IN A REGION THAT ALREADY FACES A LOOMING WATER CRISIS , MIDDLE EAST DATA CENTRE PLANNERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT TODAY ’ S DATA CENTRES USE UP AN OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOL EVERY TWO DAYS .
E X P E R T O P I N I O N cross the Middle
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East , digital agendas have long been seen as the necessary underpinnings of economic growth – a way to detach from historic dependencies on petrochemical trade and move forward as innovators .
Amid a series of economic visions that prioritise skilling , entrepreneurship and industry disruption , we have seen the rise of the data centre as a fulcrum of progress . According to some estimates , the Middle East data centre colocation market could grow by as much as 13.5 % annually between 2020 and 2026 . The United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) is leading its regional peers in this growth . It has become one of the largest data centre hubs in the Middle East . Thanks to a sustained influx of hyperscale providers , the country is expected to see more than US $ 1 billion of investment by 2026 – a CAGR of just under 8 % over the previous five years . In April 2022 , the UAE Cabinet initiated a strategy to nurture and boost the digital economy to the extent that it will contribute 20 % of gross non-oil GDP in the coming years . The plan included the establishment of a council to oversee the progress of the digital economy . This programme will serve as
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IN A REGION THAT ALREADY FACES A LOOMING WATER CRISIS , MIDDLE EAST DATA CENTRE PLANNERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT TODAY ’ S DATA CENTRES USE UP AN OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOL EVERY TWO DAYS .
yet another catalyst to accelerate data centre adoption .
Digitisation vs sustainability
But the UAE is not nurturing technology in isolation . Part of the country ’ s vision is an embrace of the UN ’ s 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ), which cover everything from quality of work and social life to preservation of the environment . Research has shown the mounting environmental impact of data centres .
Demand for data centre services has driven them to get bigger , hotter and more expensive , and a peer-reviewed study by Swedish researcher , Anders Andrae , predicts the ICT industry could use 20 % of all electricity and emit up to 5.5 % of the world ’ s carbon emissions by 2025 . In a region that already faces a looming water crisis , Middle East data centre planners should be aware that today ’ s data centres use up an Olympic swimming pool every two days .
Traditional building and cooling technologies are having trouble keeping pace with increasing chip densities , so those that build their own data centres should account for this impact when looking to comply with government regulations . The recent UAE-hosted COP28 international
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