character now. Someone who is technically very capable and who can contribute ideas. Data centers are built on trust, so if you can provide technical advice in a trustworthy environment, you can really help customers achieve their goals.
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