Service and Support Vendors
Data Center World 2027 · Nashville, TN · May 24-27
The shortlist is almost always written before the Request For Proposal. Be on it.
AI is changing what data center operators need from their partners faster than teams can keep up. So, more than ever, they're turning to outside specialists to fill expertise gaps.
Data Center World is where they come to find those specialists.
Every brand can reach operators. Few earn their trust.
Demand for specialist services is growing, from maintenance and managed operations to training, disaster recovery and consulting.
But with AI giving every brand almost endless reach, the in-person conversations that earn trust have never been worth more. That's why Request For Proposals rarely drive shortlists. Operators would rather work with providers they already know and trust.
That's where Data Center World comes in. Over four days in Nashville, operators come to learn about the market, compare approaches and meet the people behind the services they'll need.
attend to learn about the market
are more likely to consider buying from a vendor they saw at the show
say attending is important to their role
The operator side of the decision, in one room.
Data Center World brings operators together with the vendors and partners around them. You'll meet:
- Operator leadership: owners, executives and heads of data center strategy, deciding what gets built, retrofitted or outsourced
- Facilities and operations: facility managers and operations directors living with the staffing gaps and maintenance load, and often the first to ask a peer, "who do you use?"
- Engineering: data center, power and cooling engineers testing whether a provider really understands liquid cooling and high density
- Sustainability, risk and compliance: leads bringing in consultants, auditors and DR specialists as targets tighten and audits get tougher
Denser racks and stretched teams mean more work for the right partners.
The facilities behind AI are denser and hotter than ever, with the average rack density climbing to 27 kW, up from 16 kW a year earlier. 36% of operators already run liquid cooling, with another 28% planning to within two years.
That's made it hard for operators to hire or train staff fast enough to keep up. Nearly nine in ten operators say workforce gaps are affecting operations, and a third are outsourcing more as a result.
So, the decisions about who fills those gaps are being made now, in early conversations about projects that haven't been scoped yet.
Source: AFCOM State of the Data Center 2026
Specialists get remembered. Generalists get compared.
Be known as a data center specialist
Get your name in front of the operators planning their next projects, as the team that already understands their facilities.
Shape the requirement
The provider who explains the problem usually writes the spec. Help an operator frame what it needs, and you shape what it asks for.
Prove it in person
Response times, certifications and 24/7 cover read the same on paper. A conversation with your engineers, instructors or consultants lifts you out of a line-by-line price comparison.
Meet the referral network
OEMs, contractors and integrators often recommend service partners to operators. They're on the same floor, so you can build both sets of relationships at once.
The shortlist for 2027 is being written in Nashville. Make sure your name is on it
Let's work out what a presence at Data Center World 2027 should look like for your team.