By Business & Finance 
Brian Roe is CEO of Servecentric, a privately Irish owned company that provides a self-service cloud platform and a wide range of Data Centre and managed IT services for clients to customise their IT solutions.
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
My priority is ensuring that Servecentric continues to grow. That means acquiring new business projects, delivering services from secure, resilient, and accessible infrastructure which enable efficient customer operations.
Additionally, we engage in continuous improvement to create additional value for our broad range of clients – for example, through new connectivity services, bespoke support arrangements, and cloud services.
What are your biggest challenges as CEO?
Servecentric is quite unique in that we are a small, privately owned company competing directly for projects with multinational data centre and public cloud providers. Due to the fact that our customer base (and target audience) is global, one of our biggest challenges is getting the message out there and staying on the radar for potential service users as they reach the selection stage of their buying processes, particularly when competing with big budget marketing and advertising.
How do you keep your team/staff motivated?
We operate as a closely aligned team. I believe that providing clarity and transparency around all elements of the business helps to create real empowerment. Similarly, offering recognition and specific feedback establishes a healthy work environment. At Servecentric, we strive to be flexible and understanding of everyone’s individual needs, and the focus is on outcomes.
What are the challenges facing the industry going forward?
At a macro level, the greatest challenge facing the data centre industry relates to the expected growth requirements over the next few years. While data centre efficiency continues to improve, both in existing facilities and new builds (largely driven by regulation), the actual power requirements are growing exponentially as a result of AI demands. How we meet this demand globally with clean renewable energy sources remains the biggest question.
What new trends are emerging in your industry?
Over the past number of years, we have seen mass migration of workloads to cloud and the implementation of “cloud-first” and “cloud-only” strategies. There is now a clear intent by CIOs to reverse these migrations – known as cloud repatriation – due to concerns around escalating costs, cybersecurity, compliance, and inefficiency.
The key is finding the approach that works for the specific requirements of your business.
Are there any major changes you would like to see in your sector?
It would be refreshing to see a change in public perception. While cloud-based services are power hungry, they have also had a direct downward impact on the carbon footprint of other industries.
For example, online collaboration and remote working, made possible by data centres, has significantly reduced commercial travel for the business community globally, but this isn’t typically part of the narrative.
As an employer, are you finding any skill gaps in the market?
We are very fortunate that Ireland has become Europe’s primary melting pot of innovation in the IT space and, while the market remains under-resourced, we have always managed to attract the people we need. We also work in close collaboration with several specialist organisations to fill skills gaps as needed.
How did your strategy develop in the context of the banking crisis and economic crisis?
One of the outcomes of the banking crisis was the growth of indigenous technology startups. Servecentric actively supported this startup sector, particularly Irish companies, and some of these grew to become key customers that remain with us today.
How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your business/sector?
Generally, it had a positive impact on the data centre sector. The pandemic saw an explosion in online collaboration due to lockdown restrictions and while there have been some corporate reversals relating to remote/hybrid working, the data centre industry remains critical to business continuity across all industries.
As a data centre operator and internet service provider, Servecentric is considered critical infrastructure. Therefore, we were able to maintain an onsite presence in our own facility 24/7 during the pandemic, which was an important value-add to our clients who were, in the main, unable to travel during lockdown periods.
How do you define success, and what drives you to succeed?
I have always been driven by helping businesses to achieve their goals and the role our company can play in that. I’m uncomfortable pushing projects unless I’m 100% confident that we can deliver and exceed expectations and, to that end, we have developed a number of very significant, long-term customer relationships.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given in business?
Judge quickly by actions, not by words. If a customer, business partner, or supplier fails to deliver on promises, this is a behaviour that they are likely to repeat.
What advice would you give to others starting out in business?
Invoice and collect. Do not be afraid to charge for your time or effort from the start, nor be shy about collection. Too many organisations take advantage of credit, and this should be addressed early and firmly. Poor payers will break your spirit!
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
Two things I love are new business deals and positive customer feedback. Fortunately, we’ve signed some great new customers in the past year both abroad and in Ireland. Our people constantly deliver and, as a result, we regularly receive unsolicited positive feedback from customers which provides a boost to the whole team.
What’s next for your company?
We want to continue to deliver secure and resilient colocation, cloud, and connectivity platforms to our global client base from Dublin. To this end, we are currently in a planning application process to bring on an additional data centre facility that would increase our capacity to deliver innovative services for customers.
Where do you want your business/brand to be this time next year?
Hopefully we will be turning the sod on a new local facility and continuing to grow our cloud business in tandem. We’re excited for the future of Servecentric and we’ll be looking to further expand our business in 2025.
What is the best book you’ve ever read (non-business) and why?
Like favourite foods, it depends on the mood! I guess one of the best page-turners I ever read was Pierre Clostermann’s “The Big Show”, a French fighter pilot’s WW2 account.
What is your favourite hobby and why?
I’m an avid golfer and I like to stay close to nature by hiking. Also, I have been involved in coaching and managing underage teams in my local GAA club, Kilmacud Crokes, for over 10 years. This has kept me close to my children and allowed me to build some great friendships in a busy world full of distraction.
What is your mantra for life?
Enjoy the journey. I’ve seen too many people who, in my opinion, are focused on the end goal and don’t take the time to experience the present. Enjoy the things you love with the people you care about. Fun and success are not mutually exclusive!
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Caroline Jackson, CEO of Jacksonstone Recruitment
Tomás Sercovich, CEO of Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI)
