Originally posted on Data Center POST

The data centre industry is facing significant challenges worldwide, including; 

  • Developing sustainable solutions and construction techniques
  • Managing a struggling supply chain
  • Understanding better the macro changes in power, its pricing and availability
  • Developing new modular construction solutions, standardising data centres and reducing onsite construction teams
  • Understanding that data centres largely fall into one of three types, rural engine room, near urban colocation and urban edge facilities. The pattern is largely driven by the availability of power coupled with demographics and industrial demand.
  • Availability of qualified resources to construct and operate data centres long into the future. 

With a decade of expertise and experience, Datalec Precision Installations fully comprehends the European market and the complex challenges faced, including, but not limited to, the issues surrounding five key data centre themes: Power, Sustainability, Geography, Access and Demography.

In this series of articles, Datalec Precision Installations will explore each theme in turn and how they each play a crucial role and our efforts to support our customers in dealing with them.

Challenges faced by Data Centres

Power consumption is typically the highest operational costs in a data centre. As the cost of power continues to rise, data centre operators and ultimately clients are feeling the pressure; ‘these increases significantly impact the bottom line’. This is especially true for those data centres located in areas where the price of power is highest such as London, Amsterdam, Dublin and Paris. To remain competitive, data centre developers must find every possible efficiency to manage this somewhat overwhelming overhead. 

Data centre operators must also focus on sustainable operations, sourcing power more efficiently and using renewable resources. This will not only help to reduce operational costs but also help to reduce their carbon footprint. 

In the short term, recruiting specialised staff can help assess and implement power-saving measures and prepare a data centre for the future. Yet, this poses another significant challenge; it is an ageing industry seemingly unable to recruit college leavers. However, things like automation, AI, and ML could be used to better effect to attract a younger generation to consider this industry as an inspiring and engaging career path, which would help offset this predicted loss of expertise.

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