Bruce Owen’s full circle: Global tech leader returns to root for Africa's digital future

African countries lag significantly behind G20 nations in digital infrastructure, a gap that threatens to deepen economic inequalities across the continent. Bruce Owen, the South African-born EMEA President of Equinix, one of the world’s largest digital infrastructure companies, is determined to change that. In an interview with BizNews, Owen reflects on his journey from backpacking through Europe to leading one of the UK’s most secure data centres. Now based in London, he oversees Equinix’s operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and is spearheading efforts to expand the company’s footprint on the continent. Equinix opened its first International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Germiston, South Africa, in October 2024, a strategic move to strengthen local connectivity and support digital transformation. “As a proud South African, there’s nothing I want more than to bring robust digital infrastructure to the continent,” Owen said. He also expressed renewed optimism about South Africa’s energy future, citing improved governance and a more stable outlook for the national grid. 

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Edited transcript of the interview

Linda van Tilburg (00:00)

At BizNews, we love to feature South Africans who turn local grit into international leadership. And Bruce Owen is one of them. He is the president of Equinix, a media company overseeing digital infrastructure. Equinix is the world's largest digital infrastructure company. Its data centres are where the internet lives. Well, Bruce is joining us to unpack what that means. How did it start? How did a South African become the president of EMEA of Equinix?

Bruce Owen (00:36)

Well, hi Linda, thanks for having me. Yeah, it was a winding journey. Like many South Africans, I finished university and decided I wanted to go backpacking. I started, I became a chartered accountant, and I left South Africa to travel for what I thought would be one year. I worked for someone who gave me a six-month opportunity in a finance team. I worked for six months, backpacked for six months, and on my way back to South Africa, she called and said, "Hey, I've got another assignment for you." And so my wife and I ended up staying in London for a period of time. And she ended up calling me after a few years and said, I'm at this company called Equinix, and I had no idea what it was. Do you want to join it? I've been with the company for 16 years, taking on various roles and opportunities, and now lead Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for us.

Linda van Tilburg (01:37)

So where did it start? In Johannesburg?

Bruce Owen (02:11:715)

Yeah, I grew up in Jo'burg. I went to King Edward's and after that I studied at RAU, now UJ. And then I began my article in Johannesburg. I met my wife, who was at Sandown High. And we decided to just go and explore the world for a little while and then return home. And we're still exploring the world.

Linda van Tilburg (02:00)

Were you always interested in the digital landscape?

Bruce Owen (02:03)

I didn't know much about it. When I got into data centres, in fact, I came out of working for a media and advertising agency. And so when I joined Equinix, I learned very quickly. I was in the finance team. But I quickly grew this passion for it because I realised the power of what digital infrastructure does in that absolutely everything that we do that's digital resides physically within a building somewhere, and I could see the opportunity that the world was moving digital. And if I sat within that space, I would have a role to play in shaping the digital landscape. And that was incredibly exciting. So, like most people, 16 years ago, I didn't know what a data centre was, and I was the same. And now I'm steeped in it daily, and I really enjoy the journey.

Linda van Tilburg (02:50)

 Were there any people who helped you on this path?

Bruce Owen (03:44.461)

There are so many, you know, I believe in that saying around iron sharpens iron. And I think I was very fortunate to grow up in a very loving and encouraging household. The school I went to give me an amazing foundation. And I met a lot of great friends there that I wanted to be like, and the same at university and then in the workplace. Over my career, I've just tried to be around people who are smarter and better than me, which is not difficult. And through that, you just become a little better and sharper yourself. 

So, I'd say it's a host of mentors. And then at Equinix itself, Equinix is now a Fortune 500 company. We operated 270 data centres in 36 countries. And over that time, I was fortunate to work for three different CEOs at three different stages of our growth. I took a bit from each of them in terms of how to lead through different stages of a company's evolution.  I was very fortunate in that regard.

Linda van Tilburg (04:06)

Do you bring any unique traits from being a South African to your career?

Bruce Owen (04:10)

Probably, it's hard not to stereotype, but I think some of the elements that I think about with South Africa are the grittiness, a grit and a determination to succeed. I think I've carried that with me. I think there's also this desire to problem solve, and no problem is too big. And that largely comes from a healthy perspective. In South Africa, we have all seen and experienced things that are atypical. The combination of that is typically a winning formula. And so I try to apply that in my work daily.

Linda van Tilburg (04:57)

There's a lot of discussion these days about data centres that consume a significant amount of power. So, how do you envision the future of data centres? What direction are you going into?

Bruce Owen (05:10)

Yeah, it's a great question. There's no doubt that data centres consume a lot of energy. But if you look at every stage of the dramatic evolution of society and economies, it's been underpinned by access to power. And whether that's fire at the very start of humanity, to coal and steam, to now where we sit, to the advent of electricity.

AI truly has the ability to change the course of human history, but it requires access to power. So there's a race right now within every single nation to have the power necessary to fuel data centre growth because it underpins economic growth. And so what that leads to is thinking about the integration of data centres into the fabric of city design and into the fabric of our society.

I spend a lot of my time with various governments around the world helping think through what an integrated strategy looks like for data centres integrated into the fabric of what we have, like critical national infrastructure in the same way you would have schools or hospitals, data centres are just core to the fabric. And so I think that's what the future looks like: a much more integrated way of thinking about digital infrastructure as a part of our daily existence.

Linda van Tilburg (06:31)

Well, you're also head of Africa for Equinix. So how does Africa meet this demand for data centres?

Bruce Owen (07:18.313)

Yes.

Bruce Owen (06:42)

Yeah, I mean, the one really good thing about Africa is that necessity is the mother of invention. And so, we've seen a lot of innovation coming out of Africa because of the scarcity and reliability of access to power. And so, you see a lot of innovation around alternative forms of energy, like on-site power generation, wind, solar or other forms. So, I think it's really inspiring to see the depth of talent in Africa. 

I'm very optimistic about Africa and its potential due to the sheer volume of the population, the depth of talent, and the limited access to connectivity right now. And so as you bring connectivity and access into a continent which is lagging behind the other continents, I think the potential is enormous. 

At Equinix, we have 10,000 customers. We typically build where they want us to go. And if you think about those 10,000 customers, it's a majority of the Fortune 500. So the biggest companies you can imagine are our customers. And it's encouraging that they want to be in Africa. So we have a presence in West Africa, and just recently, with the new build in Johannesburg. And we're confident about our ability to build and scale there over the coming decade, which is exciting. And as a proud South African, I want nothing or nothing more to bring connectivity and digital infrastructure to the continent.

Linda van Tilburg (08:14)

Let's talk about South Africa and data centres and how we're going to power them. So, are there unique challenges for South Africa in particular?

Bruce Owen (08:22)

Yeah, well, South Africa, if you look at the history of the last few years around rolling blackouts, data centres need to stay up 24-7. And so, we guarantee to our customers that we have five nines of uptime, which means 99.999 % of the time the data centre is running. And so, what happens if there is a power cut? We move on to a secondary power feed. And if that cuts, we move to battery and generator backup.

You’ve got to really build resilience into data centres because if emergency services are dependent on it or banking or education or anything that we do daily, we can't tolerate an outage.  South Africa is unique in the fact that it's suffered more from a breakdown of electrical infrastructure. But I've actually really started to see that change, and the investment is different. 

There are different levels of governance over it. And so I'm feeling more optimistic about the future of the electrical grid in South Africa. But these bets that we take are not two to three-year bets. We are building for the next 25 years, and so I think the longer-term trajectory in South Africa and other African nations is actually encouraging.

Linda van Tilburg (09:40)

What kind of source do you think this power is going to come from? Well, for everybody, but also for Africa in particular, does nuclear play a role?

Bruce Owen (09:51)

The way we think about it, if I look at our global footprint, we have made a commitment to be at 100 % renewable energy by 2030, and now we are at 96%. We typically do that by trying to get clean energy off the grid. So, whether that's wind or solar, and then we will make up the difference through high-quality power purchase agreements. In South Africa, it's heavily dependent on coal. And so think we've got to, over time, migrate off our dependence on coal.

And nuclear, in my view, needs to be an important part of that equation. And so I would imagine a future that is a combination of nuclear, wind, and solar, because it really is an equation that we globally have to solve, especially when you look at the demand for electricity over the coming decade.

Linda van Tilburg (10:41)

And I watched you on CNN, where you were going through one of your data centres, and it seemed all very secretive about what it is. Is security a massive issue?

Bruce Owen (10:49)

Yeah, so it's less about secrecy and more about security. If you think about the workloads or the applications that are running in our facilities, they are the most trusted workloads that are digital. Every nation will be placing its workloads with us. Most companies will have their workloads with us. And therefore, you want to really protect those assets. Our logo is actually a fortress because we take great pride in being the fortress where companies and governments can place their most critical infrastructure. And so yes, you need five layers of security before you get anywhere near a piece of IT equipment. And it's constantly evaluated and scrutinised. And so we take security very, very seriously.

Linda van Tilburg (11:40)

How do you keep on inventing because that seems to be you've always got to be on the front foot.

Bruce Owen (11:46)

Yeah, well, we have 14,000 people in our workforce and incredible talents. And I get to come in every day and work with this group of people. But our customers are expecting us to evolve really quickly. So you see the level of innovation happening in real time. You have to run data centres far more efficiently than you used to run them. Historically, you could just have a building and have some computers in it. They're now purpose-built and AI-ready.

We have different forms of cooling because we are really able to manage the efficiency of how we consume energy. You have technologies that actually have liquid cooling. So, you are applying liquid directly onto the computer chip in order to cool it. So, those are some of the things that are taking place in the industry. And as the leader in this, we see it as our responsibility to be innovating in a way that shapes the future of the digital world.

Linda van Tilburg (12:43)

What are your aspirations for Equinix? Where do you want it to go in the future?

Bruce Owen (12:48)

We've been in business 27 years and over that time, I'd say, we've built up a footprint over these 270 data centres, and our commitment right now to our customers is to double that footprint in the next five years. And so that's the ambition. So, we will do in the next five years what we've taken 27 years to do. And we will continue to be the most trusted place to place your digital assets and run your applications and your workloads in an environment that is safe and highly interconnected.

Linda van Tilburg (13:22)

 If there's some South African kid who tells his mom, " I want to pack my bag, I want to go and tour Europe, and she says, nah, don't waste your life, I can say, No, look what happened to Bruce Owen. He went backpacking, and now look, he's like the president of EMEA of EQUINIX.

Bruce Owen (13:40)

Well, thank you. I had no idea that this would happen this way. And so I feel incredibly thankful. And I think I would have been that little kid that would have loved to have heard that because it took me a long time to gain the confidence in myself that, you know what, we can achieve great things. And it doesn't matter where you come from or what your background is. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.