Data and AI
Beyond automation: How agentic AI is reshaping IT delivery
Article
May 14, 2026
AI adoption, analytics workloads and low-latency application requirements are driving unprecedented demand for data center capacity. Governments and private industries have responded with attempts to meet these needs. But building data centers takes time, powering them is not always easy, and allocating workloads has become increasingly complicated as security, data sovereignty and environmental regulations continue to evolve.
In short, enterprise infrastructure strategies have never been more challenging. Here, Joe Capalbo, Vice President of Data Center Strategy and Operations at Kyndryl, details how the company’s data center strategy delivers flexible, cost-effective hybrid infrastructure to organizations needing turnkey solutions that ramp up quickly and evolve to meet changing needs.
How is Kyndryl helping customers address today’s enterprise data center challenges?
Joe Capalbo: We’re seeing increasing demand for data center capacity from our customers at the same time regulatory requirements for security and resiliency intensify. These include keeping workloads within specific jurisdictions, managing carbon footprints and controlling costs. We’re evolving our approach to meet these changes in the market by delivering immediate, service-enabled capacity through Colocation Services, combined with the operational expertise to run mission-critical environments. We support on-prem and cloud-adjacent architectures side-by-side, and we help customers evolve at their own pace without compromising resiliency, compliance or performance.
This flexibility is critical as organizations modernize infrastructure to support AI-enabled workloads, real-time analytics, and high-performance applications requiring scalable compute capacity and low-latency connectivity.
Kyndryl’s data center model has positioned us for this moment. In addition to decades of mainframe and hybrid cloud expertise, our partner ecosystem enables us to provide services that are right-sized and fit-for-purpose. We bring together space, power, connectivity and onsite support in select locations to give customers a fast path to operational IT without added complexity. Kyndryl can provide the proximity, performance and regulatory compliance that customers need. In addition, in some key geographic locations, we have power that can enable new builds to co-create for specific customer needs.
We help customers evolve at their own pace without compromising resiliency, compliance or performance.
What are the specific components of Kyndryl’s data center strategy, and what differentiates it from traditional colocation?
Capalbo: It’s all about centering on the customer and delivering operational outcomes. Today, we host and support customers in our data center facilities as well as with our colocation partners to deliver the right solution for customers. As a managed service company, we can offer customers our advanced suite of infrastructure, operational, and modernization services, along with co-location hosting. By offering capacity in our data centers, we give customers additional choices in a constrained market for enterprise workloads. We help customers secure the right capacity, in the right locations, with the expertise needed to support mission-critical workloads.
In select Kyndryl-owned data centers, we can offer customers the ability to co-create bespoke solutions. This allows customers to design and create the fit-for-purpose environment they need. Customers benefit from shared capital advantages, accelerated deployment, hybrid connectivity and long-term scalability. They also benefit from shared operating costs and efficiencies across Kyndryl’s ecosystem.
Let’s talk about environmental sustainability.
Capalbo: It’s essential for enterprises to incorporate sustainability metrics and strategies into core planning. In fact, Kyndryl’s Global Sustainability Barometer Study indicates that 85% of organizations rank environmental sustainability as a top strategic priority. Improved energy efficiency is better for the environment and can lead to new market opportunities. That’s why Kyndryl embeds operational efficiency and energy optimization directly into our modernized data center strategy. Our strategy is built around operational efficiency, portfolio optimization, decarbonization and ESG-aligned services for customers. Rather than treating sustainability as a standalone initiative, Kyndryl embeds it directly into how we select, operate, modernize and exit data center assets.
