Location, Location, Location!

Data centre builders and operators have had to change the criteria when choosing locations in which to build large scale data centres. Factors such as rise in demand, speed and accessibility will always be core considerations, but as technology advances and other factors come into play, alternatives must be delivered. That aside, the crucial factor is location. The geography of a place comes with questions about access to power. In an ever growing, power-hungry sector, data centre construction and operation plans must have integrated into them robust responses to potential environmental impacts and concerns.

Hubs such as London, Singapore or Frankfurt boast many data centres and have well-evolved, ideal supporting infrastructure. As you might expect from one of Asia’s technology hubs, Singapore is home to many sustainable data centres: in fact, it is ranked second in the global market. Most of its sites are in densely populated areas, like Marina South and Raffles Place, but that was because first generation data centres – it was felt – needed to be located in close proximity to high-end hotels and convention centres, with easy access to global transport connections. Some 350 major organisations based in Singapore rely on these data centres to keep their global systems running smoothly 24/7. The country's political stability, reliable power supply and strategic location mean firms are assured that their critical IT environments will remain up and running all day, every day. Though Singapore had imposed a moratorium of late on building data centres because of adverse environmental impact, especially carbon emissions, they are cautiously lifting it to usher in a range of ‘green’ facilities.

Africa and the Middle East are seeing many new plans unfold. China’s Huawei is working in a number of African cities, such as Nairobi, Kampala and Accra, to establish valuable facilities for trade and development. Google will start building its first data centre in Africa in the coming months, the first of its kind on the African continent: a Cloud Interconnect data centre in Cape Town. Other major companies are also constructing data centres in Africa and neighbouring regions. In Tunisia, big investment is coming from Microsoft, which plans to open its own solar power data centre. The major player in the Middle East, however, is Saudi Arabia which boasts 22 colocation data centres from six areas, many of which are born out the country’s July 2021 commitment to invest $18bn in a strategy data plan to see Saudi Arabia through its next phase of growth. Saudi Arabia hopes to attract more investment, arguing that it is a particularly economically and politically stable country with abundant solar resources and solid funding for technological and engineering innovation.

Operators in the USA are undoubtedly the pioneers and veterans of the data centre ‘universe’! Facilities in US are very varied and abundant and support most international customers. Everything is geared to allowing customers to operate closer to their own clients, which is a major goal all companies strive for. However, these data centres cannot always fulfil all sustainability and environmental needs of a modern data centre, and many a legacy building and technologies require retrofits. However, the engineering innovations that are coming from the States are making hyperscale facility construction faster and with far less environmental impact, which is very good news.

In Europe, there are ever more sustainable data centres being constructed, particularly in Scandinavia. Of course, the cost is often higher for such projects, as is the case with novelty, but also because of the additional regulatory requirements imposed by different regions. Despite tight controls, some European countries have been seeing an uptick in the number of hyperscale data centres recently. Indeed, reports state that a 5.6% growth will be seen in the market by 2027. As we have seen, Facebook stated its investment in Ireland was 500EU million (US$569 million) and the cost of site proposed in the Netherlands was quoted as 700EU million (£795 million). The company’s progress is tracking with its original promise that it would double investment over a five-year period from 2020-2025. With that level of investment comes remarkable innovation, such as Facebook’s data centre in Luleå, Sweden, which was built next to a hydroelectric power plant and uses frozen seawater for cooling. These environmentally sympathetic adaptations and technologies are remarkable and welcomed by the whole industry.

As innovation progresses, Technivo technical cleaning service also adapts and moulds itself to what clients require and demand as standard. We are always ready to discuss and advise of the needs of your critical IT environment, on whatever scale that may be. Call us for more information on +44 (0)1428 714770.