E D I T O R ' S Q U E S T I O N

We speak to experts from VIRTUS , XYZ Reality and Victaulic about how operators and C-levels should adapt data centre construction strategies in an era of investment , larger compute demands and talent shortages .

ccording to research

“ The increasing demand for cloud services , growth of data-intensive applications such as AI and the need for reliable and secure data storage are driving factors in the expansion of the data centre market in the UK and across Europe ,” said Michael Riordan Managing Director , UK at Linesight .

The research , Construction Market Insights for Europe , also notes AI demand increasing rack density , impacting HVAC and air cooling . FLAP-D markets continue to be the preferred location , witnessing increases in capacity despite challenges related to power availability and increasing regulations around sustainability . There is also a growing focus on new locations within these countries . With ample availability of renewable power , Nordic countries are emerging as preferred data centre investment areas .

All industries are dealing with specialist and skilled worker shortages , however , the data centre sector seems to be in no rush to invest the resources or increase longer-term retention of current staff and development of new staff , as Uptime Institute found .

Alongside the lack of urgency to encourage a new workforce generation is the availability of power in popular regions . Secondary markets are benefitting from this ‘ spillover ’, as operators are choosing to set up hubs with less friction with power and land . JLL reported that cities like Berlin , Madrid , and Stockholm are just a few to benefit from nearby mature data centre markets . These power issues are also encouraging alternative energy options , as the research noted , SK Ecoplant and Lumcloon Energy are reportedly planning a new data centre in Ireland that will rely on gas-powered fuel cells rather than a grid connection .

Following on from power , as governments impose energy consumption restrictions for data centre development in certain regions , they are actively working towards supporting the growth of the sector by deploying funds and upgrading infrastructure . For instance , the EU is drafting plans to invest € 584 billion to upgrade power grids , and the Dutch government is contributing € 70 million to support projects like modular data centres .

Another factor influencing the sector is the surge in demand from AI contribution , which is having implications on the design , construction and cost of data centres . Building Edge data centres , while serving the community and end-users effectively , presents unique requirements and adoption

obstacles . As mentioned by Linesight , these sites will require significant infrastructure investment to equip the new power-hungry compute and support corresponding cooling necessities .

The data centre industry has proved its robustness amidst a turbulent transition period , but it ’ s time to start preparing facilities for the next generation .

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