If the internet is a city, data centers are the power plants. In 2025 we’re creating ~0.4 zettabytes of data per day, and the market is on track for ~$418B in 2025 and $650B+ by 2030. Translation: more concrete, more cable, more cooling—fast.
What’s driving the build boom?
- AI & Cloud: GPU-dense racks (often 30–50kW+) are forcing new designs and liquid cooling.
- Connectivity: 100–400–800G backbones and spine-leaf networks are the new normal.
- Hybrid everywhere: Hyperscale for scale, colocation for speed to market, edge for sub-10 ms latency.
The Main Flavors
- Hyperscale: The cloud giants; city-scale power footprints.
- Colocation: Lease space/power/cooling; grow as you go.
- Edge: Small, close to users/equipment; think 5G, IoT, real-time apps.
Power, Cooling, Sustainability
- Energy use is under the microscope. Global average PUE ~1.56 (best-in-class ~1.1).
- Expect hot/cold aisle containment, liquid cooling, and aggressive renewable PPAs (solar/wind), plus water-wise designs.
Security & Compliance
- From bollards and mantraps to microsegmentation and SOC2/ISO 27001—uptime and trust are the product.
What it means for builders & owners?
- Schedule risk shifts to power availability, equipment lead times, and commissioning.
- Talent crunch is real: mission-critical PMs, MEP-savvy estimators, supers for power/cooling, and Cx engineers are in highest demand.
AI and low-latency apps are rewriting the program. If you’re planning, plan for density, efficiency, and speed to power—then staff like your delivery date depends on it (because it does).
