F E A T U R E

Mark Kidd , EVP & GM , Iron Mountain Data Centers and Asset Lifecycle Management

Canal , a well-known connectivity pinch point . Both the Africa-1 and 2Africa subsea cables will also complete , speeding traffic between Africa , Europe and the Middle East . New data handling hubs are bound to pop up around multiple landing points .

Carbon crossroads impacts on data centres , as well as new patterns of development where largescale , more remote AI training sites contrast with AI inference ( delivery ) sites close to users .

Even if the demand for AI capacity slows – and there is no sign of this –

replenishment of capacity will not be able to keep pace with demand , particularly in Tier 1 regions .

But the market dislikes a vacuum and new entrants are looking to make the most of the opportunity this presents .

Established operators are still managing to turn up or fast-track opportunities from their portfolio , as we are doing in Miami . Powering land has also attracted some speculators as the demand and returns are high . This will likely lead to the identification of new capacity zones outside the most developed markets .

Major new global fibre routes will also come online this year , accelerating performance and creating opportunities . New cable projects are underway to add higher performance and redundancy and lower costs in the Middle East , particularly for backup around the Suez

An 11 % climb in renewables use is expected , but they will still only account for 14 % of global total energy use .

There is a long way to go to reduce emissions , and temperatures continue to rise , with the 1.5 ° C ‘ global warming ceiling ’ identified in the Paris Agreement approaching fast .

Around US $ 4 trillion per year will be required to upgrade the electrical grid as the global transition to low-carbon electricity speeds up . The need for data centre power is now creating competition for key power-generation components including utility scale transformers .

Considering this pressure on the green grid , some data centre operators may be tempted to select transitional solutions such as gas , but these factors delay addressing the core problem which is total decarbonisation .

Moving beyond the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement to round-the-clock direct use of zero-carbon power is the long-term solution . While implementing

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