SYSTEMS NORMAL | 30 YRS ON THE FLOOR | VENDOR-NEUTRAL | REV 2026.07

PERSONNEL FILE — AUTHOR

About this publication

Why I wrote this book

SECTION 01 — ORIGIN STORY

I started in 1995 as a generator mechanic on military-contractor sites in Hungary and Kuwait. No engineering degree. No family connections. Just a willingness to work the night shift and the stubbornness to figure things out myself.

Everything I learned, I learned from people who shared what they knew — for free, on the job, in the moment. A senior technician showing me how to read a governor curve. A shift lead walking me through a fault tree at 3 AM. A contractor explaining why a particular UPS topology mattered for that site. Nobody charged me. Nobody gatekept. They just passed it on.

This book is my way of paying that forward. The data centre industry is desperate for good engineers, and the best way to grow the pool is to make knowledge accessible to everyone — not just those who can afford a £50 textbook or who already have the right credentials on paper.

I learned English at 21, in six months, by immersion. I taught myself every system I've ever been paid to run — power, cooling, life safety, monitoring — the same way: manuals, mistakes, and mentors who were generous with their time. I believe you can do the same. That's why The Data Center Engineer's Complete Reference is free.

QUICK FACTS

  • Name Laszlo Farkas
  • Location Reading, UK
  • Citizenship British & Hungarian (EU)
  • Languages English (fluent), Hungarian (native)
  • Education Secondary school-leaving exam (NVQ Level 3 equivalent)
  • Current role Level 4 DCEO Tech, hyperscale data centre operations
  • Years on the floor 10+ in DC ops (2015–present)

Service record

SECTION 02 — CAREER TIMELINE 1995–2021
1995 – 2005

Generator Mechanic

Power generators in military-contractor environments; airfield lighting; equipment that was not allowed to fail. Hungary and Kuwait.

2005 – 2006

Power System Repairman

Industrial generators and electrical systems supporting military operations. Kuwait.

2006 – 2011

QA / QC Senior Technical Inspector

Quality assurance for military-contractor infrastructure operations. Defect identification, compliance reporting, inventory control, and training programme delivery. This is where I learned that paperwork done properly is what keeps people alive.

2011 – 2015

Generator Technician

Critical and emergency power for banks, hospitals, and data centres across London and the South East. Load banking, HV/LV inspection, emergency call-outs, commissioning support.

2016 – 2017

Critical Facilities Maintenance Engineer

LV Authorised Person; owned the Inspection & Testing programme. PPM and reactive works across HVAC, electrical, fire, UPS, and generator systems. Statutory compliance including water treatment.

2017 – 2021

Critical Shift Lead

Led shift operations at a Tier III colocation facility. Drove ISO 27001, 14001, and 9001 triple certification in a six-month programme. Owned vendor management, change control, incident escalation, and operational reporting.

2021 – PRESENT

Level 4 DCEO Tech, Hyperscale Data Centre Operations

Build-to-operations handover support for a hyperscale facility. SOP/MOP/EOP authoring, commissioning witness, root cause analysis, mentoring junior engineers. United Kingdom.

Press kit

SECTION 03 — MEDIA

SHORT BIO — 50 WORDS

Laszlo Farkas is a DC Ops Engineer based in the United Kingdom, with 10+ years in DC ops from generator mechanic to hyperscale operations. He is the author of The Data Center Engineer's Complete Reference, a free 33-chapter technical and career reference for the industry.

LONG BIO — 150 WORDS

Laszlo Farkas is a DC Ops Engineer based in Reading, UK, with 10+ years in DC ops. He started as a generator mechanic on military-contractor sites with no formal engineering degree, and worked his way up through power systems, quality assurance, critical facilities maintenance, and colocation shift leadership — where he drove ISO 27001, 14001, and 9001 triple certification in six months. Since 2021 he has supported hyperscale data centre build-to-operations handovers, authoring operational procedures and mentoring junior engineers. He is the author of The Data Center Engineer's Complete Reference, a free 33-chapter technical and career guide for data centre engineers, written with AI help because he wants knowledge to be free. He learned English as an adult, taught himself every system he has ever run, and believes the industry grows best when knowledge is shared freely.

TOPICS I SPEAK & WRITE ON

  • Data centre power systems (HV/MV/LV, switchgear, UPS, generators)
  • Cooling and thermal management (CRAH/CRAC, chillers, liquid cooling)
  • Commissioning, IST, and build-to-operations handover
  • Operational procedures: MOPs, SOPs, EOPs, and change management
  • Incident command and root cause analysis (5-Why, fault tree)
  • Career progression without a degree: from mechanic to experienced engineer
  • Vendor governance, SLA management, and contractor oversight
  • ISO 27001 / 14001 / 9001 implementation from the operations side
  • Mentoring junior engineers and building technical teams

CONTACT & HEADSHOT

Independence

SECTION 04 — EDITORIAL POLICY

Views here are the author's own. This publication writes about the industry — standards, systems, careers — and never about any specific employer, site, or customer. No recruiter commissions. No vendor sponsorships. Where a link earns a commission, it's marked.