Ron Mann: Driving Efficiencies with Modular Solutions at TDIndustries

By Luke Lightning

April 17, 2023 

It's a new year, and we at Future Construct Podcast and BIM Designs, Inc. want to welcome you to 2023. This year, we'll dive deeper into the industry's hottest topics and cutting-edge technological advances as we interview some it's most insightful and forward-thinking leaders. To kickstart it, for Season 3, Episode 9, our host  Amy Peck (@AmyPeckXR)  was thrilled to welcome Ron Mann, the Vice President of Modular Systems at TD Industries, on to the show (22-minute interview). Ron and Amy engaged in a technologically profound conversation as they touched on many insightful topics during the interview, covering how may need to begin thinking differently about working with data and tech, AI deployment, how blockchain may push the industry forward, and Star Trek.

Click to listen to our interview on Apple, Spotify, or Google, or watch on our Facebook or YouTube channels.

About Ron Mann Ron Mann leads the Modular division and is responsible for business development, design and production of industrial and data center modular solutions. He has over 25 years of experience in product design, project development and manufacturing. Before joining TDIndustries, Ron was VP of Engineering at TAS Energy, Inc. developing modular IT data center and industrial solutions. Additionally, he helped to launch Vertiv's new data center infrastructure business and spent 20 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leading infrastructure and modular data center initiatives.

Ron has been a frequent speaker at multiple industry events promoting modular construction, is a member of the 7x24 Exchange, Infrastructure Masons and is a former HP Seat Holder with Gartner for modularity. He also holds a patent for high-density modular computer systems. Ron holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, Engineering Management from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University.

During the interview, Ron discussed numerous topics with host Amy Peck (@AmyPeckXR), including:

- A potential point at which we may have to think differently about how we work with data and progressing technology

- Whether artificial intelligence is being deployed and how it's being leveraged to balance redundancies

- How blockchain and racks of servers may become productized, whether that pushes the industry forward, and some dangers we could be missing

- How Star Trek influenced his origin story with technology

TDIndustries is a premier facilities services and mechanical construction company. Founded in 1946, they are well-positioned to exceed customers’ expectations on any project regardless of size, complexity, within budget and on time. Their expert services include engineering and design-build, mechanical construction, process piping, controls and building automation, building services and maintenance, off-site manufacturing, modular, and integrated facilities management. TDIndustries serves a variety of industries, most notably healthcare, data centers, hotels, schools, sports arenas, mission critical and industrial complexes.

Click to listen to our interview with Ron on Apple, Spotify, or Google, or watch on our Facebook or YouTube channels.

SHOW NOTES

0:12  - Amy Peck introduces Ron Mann, the Vice President of Modular Systems at TD Industries.

6:44  - Amy: "So just by your history, it's clear where you got your geek stripes, but the origin story might be right behind you. Can you tell us what's going on back there?"

9:00  - Amy: "On the technology side, data centers are everything right now. You mentioned Edge, Nvidia... Is there a point at which we have to fundamentally have to think differently about how we work with all of this data and technology? Is it going to be the data centers that we know today or are they going to be on a wafer?" 

13:25  - Amy: "So we've been talking about the evolution and optimizing and making data centers more efficient, and that work continues. Are you seeing AI (artificial intelligence) being deployed or have heard a lot of balancing around redundancies and leveraging AI to do that. You're saying some of these servers are at 95% capacity. How do you maintain critical up-time while offloading or managing compute?"

17:10  - Amy: "And how has blockchain and individual minors who are now putting racks of servers in their basements...that is the definition of inefficiency. Do you see that becoming productized, not necessarily from TDIndustries? Is that pushing things forward, or because there's so much experimentation with minors, there might be some dangers that we're missing?"

20:08  - Amy: "If you could project yourself 20 to 25 years into the future, and you could bring with you any product or service that would just make you personally happy or make your life better in some way, what would it be, and what would it do?"

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