Critical Facilities

The AI goldrush will drive new growth in the critical facilities market — and new designs.

The rapid growth of AI and other emerging technologies will have a huge impact on the market as data center operators look to build dedicated AI sites or adapt existing buildings to deploy AI. These advanced operations will force new designs to accommodate more computing power and new kinds of cooling solutions, from traditional air-cooled data halls to direct-to-chip, immersion, and liquid cooling.

Sustainable design options drive more efficient operations.

Data center operators have a growing list of alternatives to lower their energy consumption and decrease the carbon footprint of data centers. On-site power generation, near-site green energy sources, waste heat recovery, and alternative material choices — like using timber over concrete — are some of the options available to make data center infrastructure more sustainable and resource efficient.

Existing buildings will be ripe for data center retrofits.

In prime markets, like London or Northern Virginia, urbanization and the shortage of land for large-scale data center development are pushing data centers into brownfield sites, existing buildings, and vertical designs. Former corporate and research campuses on the periphery of urban centers offer attractive acreage and existing architecture for data center development.