Meet the Market: Infrastructure, Security and the Practical Realities of AI
Tue 3 Mar 2026
Across enterprise technology, the conversation around AI often centres on possibility. Less visible, but equally important, are the operational consequences.
Higher compute density is reshaping data centre design. Identity-led threats continue to expose gaps in security fundamentals. Infrastructure teams and cyber leaders are responding to pressures that are technical, financial and organisational at the same time.
In Meet the Market, we highlight practitioners working at the centre of these developments. The aim is straightforward: to understand how change is being managed in practice, and what that means for enterprise decision-makers.
The first two conversations explore different parts of the stack, yet they surface a shared reality. Complexity is increasing, and isolated responses are no longer sufficient.
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Designing for Density and Durability
Bertrand Rotagnon, Executive Director Commercial Business Line & Data Centres Europe at Carrier, describes a landscape where AI workloads are placing sustained pressure on physical infrastructure.
Rising chip density has implications for cooling strategy, energy use and long-term resilience. In many environments, conventional air-based models are being reconsidered in favour of liquid cooling and more integrated control systems. Yet the technical shift is only one part of the picture.
What comes through clearly is the importance of lifecycle thinking. Cooling solutions sit within a broader operational ecosystem that includes service continuity, efficiency targets and evolving regulatory expectations. Decisions made today must remain workable as architectures and workloads continue to change.
In that context, infrastructure planning becomes less about equipment specification and more about adaptability over time.
Bertrand’s full interview explores how operators are navigating that balance.
Security Fundamentals in a More Coordinated Threat Landscape
Andy Travers, Regional VP, EMEA North Sales at Sophos, approaches the conversation from the security side of the enterprise. The pressures are different, but the pace of change is comparable.
Attack patterns are increasingly coordinated, often exploiting weaknesses that are neither new nor technically sophisticated. Identity remains a consistent entry point. Multi-factor authentication is not yet universal. Known vulnerabilities are left unaddressed for too long.
Advanced detection capabilities are developing quickly, but Andy’s perspective repeatedly returns to fundamentals. Shared intelligence, clearer visibility and disciplined operational practice are as important as any new tool. Security strategy must evolve alongside infrastructure, not as a parallel function.
His interview examines how organisations can strengthen their position without losing sight of practical constraints.
A Connected Set of Challenges
Infrastructure density, cooling design, identity protection and operational discipline are often discussed separately. In reality, they are interdependent.
As AI becomes more embedded across the enterprise, the relationship between physical systems and digital risk becomes more apparent. Performance gains bring energy implications. Distributed environments expand attack surfaces. Decisions in one domain have consequences in another.
Meet the Market will continue to surface perspectives from across the portfolio, focusing on how practitioners are responding to these pressures in real organisations. The intention is not to predict the future, but to understand how it is being built.
