The coronavirus pandemic has both thrown a light on the key role data centres have in our national (and global) infrastructure and served to escalate their criticality in supporting healthcare, education, home working, e-commerce, entertainment and social interaction.

In the early stages of the pandemic, the predictions were that construction sites would stop, productivity would plummet, and supply chains would seize up, causing long and costly delays to data centre projects in progress and in the pipeline.  Fortunately, these predictions have proven overly pessimistic, and in general, the construction industry has stepped up to address the challenges and mitigate delays.

Initial predictions also forecast a fall in demand for data centre capacity as world economies contracted under the weight of coronavirus restrictions.  But again, this hasn’t materialised, and demand seems as buoyant as ever, fuelled by the acceleration of technology adoption.

There is now a wider understanding, by both governments and the public, of the crucial role that data centres play in ensuring access to critical on-line information and services.  This positive shift in perception should benefit the sector whether it be in the permitting process, prioritising resource or attracting talent to work in the industry.   

The data centre industry has proven resilient throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but the key challenge is managing the development pipeline to meet demand.

New technologies will drive the convergence of computing and communications through gaming, IoT, AR, VR, robotics, machine learning, self-driving vehicles and smart cities.  All of which demand the huge bandwidth, high speeds and low latency promised by 5G and Edge computing.  

There are issues around land, power and utility availability, which in some instances are made worse by delays to permitting.  These may be eased in part by governments recognising data centres as “essential” thereby offering some dispensations.

From a design and construction perspective, the long-term legacy of Covid-19 is to highlight the need to improve project planning and execution whilst addressing the issues of skills shortage and sustainability.

We are seeing a lot of focus on sustainability, and the industry seems to be rising to the challenge with the key players in the market making commitments to becoming carbon-neutral or even carbon negative. 

The skills shortage needs a similar ‘joined up’ approach.  The data centre industry as a whole should look to attract, nurture and support new talent, new companies and new suppliers that can bring a new perspective, diversity, innovation and enthusiasm.  Let’s see widening the net as an opportunity, not a threat.

We are focussed on Project Management; that’s our core service.

We can add real value to data centre clients’ projects and processes by helping to define, plan, integrate and then manage all the aspects of a project from site selection to commissioning and handover.

We offer other specialist services to complement and support our Project Management service including due diligence, options appraisal and development monitoring; planning and programming; design team management; procurement strategy and implementation; governance and process review and implementation; and Employer’s Agent or client representative services.