The Marine Corps teaches you a lot of things, composure in uncertainty, mental agility and a strong bias for action are chief among them. It taught me to keep critical systems running under pressure, follow procedures to the letter and lead a team when the stakes are high. Those skills have carried me through a range of careers across the three pillars of Charlotte’s economy: insurance, financial industries and motorsports. Each role sharpened my skills, eventually leading me to a career where, very much like the Marine Corps, reliability mattered every hour of every day.
In 2016, I started managing engineering operations at a data center in the heart of downtown Charlotte. After a decade at the data center, can confidently say that, despite everything we’re seeing in the media, data centers are here to stay.
Data centers play an integral role in our modern, industrialized society. They securely house the information our hospital, financial and national security systems run on. It matters that they are built and operated right here on American soil.
That is especially true in North Carolina. Charlotte is the nation’s second-largest banking center and home to several of our nation’s largest banks. Every deposit, wire transfer, and card swipe processed here depends on digital infrastructure that can’t go down. Our hospital systems, research universities, and the military installations in eastern North Carolina rely on that same backbone.
But beyond their core role in everyday life, many people don’t realize that data centers open doors.
For veterans like me, several major data center companies offer a program that eases veterans into company roles through partnerships with Redeployable and SkillBridge programs. At some of the major companies, nearly 1 in 5 of their U.S. workers have military experience.
I never saw myself in the data center industry but I’ve stayed because I find the work engaging. Notably, I’ve built my career at an urban data center, these smaller-scale facilities in or near cities put digital infrastructure closer to the people and industries that use it. In a city like Charlotte, where financial institutions depend on speed and reliability, that proximity matters. In my opinion, it’s an evolution of data center growth.
Data center facilities constantly need more technicians and engineers, and many operators offer strong training programs to develop talent from the ground up. Importantly, the key skills learned through military service, including discipline, attention to detail, calm under pressure, and leadership, are the same ones that keep data centers running day in and day out.
North Carolina is uniquely positioned to meet his demand. Our state is home to 615,000 veterans, the eighth-largest veteran population in the county. Roughly 20,000 service members finish their military service here and begin civilian careers every year, coming out of Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point, Seymour Johnson and our other installations. These veterans are a work-ready talent pool that can meet this demand without needing an extensive training ramp. In return, the data center industry offers growth-oriented careers, in Charlotte and in rural counties that support critical functions to our state and cities.
Veterans Day is a time to honor those who served, and gratitude matters. But the most impactful way to honor a veteran is to offer opportunity. In North Carolina, data centers open doors, and veterans are ready to take on the challenge.
- Wade Hanna, Operations Manager, Digital Realty