DINT 127 - Microsoft boosts Black representation in a key part of its business: data centers
I’ve often gushed about Microsoft’s transparency and this year the company gave me even more to be excited about. For the first time ever, a Big Tech company is sharing the racial makeup of its employees in the data center sector of their business.
Microsoft released its annual Diversity & Inclusion Report with its usual data. Not much has changed from last year. Women and Black people still continue to leave the company. Microsoft still cites potential reasons and justifications. But, we have a new data point that could prove quite useful in the years ahead.
This is big. Here’s why:
More Black people could equal less discrimination in the data center industry, or at the very least it would bring more awareness to issues that have plagued the industry since its inception. Black representation in data centers has been nearly non-existent, which gives rise to the racism we’ve reported on several times about this part of the tech industry.
The data center industry is growing thanks to AI innovation. Data centers fuel the Internet, of course, but they also serve as the vehicle for AI innovation. That’s why data centers are popping up everywhere, and why they’re beginning to explore ways to provide their own energy and disconnect from the public power grid.
The stats
Black people made up 8.6% of Microsoft’s data center employees in 2023. In 2024, that percentage jumped more than 1.5 percentage points to 10%. No other group in the survey achieved that level of increase in representation.
The potential downside
While the increase in numbers is a win, it makes me wonder where new employees are working in the business. The data center industry has many roles, of course. Entry level roles include ‘racking and stacking’ or data center technician. These roles can be grueling with long hours, low pay, and a slew of regulations to follow. The industry isn’t designed, yet, to accommodate diversity in hairstyles, per se. Here’s the story of a young Black woman just entering the data center industry as a technician.
People of diverse backgrounds in management roles may stand as a bridge for young, Black talent into management roles. Microsoft doesn’t provide a breakdown of management vs. non-management roles and the racial makeup of each group. Still, this is a decent start. It’s something I believe other Big Tech firms need to start doing. But, they haven’t taken cues from Microsoft’s other high-stakes move: publishing unadjusted median income by race and gender. Coming soon: A full writeup on the changes in median income from last year’s numbers at Microsoft.
Related coverage:
News Bites
Wegmans supermarket in Brooklyn is USING FACIAL RECOGNITION TO IDENTIFY ITS EMPLOYEES. It’s a pilot program similar to the NFL rolled out earlier this year for employees working at NFL teams’ football stadiums. Just as with the NFL, the move by Wegman’s is interpreted as a way to surveil visitors to their store. Social media is on fire about it, according to this report by Brooklyn News 12.
This news follows a recent report of Krogers grocery stores using digital price tags. Critics believe Krogers could set different prices for different communities based on race. The tech also allows for rapid changes in prices which could be used to charge more for items during high demand such as weather events.
The concern for some is that stores will connect facial recognition with electronic price tags to present different prices to different people based on who the systems believe this person is.
While some who have been harmed by inaccuracies in facial recognition demand change, improving the technology won’t stop its harmful effects, according to social media expert Sinéad Bovell. “Unfortunately, there’s no way to encrypt our own faces,” said Bovell.
Small businesses owned by Black and/or LGBTQ+ residents of Indiana will GET ASSISTANCE IN BUILDING THEIR OWN BOARD OF DIRECTORS. The state has set aside $40,000 to train business owners and potential board members on rules of engagement.
Billionaire philanthropist and CEO, Robert F. Smith just inked a deal to buy SmartSheet in partnership with asset management firm Blackstone. The transaction is reported to be valued at $110 billion, giving Smith’s company Vista Equity Partners, a major stake in an emerging tech company. Smartsheet has carved a niche as an alternative to spreadsheet programs Excel and Google Sheets. YOU MAY REMEMBER SMITH’S COMMITMENT TO WIPE OUT STUDENT LOANS for the entire 2019 graduating class of Morehouse College.
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