I recently had the chance to interview the people behind TerraScale, a green technology company that is reinventing the future of data center models. As data demands continue to grow and cyber threats increase at unprecedented rates, TerraScale places green energy digital infrastructure and cybersecurity at the center of its data center development project and solutions. Bringing together the best-in-class partners and service providers across technology, green engineering, cybersecurity, real estate, energy construction firms, and more, TerraScale modernizes businesses and communities around the world – creating digital infrastructure that is future-proof.
For my interview, I sat down with CEO and Board of Directors member Keary [Danny] Hayes, Dr. Max Narovlyansky, a member of the advisory board, and Dr. Umer Sayeed-Shah, another member of the Board of Directors. I simply wanted to get a feel for their business and what they hoped to accomplish.
Q: What is TerraScale?
A: [Mr. Hayes]: TerraScale is a new-age type company that focuses on green tech advancement for the better of mankind. What does that mean? We’re focused right now on building large infrastructure that can help bring the zero carbon goals of the planet here, that we have, that are very needed, into real live action. Some of the things we’re working on at this time are data centers, specifically, and also, specifically, putting big data from medical into these data centers. We’re trying to cross two things.
For instance, let’s say you’ve got just a data center, right? But now, if you put solar panels powering the data center, it’s more green. So, that’s one type of play. The way we’re advancing things, making us hopefully more of an interesting player, is by combining two trends that are both needed to make the data center not so boring with just solar panels.
What does that mean? Next would be, you’ve got the data center and the solar panels, and then you’re also green powering a medical center or a hospital at the same time, with solar power. Then, maybe on top of green powering the hospital, you’re also storing this really necessary, critical medical data now that we have the HIPAA compliant, operating hospital within the same roof as TerraScale.
We’re trying to cross-multi verticals in a green, resilient way that’ll bring societal impact. By helping others get healthy, above and beyond just being resilient, with COVID, which some of the doctors can talk about here. That’s a little bit of the extra mile. At TerraScale, we’re trying to do things in a manner at which we can accelerate scaling the world green in a more efficient way.
Q: How can edge computing help the dental industry?
A: [Dr. Umer Sayeed-Shah]: You’re talking about the security of everything, just in terms of the data. From the generation, the storage, to the collection of this computational data, and the transformation of that data in a biomedical context. What I mean by that, is we want to package in such a way that we improve health care, and cut the costs for hospitals and treatment providers. We want to maximize the treatment effectiveness for the patient because everything we’re doing here is going to be about the patient.
We want to link this data to improved clinical decision-making and maybe develop novel concepts. Of course, employ deep learning and artificial intelligence for new diagnostic analysis. That’s in general for any healthcare initiative we might have but particularly in dentistry. With the mobile and wearable revolution, I think we can apply all of our technologies to all of these facets.
In dentistry, specifically, there’s increased focus on the production of computer generated data in a growing number of dental disciplines. For example, in oral and maxillofacial pathology, prosthodontics, and implant dentistry. Digital imaging is going to be a big thing in dentistry, as well as medicine. There’s a digital/virtual patient, where you’re actually planning and mapping things out before you actually see the patient. All of these things are applications for this edge technology we’re developing and I think dentistry is perfect for this.
Q: You see it as a top-down method of streamlining and organizing data?
A: [Dr. Sayeed-Shah]: To streamline all this stuff, secure it, make sure to improve the cost by personalizing this stuff and make sure that we can use this technology to the benefit of the patient. If you look at all the different aspects of what dentistry does at this point, whether it be implant dentistry, prosthodontics, or some of the pathology we’re seeing.
These imagining technologies, the virtual patient, that kind of thing actually leads to a streamlined approach where some of this stuff can be done before the patient even shows up to the dentist’s office. Or it could be sent to a third party, where a more complex situation can be solved without having the patient go to a remote location or another center. They can see their own dentist but get input from a third party dentist at a big academic center for oral pathology.
We want to streamline and make things more efficient and make them, ideally, less expensive, and more convenient for the patient and the dentist. If we can focus on doing all of those things, I think with these technologies, it would be a great improvement to the general situation we’re dealing with in dentistry currently.
Q: You have all talked about how green it is. Can you expand on what that means? How does that help the dental industry especially?
A: [Mr. Hayes]: At this time, I feel like the planet in general is pretty limited in how we’re doing green things. Our main focus is having the buildings and the power of the buildings being fully green, above and beyond just a carbon credit, or a carbon offset. Let’s say we had a dental office and a big hospital in your area, and another building as “clients” of TerraScale. We would need to find an area in the vicinity where we could put 5 megawatts, which is enough to power 20,000 homes, depending on who you ask. T
o have that type of power redistributed either back through the utility, with some type of arrangement, or directly to these buildings. So, these solar panels would be directly fueling these offices. That’s a true green situation at that point.
Further, this data center. Let’s say it’s for 10 megawatts now. You had 5 for the buildings and 10 for the data center. The data center is now holding this data of this green building triad. Those two things are happening simultaneously. That’s still yet to happen in the world today. Lastly, as far as edge computing, there’s also the proximity of these buildings being in town. Most data centers are pretty far out of the way. The large ones, at least. The future really needs data centers closer. Even in parking lots, or built into buildings like dentistry offices. Things like that.
So that in the future, stuff can move quicker. There’s a big shortage of smaller data centers. That’s one of the causes of the slowed down telecom issues we’re having from the pandemic. It’s one of many. There’s a big future in that.
Q: Solar panels would be your main source of power?
A: [Mr. Hayes]: What we’re calling it is just hybrid green power. Whether it’s hydro, or wind. Maybe you’re up in New Jersey that has a lot of wind in your area. Versus Texas, which has wind and other things, but they definitely don’t have as much hydro. If you’re up in Canada, it’s almost all hydro. It really depends on your area and what makes sense.
If you go global, Taiwan has amazing offshore wind. You would use wind for that. Then Japan, if you’re going to do solar, you’re going to really need to figure out another solution for that, because there’s not a lot of space. Unless you’re going to start taking over golf courses or something and putting panels down.
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Dr. Max Narovlyansky, who didn’t speak until the end, finished the interview with some clarifying comments, saying “Having this proximity to big data would be very helpful for the individual and society writ large, in a way, because of the shared best practices. For the individual, it would essentially improve the quality of healthcare, making it more precise and convenient. Thinking about pathologies, or cavities, preventing certain things. We can get more interesting information with certain contrast agents, scans of the mouth, and certain diagnostics. For example, looking at biomarkers in saliva. This can be a sign of not just oral disease, but overall health. The mouth is the route to the body, metabolically speaking, but also has a lot to do with general health.”
“The ability to have data that’s easily accessible, shared, and warehoused lends itself to precision medicine,” continued Dr. Narovlyansky. “Often times, for me, it’s evocative of cancer, or maybe neurodegenerative diseases, but I think preventative care and oral care is very much under the same category.”
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To sum it up, what TerraScale hopes to do is make the data storage and medical industry a bit more green for the sake of the planet’s future. While also making things smoother and more convenient for the patient, who will have quicker access to their medical data. It will lend itself to precision medicine. This is all great to be working for. The betterment of mankind. Plus, the truth is, the green element of this is becoming something more and more mission critical to humanity. Things are getting worse out there. Climate worries aren’t going away. The planet as a whole needs to move into green solutions, whether it be for data or simple everyday living. TerraScale is attempting to lead the charge on that front.
We’ll all have to stay tuned in and see where their quest takes them.
ABOUT TERRASCALE
Focused on a sustainable future, TerraScale is developing innovative solutions and infrastructure that will transform the way we store data. Established in March of 2020, TerraScale was designed for what the future holds. Recent events have highlighted our reliance on fragile systems — highly susceptible to the new types of risks. Primarily among these are factors like climate change, cyber threats, population growth, public health crises and other unseen catastrophes. These events made evident the heightened need for green, smart, secure critical infrastructure.
Their goal is to unleash a new wave of critical infrastructure development and solutions deployment, while bringing key partners to foster innovation, economic growth, job creation and sustainability.
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