• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Dan Thompson

S&P Global Market Intelligence

Principal Research Analyst

Dan Thompson is a principal research analyst in the 451 Research technology research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. He leads the Datacenter Services and Infrastructure team, which is charged with keeping tabs on the datacenter industry globally to better understand its trends and growth areas. His research includes analyses of datacenter providers, market size and supply/demand in key and emerging markets around the world.  Most recently, he has been investigating the impact of artificial intelligence on the datacenter industry, and what needs to change in order to accomodate this new workload time. Dan also provides coverage of datacenter providers offering services beyond colocation, such as managed and cloud-type services. Dan also provides research on the sustainability of the datacenter industry. Beyond just renewable energy purchasing and carbon offsetting, he has been investigating full life cycle emissions, including supply chain emissions, as well as efficiency gains and water usage.

Before joining S&P Global Market Intelligence, Dan spent 15 years as a practitioner in the IT industry, the last 10 years at a top managed/cloud service provider. Dan has worn many hats in the IT world, from systems administration to management, and was most recently an enterprise architect. In that role, he not only assisted in the launch of the company's security practice, but also created security-specific products and designed security into every solution launched to the customer base. In addition to a good many IT industry certifications, Dan currently holds degrees in network security and forensics and information technology.

Sessions With Dan Thompson

Monday, 18 March

  • 05:30pm - 06:10pm (CST) / 18/mar/2024 10:30 pm - 18/mar/2024 11:10 pm

    What Will Be the Power Demand for AI?
    Digitalization/AI/Machine Learning/Robotics/Cybersecurity

    Artificial Intelligence has the capabilities of changing the way the energy industry operates. But this technology requires an enormous amount of power. How are energy companies responding to this increase in demand? What are some solutions to help mitigate the massive power requirements?

Thursday, 21 March

  • 08:30am - 09:15am (CST) / 21/mar/2024 01:30 pm - 21/mar/2024 02:15 pm

    S&P Global | Mapping the Future: Generative AI, energy demand and data center expansion

    Is artificial intelligence all hype? When considering the growth projections associated with AI—and the necessary infrastructure to support it—it might be easy to think that, but there are indicators to prove it’s not. In this session, we’ll look at why Generative AI is different from previous waves of AI and what the specific drivers are for power demand. We’ll also explore the role of energy companies across the United States and review our projections for datacenter growth associated with AI, to give a glimpse into what the near-term ramifications will be. 

  • 01:30pm - 02:10pm (CST) / 21/mar/2024 06:30 pm - 21/mar/2024 07:10 pm

    Governance & Regulation of AI

    The rapid increase in the use of AI (and generative AI) has exposed us to the risks associated with this technology and the need for governance and regulation. Key principles being discussed in several forums on the subject, center around frameworks that focus on transparency, accountability and oversight. Many questions remain open for discussion. Should we rely on national or international standards and regulations, or should companies develop their own? How can we develop ethical standards that allow AI participants to innovate while ensuring safety risks are managed?