One of my data center friends after 5 years left one of the big data center operators to join another of the big data center operators. He is one of the guys who knows how to drive innovation. One of the reasons why I think I would change if I was in his shoes is whether you want to make the change from an organization that defines innovation as sustainable vs disruptive.

Clayton Christensen is credited with the concept of disruptive innovation.

The term disruptive technologies was coined by Clayton M. Christensen and introduced in his 1995 article Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,^[4] which he co-wrote with Joseph Bower. The article is aimed at managing executives who make the funding/purchasing decisions in companies rather than the research community. He describes the term further in his book The Innovator's Dilemma.^[5] Innovator's Dilemma explored the cases of the disk drive industry (which, with its rapid generational change, is to the study of business what fruit flies are to the study of genetics, as Christensen was advised in the 1990s^[6]) and the excavating equipment industry (where hydraulic actuation slowly displaced cable-actuated movement).

Many people don't understand the two different types of innovation - disruptive vs. sustainable.

Sustaining innovations are typically innovations in technology, whereas disruptive innovations change entire markets.

The vast majority of people innovate in technology, but sometimes innovation requires a new market.

A common comment from I hear at data center events is this is the same stuff we have heard in the past. When are we going to hear something new.

The demand for something new in the data center industry is growing. The smart innovative people are collecting to work on it. There is a good chance it will be disruptive, not just an update of the existing technology marketed as innovative.